Running head: WOMEN IN POVERTY

Women in poverty
Kevin Rangel
University of Texas at El Paso

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WOMEN IN POVERTY

There is a lot of poverty in the world but women in poverty throughout the United States
is a major issue. Poverty in women is harsh because it can lead to very severe problems such as
trafficking and prostitution. There are several sources throughout the media and the Internet to
facilitate the understanding of how women face poverty and the things that they may have to go
through to maybe overcome it. The two genres chosen for this particular paper are a PSA, which
explains the hardships of women in poverty and a news article from the Atlantic that also
explains the hardships of women in poverty and states some facts of the problems that women in
poverty have, to give us a better understating of what they have to go through. Using these two
media sources, which are the PSA and the article, the two sources will be used to compare the
particular subject women in poverty.
AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE
One of the genres, which is the PSA, the intended audience would be a younger
generation ranging from 16 years of age to around 30 years of age. The reason being is that it is
that the PSA is shown though youtube.com, which is something that is more wildly used by
people from these ages. It can also be for a younger generation because it is more appealing and
grabs your attention with the pictures and the song that it uses. It is also more entertaining that
just reading an article. The PSA is more likely to be shown to students attending a university or
college for education purposes. The other media genre, which is the Internet news article, The
Female Face of Poverty, is intended for people researching this type of subject because it is
written and published by a recognized journalist by the name of Maria Shriver. Another reason
would be because it uses and demonstrates a lot of data for example percentages and statistics to
prove the specific point that is trying to be made.

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The purpose of the PSA, Women in Poverty, is to educate by presenting facts about how
women in poverty suffer though trafficking and prostitution, and to let people know what poverty
in women may lead to. The PSA is also trying to persuade people to help by donating to a
specific foundation called The Home Foundation, which is a foundation to help those women in
need. The article, Female Face of Poverty, and its purpose is to inform people about how many
women suffer through poverty, what they go through, and the things they wish they had done
differently. The article also makes a point where it states that it wants to change how women are
treated in the United States.
Both genres want to inform people on the subject of women in poverty however they are
different in many aspects. The PSA targets a younger audience while the article targets a more
professional approach. The genres are also different in their approach to inform their audiences
for example the PSA is faster and only requires a minimum amount of time since it is only a 2 to
3 minute video and involves very little reading. While the article can take more time to
completely read and understand the information presented to the audience.
The media genre gives their audiences a different focus and view on the same subject of
women in poverty. For example the PSA focus on women after they are in poverty and explain
the hardships that they can go through in life like trafficking and prostitution. The article
explains how women would have wanted to change some of the decisions and aspects that they
chose. The PSA also motivates you to take action on the subject by donating to the cause while
the article is only there to educate you on the subject.
RHETORICAL ISSUE
Both of the media genres show rhetorical issues by using ethos, pathos, and logos.
However they are just delivered to the audience in different ways.

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ETHOS

The credibility of the PSA, Women in Poverty, comes from the citing of sources such as
the home foundation. It was also used in a school project so from here it can be infered that a
faculty approved the PSA. The article, The Female Face of Poverty, provides credible sources
because it is written by a know journalist by the name of Maria Shriver. She was the founder of
the Shriver report, which is a group that focuses on raising awareness on problems regarding
feminism and women. Maria Shriver was also the first lady of California. Some of the examples
in the article come from interviewing women that faced poverty. All of these examples listed
above provide the credibility or the ethos of the genres used.
PATHOS
Both of the genres mentioned throughout this paper use a rhetorical issue called pathos.
The pathos that the PSA contains are various things for example, the PSA Women in poverty uses
a lot of pictures to prove its point. It uses pictures of women in despair, which makes an
emotional response that makes you feel sad and lets you see the seriousness of women in
poverty. It also displays another picture, which depicts women working in prostitution. This also
makes an emotional response of feeling heartbroken for the women that have to go through this
struggle to get out of poverty. The music that the video uses is slow and sad. This is used to make
you see how horrible it is for women that have to go through this. The font that the PSA uses is
white so that it may stand out to the person viewing the PSA. Another thing is that the font is
plain and easy to read so that the viewer may focus on the message that is trying to be portrayed
instead of struggling to read what is trying to be said.
The second media source, which is the article, called The Female Face of Poverty, also
uses pathos. The article uses a picture, which is not in color, but in black and white so that this

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may make their audience feel sadness because a colorful picture usually would mean happiness
or joy. The font of the article is plain so it may be easy to read and understand. The main points
of the article that are stated are written in a dark, bold, and black font. It is like this so that the
audience may see the seriousness of the matter.
LOGOS
The PSA uses logos through what is being stated and the way it words what it says. While
the article has many more ways it uses logos for example, it is professional in its wording and
punctuation. This is more reliable since the author is a known and reliable journalist. The article
provides evidence of the stated facts in the form of interviews statistics and percentages.
STYLE AND LANGUAGE
The style and language of the first media source, which is the PSA, are that the style it
uses is not formal and very easy to understand. The audience can see that at the beginning of the
video it states lack of education and desperation for a job it goes on like this for a couple
more times throughout the video. The viewer can see that these are not complete sentences but
just listed facts. This example shows how the language used in the PSA is very laidback and not
formal. The font used in the PSA is all the same size to show that everything that is being stated
is equally important and informative.
The style and language of the second media source that is the article, is very different
from the previous genre. The style used in the article is very formal because it is written by a
well know journalist so the journalist has a reputation to look out for. It uses more complex
wording than the PSA because it is more professional. There are several sentences that we can
call main points because of the font used, which is bold letter. The audient can see that the font
used in these specific sentences is bigger sized letters than the rest of the article. This is to show

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that these specific points are of a greater importance. Compared to the PSA, which only uses one
sized font, the article uses more variation. However the audience can see that the font is still very
clean and easy to read. The language of the article can be seen in these examples of the font size
and style.
STRUCTURE AND DELIVERY
Both of the media sources are greatly different in how the information is delivered to
their audience. The PSA uses a more visual way to deliver the information that it is trying to
convey. Everything that is mentioned in the PSA is to grab the viewers attention since the
audience can see that at the beginning the points mentioned grab the viewers attention. Mostly
only facts are delivered in the PSA. All of the facts delivered in the PSA are placed over a
background that consist of photos and pictures that try to depict what is trying to be stated in the
wording.
The other media source, which is the article, is very different in the way that the
information is delivered to the audience. The article focuses more on the information that is
trying to be conveyed by using wording instead of pictures and visual representations. Differing
from the PSA not everything that the article states is to grab attention from the audience but more
to display facts and evidence. However it does have some attention grabbers, which are the
points, displayed in bold lettering. The article uses a more different approach than that of a visual
manner making the reader take some time to cover all the information that is being offered to the
audience. While the PSA uses a more entertaining approach with its music and pictures.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the facts presented above show how both genres are very different in their
way to convey the message being portrayed. The PSA uses a different ethos, pathos and logos to

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show how women in poverty go through different hardships and obstacles in life. While the
article uses a different structure and delivery to show its main points about how women in
poverty feel like and what they whish they had changed in their lives to make it better. Even
though they use different approaches the message delivered is the same, which is that women in
poverty is not a good thing and is something that needs to be changed for the better. A lot of
people go through poverty but how they deal with it is something that everyone can decide for
themselves.

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REFERENCES

Shriver,M.(14,January08).TheFemaleFaceofPoverty.RetrievedFebruary28,2016,
fromhttp://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/thefemalefaceofpoverty/282892/
WomeninPoverty(PSAProject).(09,August03).RetrievedFebruary28,2016,from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEdeCnkYAuI