RUNNING HEAD: GENRE ANALYSIS

Genre Analysis
Lucero Porras
UTEP

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The campaign for President of the United States has become more difficult as this
competition has become a neck to neck race for the candidates. For example, Senator Bernie
Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have become the last two presidential
candidates for the Democratic Party. To begin with, the belief was that Hillary Clinton was going
to become the first woman President of the United States. However, as the primaries and
caucuses in the states begun, the world has observed how much popularity Bernie Sanders has
actually gained over the past few months while Clinton has been able to maintain her many
supporters. As the time to vote for the face of the Democratic Party in the 2016 presidential
election around the corner, many have created articles and political ads to attempt to persuade the
voters.
David Harsanyi, for example, wrote an article comparing Bernie Sanders and President
Barack Obama while he campaigned to be the President of the United States. He explains how
Obamas campaign was about a movement and not himself, just like Bernie Sanders is doing
now. He claims that by doing this, younger voters are much more inclined to follow. Harsanyis
main attempt, however, is to discredit Sanders by calling him a progressive only interested in
promising a revolutionary change in his article, Face it, Bernie Sanders Is Obamas Real
Successor (Harsanyi, 2016). On the other hand, Robert Park published a political ad of Bernie
Sanders on his YouTube page, New Bernie Sanders Ad TOGETHER, that gives the people
that feel divided a sense of hope through Bernie Sanders. This is a very powerful political ad that
portrays Sanders belief of bringing people together to demand the country to work for everyone.
Through reviewing both the article and political ad, we will see how the authors each have a
differed perspective of Bernie Sanders while using a similar approach to reach their audience.

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Audience and Purpose

The article, Face it, Bernie Sanders Is Obamas Real Successor, tries to captivate the
Bernie Sanders supporters who do not like President Barack Obama. For example, there are
many Obama supporters from the 2008 and 2012 elections that have changed their mind about
the way that they view the president. They became disappointed because they believe that
Obama did not keep many of the promises that he made to them during his campaigning for
presidency. On the other hand, the New Bernie Sanders Ad TOGETHER, focuses on the
voters in which believe in a diverse community being unified. Examples of these types of voters
include those who are immigrants, part of a minority group, and even a group of people with a
variety of sexual orientation.
The discourse community that is being targeted by both the article and political ad is the
voting population. Both forms of media are persuading voters to either support or oppose Bernie
Sanders for President. Before reading the article and watching the video, the reader should
already know that they need to decide what their stance is on their support for Bernie Sanders.
The purpose of reading the article is due to the wanting to gain knowledge of how Bernie
Sanders could be President Obamas successor. An audience member would watch the political
ad most likely because they would want to know what Bernie Sanders stands for and how it is
that he is able to engage his audience well.
Reading the article may take the reader about ten to fifteen minutes to fully understand
what Harsanyi means when explaining why Bernie Sanders is President Obamas successor. It is
a short article and an easy read for most. However, one might have to read it a second time just
to process the message the article is sending and then compare what the author describes to real

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life occurrences that may connect Sanders and Obama. The political advertisement is only one
minute long, but one might want to re-watch it at least twice to fully comprehend the message
being said and shown. One might even re-watch it because they enjoyed it. It should take the
viewer about seven minutes to be able to watch the commercial about three times and then
analyze it on their own.
The purpose of both the article and political ad include both informing and persuading.
The article informs the audience about how President Obama, during his campaign for
presidency, created a movement for change and was not able to perform once he became
President of The United States. Then Harsanyi begins to compare Bernie Sanders and his
movement for togetherness to Barack Obamas change strategy in hope of giving the
understanding that if Sanders does become President, he will also disappoint the public. The
author continues to inform the audience with details that also persuade the voters into believing
that Bernie Sanders might not be the right democratic presidential candidate in this case. The
political ad informs the public that Bernie Sanders believes in unifying everyone to succeed. He
triumphantly persuades the crowd with his motivating speech and voice to come together.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
The credibility of the New Bernie Sanders Ad TOGETHER, is seen through many
pictures of a diverse group of people being piled up together while Bernie Sanders gives his
speech about not allowing someone to divide anyone up by sexual orientation, race, ethnicity,
etc. The credibility of this commercial is very effective because the audience is able to see what
being together looks like while he reiterates that standing together will help transform America.
When we stand together and demand that this country works for all of us rather than the few, we

