For our case study, our group chose the twitter account “wellness Wednesdays.” The account advocates for healthy living and wellness by posting positive quotes, and messages, as well as different methods and reminders for self-care. Wellness Wednesdays has a following of 600+. I feel that this is mostly due to the fact that many people are interested in healthy living and positive self-care. By projecting information that users feel is relevant, the twitter account is able to gain a following. The case study inspired our group to change the direction of our blog. Rather than always posting about negative stories, and statistics, we began to focus on uplifting our readership, as well as spreading positivity. By doing so, we were trying to appeal to ethos. Like wellness Wednesdays, we hoped to uplift our readership, and share positive information as well as information on self-care.
However, we still had posts that were more serious. Some of our posts focused on certain issues, and or instances relating to suicide, and suicide prevention. These posts were and appeal to pathos.
“Pathos locates a particular set of concerns, anxieties, and possibilities, and the received history of that term serves as a nodal point for gathering and concretizing those concerns (Reed, 2010).”
These posts created a balance between our more playful posts. By juxtaposing the serious with the light hearted, I feel that we were more effective in creating a message. Our goal in the beginning was to spread awareness about suicide and resources for suicide prevention. However, as the project went on, we changed our goals to focus more on changing the stigma against suicide and mental health. By posting both positive and informative posts, I feel that we were able to create a more cohesive message, as well as be more effective in our execution. We were able to go a step further than wellness Wednesdays by posting different forms of media, and remix culture.
“Remixing—or the process of taking old pieces of text, images, sounds, and video and stitching them together to form a new product—is how individual writers and communities build common values; it is how composers achieve persuasive, creative, and parodic effects. Remix is perhaps the premier contemporary composing practice (Kairos, 2009).”
The different forms of media were beneficial in spreading our message, especially the messages of positivity. The posts that were meant to be “uplifting” were often in the form of video, followed by text.
Overall the case study allowed us to change our approach. By modelling wellness Wednesdays, we began to focus on positivity rather than just informative or tragic information. However, the case study did not stop us from posting the occasional informational and serious post. Unlike the case study, we felt that balance was also necessary especially when talking about suicide and suicide prevention. As a consequence of the case study, our vision changed, however not completely. We still maintained that our aims were to provide awareness of suicide and resources for suicide prevention, however because of our case study, we incorporated messages of wellness and positivity.
no more rape culture 