Chapter 8: Accommodating Your Audience: Treating Differing Views
Thinking Piece


Thinking Piece #1: Reaching Audiences

Background Information

The popular culture site "The Psychedelic '60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change" (http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/sixties/index.html) has won a number of awards for being an outstanding website. On the continuum ranging from truth-seeking and exploration to propaganda and persuasion, this site clearly leans heavily toward exploration and clarification of a popular cultural phenomenon-the 60's. On its most basic level, this site is responding to the questions, Why is it important for young people today to understand the '60s? Can the '60s be dismissed as a drugged-out culture? As you check out this site, think about the ways the site tries to change the thinking of an uninformed or resistant audience.

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Writing Task

After examining this website, write a thinking piece in which you explore what you think about these points: (1) how the site conveys its overall purpose (2) what assumptions it makes about its audience and (3) what strategies it uses to change its audience's perceptions. In other words, how is this site constructed to reach the audience it has in mind? (You can choose to discuss the site's use of visual elements.) In your view, how successful is this site?

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