Parody Website: https://thelaunchpad6.wordpress.com
- Maker: Michelle Duarte
- Genre: Parody
- Level: Graduate
- Program: Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
- Course: WRIT 5340: Studies in Multimodality and Digital Media
- Instructor: Dr. Eric Mason
- Semester Created: Winter 2023
Description
The purpose of The Launch Pad is to parody anti-climate change activists. The maker’s choice in style, diction, and content were selected to parody a news blog such as CNN. The tone of the narrator is professional and confident and the content is accurate. However, the interpretation of the content is where the parody lies. The maker’s intention is to highlight the ignorance of anti-climate change activists.
Reflection
Creating this website was an interesting experience. Initially, I was concerned with carefully developing the tone of the site. I wanted to highlight how imprudent the human species has become in caring for planet Earth. The impacts of climate change are harrowing and transparent, and Earth’s condition is only worsening each year. However, I understood that if the tone of the site was blatantly disrespectuful or mockingly, then I would relinquish the sense of professionalism and credibility. I had to find a delicate balance between this spectrum. Additionally, the biggest consideration of this site was creating a sense of community. The volunteer page, apparel, and shout-outs to community members in the blog, all contributed to a sense of being part of something greater than oneself. In all honestly, as I was creating this site, I learned how easily one can fall into the trappings of a movement or cause despite the message being presented. A sense of inclusion, community, and support seem to outweight the effects of the cause to some people. Humans want to feel like they are a part of something; they want to feel less alone. This revelation highlighted the importance of audience and rhetorical velocity in mainstream media. In The Information Bomb, Paul Virilio argues “Digital messages and images matter less than their instantaneous delivery; the ‘shock effect’ always wins out over the consideration of informational content” (Virilio 143). Clickbait headlines, hashtag trends, and short blogs can have an advantage over due to the velocity of their message despite how credible or uncredible the source may be. Overall, I had a pleasent time creating this site and leaning about audience, credibility, diction, style, and rhetorical velocity.
