REFLECTION
When it come to choosing what genres to use in order to distribute my message that Harry Potter can be used for moral development, I knew it had to be digital. I knew that most of the fans were to be in their late teens to late 20s and would most likely be part of the digital age. So when I had decided on a website as the main basis of all my genres, I knew it’d be much easier to share it to others online. The barriers encountered in choosing and communicating to my audience would have to be where exactly would I place my information. While creating the website is an obstacle on its own in trying to make sure it is clear to read, easy to navigate and still creative; sharing it on other websites is also a key factor in getting out the information. In order to gain the audience, I wanted, I knew that by sharing my website on Tumblr, I’d be able to find a large case of Harry Potter fans. But not everyone has a Tumblr, so those who aren’t aware of Tumblr or choose not to use it, would most likely not see my website unless it was posted on another social media such as Facebook or Twitter. I over came this barrier by posting my website as a post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in order to acquire a large audience along with tags on google that would allow anyone to view when they searched the words Harry Potter and Nazism.
The reason behind the first genre, a Tumblr blog, was due to personal experience of being in the Harry Potter fandom on Tumblr. From my own years of navigating through this website, I’ve been able to see just how large and important Harry Potter still is to fans even if it ended back in 2011. By creating a blog on the analysis of the books, I knew that I’d be able to capture many fans into looking at the series in a different light and even incorporating their own ideas and theories of the books. I chose the second genre, a news article that resembled that of the The Onion news website due to their satirical attitude when trying to convey important messages to readers about certain issues. The writers take an issue going on in the world and speak of it in a sardonic way to show readers just how ridiculous the issue at hand is being treated as. By speaking about J.K. Rowling in a degrading manner while still speaking of all the accomplishments she has accomplished, allows the readers to see just how of a hard-working and respectable woman Rowling is and how ridiculous some come to see her as. The last genre, character profiles was chosen because I think it’s the best way to analyze and speak about the characters Rowling has given us to love and cherish. Character profiles allows fans to learn more about the characters and even bonus facts that were missed in the books or later learned about through Rowling’s interviews throughout the years.
The rhetorical practices I found myself using was probably that of logos and ethos the most. I knew I needed ethos, which I acquired through extensive research in order to build credibility, to show readers that the topic at hand was to be viewed as a serious one. I’ve always heard and read that Harry Potter was a children’s series and would not be views a classic like Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, and Harper Lee. But I wanted to prove that it was much more than just a children’s book and it could be studied and used in schools. Logos was used based on the research of Nazism and the books themselves to point out the parallelism of each. I personally believed these practices to be effective because they showed that this was a topic that was important to me and that I meant business. I knew that by using both of these strategies people would view them as serious and maybe even take into consideration the message of Harry Potter being used to teach moral development was possible.
My original discourse in the community was probably affected in the genres by attracting more than just Harry Potter fans. The genres allowed for a broader audience to be picked up and for the message to be shared more globally than just the fans alone. I personally think the composing process was harder than the research essay. With the essay, once you had the structure of the paper set up, the research ready at hand, and time, the writing process was easier. While composing and picking out the three genres took more time and patience because if the wrong genre was used, the message would not be distributed out as much as I’d hope. By going digital, I knew that despite specifically targeting Harry Potter fans, I’d still be able to hit a broader audience. Designing the website, Tumblr blog, the news article, and the character profiles took more time and effort than expected. Everything not only had to be clear and easy to use and look at, they still had to show my own creativity. While showing professionalism in all three genres, they still had to attain a bit of magic in them to remind those seeing these genres that the topic at hand was still and will always be Harry Potter.
