Final Blog Post

 For my exigence, I am attempting to inform the rest of the world about the current anti-government social movement in Venezuela, lead by the opposition against the corrupt government lead current president Nicolas Maduro, that is oppressing its citizens. My goal is to open their eyes to the events taking place (i.e. peaceful protests turned violent due to government intervention) and reveal how a change must happen in Venezuela in order to ensure a better life for the Venezuelan people. Since of these events are not being covered by international media outlets, it is very important to inform the rest of the world.

One of the persuasive functions that I used within my blog in order to achieve this exigence was changing perceptions of social realities of the present. This function consists of changing the ways that people see the place and/or events where the social movement is taking place. Within this context, it is important for people to see what is really going on in Venezuela and to displace any prior notions that are most likely incorrect. In order to do this, I had to open their eyes to the crime, poverty, and violence that are common place in Venezuela stemming from the corrupt government, as well as the current protests turned violent, resulting in many injuries and deaths of innocent people, due to government intervention. I also attempt to legitimize the movement by showing that the Venezuelan people are being oppressed, and that their attempts at changing the way that the government is run are valid. I do this by providing evidence that the government has committed violent acts towards their citizens by showing pictures of peaceful protesters being hurt by government officials on the streets of Venezuela.

In order to change perceptions of social reality and legitimize the movement, I used the tactics of identification and framing while also using a slogan. Identification consists of finding a common ground between the audience that you are reaching and the social movement. I did this by mentioning many times that the Venezuelan people are simply fighting for a democratic form of government, something which many countries around the world (including the US) already have. I also words such as "we" on the page where people can get involved, saying that "we" can help the Venezuelan people achieve their goals of a democratic government by providing links for people to get involved in different ways. This would then form a link for other people to relate to, helping them understand what the Venezuelan people really want. Framing includes making sense of the events taking place within the movement. I did this my providing a section within the blog detailing a short history of the events that have lead to the current protests and how Venezuela is being negatively affected. This will then provide the audience with a reference to the facts that are important in order to understand the movement and the motives behind what is occurring. I have also provided a recent timeline of events, detailing how the movement has progressed within the last few months. Slogans are also used as tactics within social movements. I decided to implement the hash tag #SOSVenezuela. This hash tag has been shown to be used by both protesters and those that want to become involved in the movement. Since many people who are not Venezuelan citizens cannot actually mobilize and fight against the corrupt government, a hash tag is used in order to unify people and spread the word. I decided to implement this hash tag since my platform is Tumblr, a blogging website where hash tags are used in order to label and find images, helping to spread the word about certain issues.

The genre that I decided to use was a blog. I did this because blogs are very popular all around the world, helping to reach more people and inform them about this social movement. Blogs are also easily circulated. If someone wanted to show their friend a blog about a social movement in order to inform them of it, they would simply send them a link or give them the URL for the blog. Blogs are also known for using things such as hash tags in order to categorize certain posts and images for those who want to search and learn more about them.

The conventions of blogs include different pages within them in order to provide different kinds of information. I used this convention by providing links for the history of the movement, the timeline of current events within the movement, and ways to get involved. Another convention is reblogging things from different people. For this, I searched the hash tag #SOSVenezuela, and found poignant images and posts about Venezuela and reblogged them so that anyone who found my blog could see them as well. Blogs on Tumblr are also known for having "ask boxes" where people can ask the owner of the blog questions. I used this feature in order to encourage anyone to ask any kinds of questions they might have about the social movement in order to become more informed. I also provided a brief description of what my blog is about as well as a clear, easily seen title, both of which are also common conventions of a blog.