blog post 10

      I am trying to address the situation that is and has been going on for over 50 years in Tibet. So many people don’t know where Tibet is, let alone their history with China, so through my artifact I am trying to make them aware of it while also giving them the tools to try and help Tibetans in their fight for freedom. As far as the international community is concerned, China claims that Tibet is an autonomous region, but my goal is to inform people that this is not the case. Due to the fact that most of the world is under the impression that Tibet is in fact autonomous, the past and current events in Tibet rarely make the news, so not many people know about it. Hopefully, through the circulation of this artifact people will realize what is really going on and will have the tools to help.

        The persuasive functions that I am choosing to use are transforming perceptions of social reality, and prescribing courses of action. By informing people of what is actually occurring in Tibet, I am transforming their social reality regarding the situation. This is the most important function of my artifact; because if you don’t know that there is a problem, there is no way that you are going to know how to go about fixing it. I also chose prescribing courses of action because often times when people know about an issue or something going on around the world they don’t know what to do about it. By listing different ways you can get involved no matter where you live, I am giving people the tools they need to be able to try and join/aid the Tibetans in their struggle for freedom from China.

       The strategies and tactics that I chose to use are slogans, and identification. The slogan that I am using is “Free Tibet”. By making the slogan short and to the point people are going to know what the movements goal is even if they don’t read all of the information on the artifact. I put it at the top of the page, in large yellow letters to make it stand out, and made it appear on every page of the website so no matter what you are reading about you look up and see “Free Tibet.” I use identification on my ‘get involved’ and ‘helpful links’ pages in a small paragraph at the top of the page. On the ‘get involved’ page I say things like “without people like you, this movement would not be possible” and that “together we can free Tibet from Chinese oppression”. By making the reader feel like they are a part of the movement they will want to get more involved and join the movement. Also, on another page I use words like “human rights” and “freedom” to pull on universal values that people cross-culturally believe in. By doing this people will feel more similar to the Tibetan people and may have more sympathy to help them.

      The genre that I chose to use is a website. I thought that this would be the best genre for my specific purpose because it can be easily circulated (Facebook, twitter, etc.) and can also be accessed by people all over the world. This allows people from different areas of the world to become informed of what is going on in Tibet, and also gives them information on how they can get involved no matter where they are. By doing this I am showing people that you don’t have to live close to China or Tibet for you to be able to help, you can do it from home on the computer.

       The conventions of a website that I had to work with were the templates that wix.com offers, and what you normally expect when you go on a website (title at top, home page, easy to navigate, menu bar at the top showing the names of the pages, etc.). I used the expectation of having a title to place my slogan there so that no matter what page on the website you are on, you can still see the slogan. I know that most websites have a home page, so I put a slideshow of images on the homepage to catch people’s attention. The first half of the images show Tibetan monasteries, Tibetan people, and other pictures from various places in Tibet, I follow these images with pictures of Chinese soldiers in Tibet, violence against protestors by officials, a destroyed Tibetan monastery, as well as an extreme case of a monk setting himself on fire in protest of Chinas occupation in Tibet. These images will make people interested in the website and leave them wanting to know more. I also made to website fairly simple with a menu bar showing titles of each pages, and east to navigate. This can keep people from being intimidated by a extremely complex website, and make it easy for them to access the information provided on the website.