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will transform America. And that is what this campaign about; its bringing people together,
said Sanders in his political ad (Park, 2016). On the contrary, the article Face it, Bernie Sanders
is Obamas real successor [s], credibility came from the author himself. David Harsanyi is a
senior editor at The Federalist, a web magazine about culture, politics, and religion (Harsanyi,
2016). It is effective because as a senior editor of a web magazine, research is meant to be done
in order to write a story and therefore gains the trust of the reader.
There are definitely feelings that are evoked through both the article and the commercial.
The article wants to connect to the frustration and worrisome of those previous Obama voters
that did not get what they were expecting from Obama as President of the United States. By
describing the previous disappointment from President Obama, the audience might become
frustrated. Then, as the author begins to speak of the similarities between Obama and Sanders,
the frustration might then grow into worrisome which would then persuade the audience into
believing that Sanders is not a good candidate. The political ad, on the other hand, is able to give
the intended audience a sense of adrenaline. Our job is not to divide. Our job is to bring people
together, says Bernie Sanders as the audience screams and applauds (Park, 2016). This line
makes the people feel empowered enough to feel like they are and will directly be working
alongside Bernie Sanders to fight against division.
Through the Bernie Sanders political ad, TOGETHER, the evidence of diverse families
together and a variety of pictures including many people are shown to the audience in order to
prove that everyone really can be brought together to fight for a cause. The short ad also shows
Bernie Sanders giving a speech about coming together in front of a large crowd that cheers him
on. The evidence clearly shows Sanders being able to unite and motivate people to hear him
speak, which proves that this commercial is very good advertisement. The article about

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Obamas Real Successor, contains twitter posts that prove what Harsanyi is saying to be true.
For example, Harsanyi explains that just like Obama, the youth wants to support Sanders because
he is trending, followed by a twitter post of someone saying that the new Bernie Sanders ad is
the best of the season (Harsanyi, 2016). Other than that, he does not have much evidence.
Structure
The information in the article by Harsanyi is shaped around the potentially negative side
of Senator Bernie Sanders, while Parks video is shaped more positively. The article Face it,
Bernie Sanders is Obamas Real Successor, presents conflict for Senator Bernie Sanders
because people that have unresolved issues with President Obama might not want to be Sanders
supporters any longer. On the other hand, the political ad presents a solution for those who do not
feel as an equal in the United States of America. Bernie Sanders embraces unity among the
people of the U.S. in order to fight those who fight against togetherness. In order to convey the
message that is shaped through these genres, there is a way that the genre should be organized.
Both the article and political ad are organized in the same way in order to communicate
the message intended. They begin with a statement, continue with examples, and end with the
reiteration of an idea. The article states that Sanders is like Obama when compared to a
progressive that made promises for revolutionary change and how he could not keep those
promises. Then he gives examples about through the describing how both of them put emphasis
on divisiveness. Finally, he finishes by saying that we should not be surprised that Obama and
Sanders were able to gain a huge amount of supporters by attacking the problems that arise and
find no solution. The political ad begins with Sanders exclaiming that the peoples job is not to
divide, continues with grasping specific discourse communities through example by saying

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things like, we will not allow them to divide us up by whether we were born in America or
whether we are immigrants (Park, 2016). Then he finishes up by declaring that his campaign is
about BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER (Park, 2016).
The structure of the genres helps convey their message successfully because if the
audience did not already understand the main idea at the beginning, the body will help
understand through examples by the time that the main idea is repeated at the very end. As
persuasion is also a part of the genre, the structure will also help and the audience should be
persuaded by the conclusion of the genre. The language of the article and the political ad is
informal. In the article, it seems as if the author is speaking amongst his friends and giving a
lecture about why they should not vote for Sanders. The political ad shows Bernie Sanders
speaking informally, trying to connect to his audience and making them feel that he is their
friend. Due to the language and persuasion found in the genre, there is also a use of specialized
vocabulary.
Style/Language
The specialized vocabulary found in both the political ad of Bernie Sanders and the
article by Harsanyi varies. For example, in the political ad, Bernie Sanders is able to use his
charisma in his political ad to motivate his audience to come together with him as their new
leader and fight for unity. Harsanyi uses his knowledge to emphasize on his comparisons
between Obama and Sanders. He uses sarcasm to make fun of those who support Bernie Sanders
in light of the promises that President Obama has made and has mostly failed to fulfill.
Conclusion/Synthesis

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As presented through analyzation, it has been concluded that between the two genres, the
political advertisement is much more powerful in communicating its message. While the article
is persuasive, it seems that the author is simply trying to persuade voters into voting for a
Republican. He did state in his article that if there were no division among us, Republicans
would always win (Harsanyi, 2016). However, the political advertisement with just one minute
of Sanders words and pictures of a diverse community coming together is able to electrify the
audience and feel like they are a part of a very important movement. Once someone feels a
connection to the genre, the audience begins to truly believe the message it conveys. There is a
variety of genres of different topics that are presented to us on a daily basis. These genres have
always and will continue to have an impact on the way that we view the world.

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Bibliography
Harsanyi, D. (2016, February 11). Face It, Bernie Sanders Is Obama's Real Successor. Retrieved
February 12, 2016, from http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/12/face-it-bernie-sanders-isobamas-real-successor/

Park, R. (2016, February 11). New Bernie Sanders Ad - TOGETHER. Retrieved February 12,
2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyhfJTFJHu8