1) 'These aren't people. These are animals.'
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nekb3k/these-arent-people-these-are-animals
This piece is about Donald Trump's immigration policies and stating all the wrongs about it. The intended audience seems to be American citizens, mainly adults. I know this as the article continuously refers to all the ugly and prejudice remarks Trump has made about immigrants, innocent people who are being referred to as 'animals' as stated clearly in the title. Therefore, the author wants readers who would most likely be American citizens, to be aware of who their president really is which is also the articles purpose. Finally, I like this article as the author includes a lot of factual information on the topic which implies that he is passionate about it, and compares Trump's actions and statements to Obama to make the opinion piece even more of an argument and to further hook the reader, making them think.
2) 'What's Right, and Wrong, With Social Media' https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/05/opinion/facebook-social-media.html
This next article focuses on what the wrongs and rights of social media are. It's target audience could be very varied as at some points in the article they are adressing the creators, and how they should make changes to their privacy settings, but also address social media users, mainly the younger generation, when stating the positives that social media has brung. So, the purpose of the article is to show how there are both positive and negative sides to social media, which makes me like it as the author has created a balanced argument about these two sides instead of making it seem biased.
3) 'Stress and serious anxiety: how the new GCSE is affecting mental health' https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/17/stress-and-serious-anxiety-how-the-new-gcse-is-affecting-mental-health
The subject of this article is about how the new gcse system is affecting students mental health, therefore it's target audience could be parents and teachers to ensure they are aware of this reoccurring issue. Also, it is mainly their responsibility to help students who are struggling throughout exam season, so the articles purpose is to prove that pressuring students and giving them an excessive work load can damage their mental health massively in the long term, so something needs to change. I like this article as people are beginning to break the stigma around mental health as it is starting to be spoken about more, creating awareness.
4) 'The observer view on cyberbullying' https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/13/observer-view-on-cyberbullying
This opinion piece is about how we should be creating awareness for the victims of cyber bullying and how we can support them, which is why I like it because I feel that the subject needs to be spoken about much more to prevent it from happening as frequently. It is aimed at all ages as any individual can be experiencing cyber bullying or have had experienced it considering social media is used by millions of different people all over the world. Although the purpose of the article is to show how children are most particularly the victims of cyber bullying, which is proven through the example at the beginning about a 17 year old who killed himself because of this issue and the facts and statistics the author has used later on to support this.
PEE Analysis:
The article is introduced with a group of three rhetorical questions to immediately make the reader feel questioned on their decisions about what they choose to post on social media. The repetition used in this opening statement “Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?”also makes you feel almost like a victim of this serious matter as the author uses it in a slightly threatening tone through a direct address. Also, the statement having come from another source such as an 'open letter' written by an advocate against cyber bullying gives it a more supported argument. This helps the reader understand how much of a deep rooted problem cyber bullying is, and helps to reinforce who the intended target audience are as cyber bullying can affect those of all different ages but most primarily teenagers. Therefore, parents need to be informed on how the digital word can impact their children's lives.
Additionally, the adjective 'pernicious' used in the short sentence at the beginning of the second paragraph seems to have been purposefully used to over emphasize the extent of which cyber bullying can majorly effect an individual. This is also proven as the adjective has been repeated again 'Cyberbullying is particularly pernicious when it comes to children' to reinforce the damaging effect this topic can have on people, especially those of the younger generation, who tend to use social media much more frequently than those older, therefore have less experience in dealing with the backlash this form of bullying causes.
5) 'Banning slang willy only further alienate young people, innit' https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/banning-slang-harris-academy-alienate-young-people
The last article I found is about how banning slang is not a useful move, and that we should 'not mute pupil's voices, but look for better ways of motivating them'. Therefore, the intended audience are schools and I know this through the term 'pupils' being used in the subtitle of the article. I like this article as it holds a well balanced debate over when and where slang should be used, and the slang word 'innit' in the title makes it more humorous, making the reader want to read on. Although the word 'further' also in the title could be a term used to mock to young people, as they're stating that we are already alienated, so the article could be primarily aimed at adults so the author can try and relate to their intended audience.
