Roberto Nieves

February 11, 2015

RWS 1302 7:30-8:50 AM

Genre Matrix
Genre #1: US News Reports Should NCAA Athletes Be Paid?
Genre #2 YouTube Video By CNN Official YouTube Channel Crossfire:
Should College Athletes be Paid?
Audience and Purpose

Intended Audience(s) and discourse community(ies)

Genre #1: For potential student-athletes or people interested in
collegiate sports.
Genre #2: General public that are generally ignorant to the
NCAA and their situation.

What does the audience already know and what do they

want to know?
Genre #1: The intended audience is for people who are aware of
the inner-workings and the basics of how the NCAA works and
their interaction with student-athletes.
Genre #2: The intended audience is for the general audience
who is unaware of the inner working of NCAA and more
knowledgeable towards laws and politics and how they may
apply to the topic at hand

How much time will the audience spend with each genre?
Genre #1: Around 10 minutes
Genre #2: 12 minutes

What was the purpose (inform, persuade and/or

entertain)?
Genre #1: To persuade and inform potential student-athletes
and people interested in collegiate athletes.

Genre #2: To inform the general public around the controversy

and debate surrounding NCAA and how it affects studentathletes.

How formal/informal is the language?

Genre #1: The language is used is informal, largely in part, to
the establishing of a connection with their potential audience and
to be easy to understand to their younger audience.
Genre #2: The language used is very formal and alludes and
cites laws and titles properly so as to add credibility to their
argument

What specialized vocabulary is used?

Genre #1: The specialized vocabulary used throughout the
article mainly refers to specific athletes and collegiate sport
event such as:
Kevin Ware
March Madness
Genre #2: Throughout the debate the vocabulary is very
specialized and refers to many pieces of legislations and laws
that refer and applied to situation such as:
Title IX
Student-Athlete Bill of Rights- California

What other language features do you notice (text, type,

font color, visuals etc)?
Genre #1: The visuals on the article seem to be biased towards
the argument in favor of student-athletes to be paid due to the
fact that the website links to debate points by their own editors
or contributors. However, they placed a majority of arguments in
favor of compensation for student-athletes. The editors who were
against the debate were very few and were placed at the very
bottom of the list.
Genre #2: The visuals on the debate videos were styled in such
a way to make it ideal for fair and equal debate.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

How does this genre establish (or attempt to establish)

its credibility with the audience?
Genre #1: They establish credibility by alluding to players and
competitions that are very common knowledge to collegiate
sports fan. They spoke the language of the people who are
familiar with the NCAA.
Genre #2: They establish credibility by being very formal and
very informed. Through the proper allusions and citations to
other pieces of legislation and law they established credibility
through their proper use of knowledge and application of the
knowledge through the valid points used throughout.

What emotions is the genre attempting to evoke from its

audience?
Genre #1: A feeling of outrage and feeling to speak against the
controversy at hand.
Genre #2: A feeling of realization of being aware of new
information and need to find the proper solution.

What types of evidence are used to support claims? Is it

valid/reliable? If there is no evidence, what is used to
help support the information presented?
Genre #1: The evidence presented are statistical figures that
validate the statement of the exploitation of student-athletes.
Also, the allusion to other players within the NCAA and how they
have been affected by the lack of compensation and other
factors linked to that.
Genre #2: The debate uses a multitude of evidence in order to
support and validate their arguments. Such as, stating numbers
and other statistical figures relating to the amount of money
made by the NCAA.

Structure and Delivery

How is the information organized to convey its message?

Genre #1: From the beginning of the article they begin by

referencing the upcoming March Madness tournament, and
stating the amount of revenue and profit made from previous
tournaments. Later, they begin to introduce the controversy
surrounding the NCAA and their tactics and how these tactics by
the NCAA affect students.
Genre #2: The debate has a lack of organization and varies
randomly according to the points made by the debaters and their
response.

Are there limitations placed on the information because

of the genre? Does it have more freedom to express what
it needs to because of the genre?
Genre #1: There werent any limitations, due to the articles links
to their editors opinion ranging from Yes, I agree and No, I
dont agree. However the responses were varied due to their
different reasons to agree or to disagree.
Genre #2: Yes there were some limitations, due to the fact, that
it was aired on television thus creating a multitude of problems
more importantly, time constraints which limited and rushed the
debaters to make their points and perhaps were cut off at certain
points due to editing or lack of time availability.

How does the structure facilitate its purpose?

Genre #1: The news report is able to facilitate its purpose
through the simplification of the information largely in part to
their colloquial language and over simplified reasons.
Genre #2: The debate is also very well set up to facilitate its
purpose to inform through the method of debate. Due to the fact,
that the debate is able to inform audiences through valid points
on either side of the debate, and thus enhancing their knowledge
on the topic.