"It Gets Worse": An Analysis
Shane Dawson has been commanding attention on the Internet since 2007, and since then he has attended a plethora of social events, hosted meet and greets, and even published two books. "It Gets Worse," written by YouTube phenomenon Shane Dawson has grabbed the attention of not only his subscribers on YouTube, but non-subscribers as well.
Personally, I've been a fan of Dawson since I was around 13 years old. He's a funny guy with a contagious personality and I have always felt that in another life, we'd be best friends. When I heard he was releasing "It Gets Worse," which is essentially a book of personal essays, I was immediately invested. This was another opportunity to get to know the guy who has made me laugh for years on a different platform, a more personal platform. With that being said, I immediately went to Target to buy the book on its release date.
In his article, "The Rhetorical Situation," Lloyd Bitzer talks about the term audience. The audience is a part of what makes up a rhetorical situation, for the audience is supposed to make decisions and influence a change in rhetorical discourse. For Dawson and his memoir, the audience consists primarily of his fellow YouTube subscribers. These are the people who tune in to Shane's channel and watch his videos consistently. This audience helped promote the success of Shane's book through several different social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. Here, the fans wrote reviews of Dawson's book, and Dawson even interacted with fans over the social media websites. Since the audience was writing such rave reviews, the book prospered and Dawson can now be considered a successful author.
An audience has such a large role in how writing is perceived, but so does genre. "It Gets Worse" is a collection of personal essays, meaning that Dawson is writing about himself and his own experiences. He is targeting people of all ages, but the people who want to invest in Dawson's life are the people that are going to read this book. I would say that the genre that "It Gets Worse" fits into best is autobiography, due to the fact that Shane is talking about himself in the form of written word. However, this doesn't mean that Dawson hasn't used other forms of genre to promote his book. There are various YouTube videos where he shamelessly plugs his newest release, along with producing many tweets/retweets that talk about how great the book is.
The design of "It Gets Worse" is very Shane-esque. The cover of the book has a photo of Dawson posing in a way where it looks like he is happy about something. He's looking up at the title, which appears in large, white font. To me, the cover of the book is supposed to be sarcastic. It looks as if Dawson is saying "It Gets Worse? FANTASTIC!" (pictured below). Dawson is known to be sarcastic in his videos, but he brings humor with the sarcasm. This book is a pure reflection of that. The tone of the book is relaxed, like Shane is having a conversation with you or telling you a story. The reading is simple, and there's nothing too complex to try to understand. I think Dawson wanted the design of the book to be pretty straightforward so that the audience could understand that that's how he is as a person.
Overall, "It Gets Worse" is a book that ultimately reflects Dawson's quirky, hilarious personality. Through his experiences, we get to know Shane a little bit more and are thus able to understand why he does the things he does.
Personally, I've been a fan of Dawson since I was around 13 years old. He's a funny guy with a contagious personality and I have always felt that in another life, we'd be best friends. When I heard he was releasing "It Gets Worse," which is essentially a book of personal essays, I was immediately invested. This was another opportunity to get to know the guy who has made me laugh for years on a different platform, a more personal platform. With that being said, I immediately went to Target to buy the book on its release date.
In his article, "The Rhetorical Situation," Lloyd Bitzer talks about the term audience. The audience is a part of what makes up a rhetorical situation, for the audience is supposed to make decisions and influence a change in rhetorical discourse. For Dawson and his memoir, the audience consists primarily of his fellow YouTube subscribers. These are the people who tune in to Shane's channel and watch his videos consistently. This audience helped promote the success of Shane's book through several different social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook. Here, the fans wrote reviews of Dawson's book, and Dawson even interacted with fans over the social media websites. Since the audience was writing such rave reviews, the book prospered and Dawson can now be considered a successful author.
An audience has such a large role in how writing is perceived, but so does genre. "It Gets Worse" is a collection of personal essays, meaning that Dawson is writing about himself and his own experiences. He is targeting people of all ages, but the people who want to invest in Dawson's life are the people that are going to read this book. I would say that the genre that "It Gets Worse" fits into best is autobiography, due to the fact that Shane is talking about himself in the form of written word. However, this doesn't mean that Dawson hasn't used other forms of genre to promote his book. There are various YouTube videos where he shamelessly plugs his newest release, along with producing many tweets/retweets that talk about how great the book is.
The design of "It Gets Worse" is very Shane-esque. The cover of the book has a photo of Dawson posing in a way where it looks like he is happy about something. He's looking up at the title, which appears in large, white font. To me, the cover of the book is supposed to be sarcastic. It looks as if Dawson is saying "It Gets Worse? FANTASTIC!" (pictured below). Dawson is known to be sarcastic in his videos, but he brings humor with the sarcasm. This book is a pure reflection of that. The tone of the book is relaxed, like Shane is having a conversation with you or telling you a story. The reading is simple, and there's nothing too complex to try to understand. I think Dawson wanted the design of the book to be pretty straightforward so that the audience could understand that that's how he is as a person.
Overall, "It Gets Worse" is a book that ultimately reflects Dawson's quirky, hilarious personality. Through his experiences, we get to know Shane a little bit more and are thus able to understand why he does the things he does.
It's so cool to think about how his writing/communication had to change as he moved from one medium (YouTube) or another (book) and one genre to another. Do you think his voice and intentions are the same across these spaces or did you notice a difference? Do you think his audience will be willing to buy and read his book, or is YouTube a particular space for them?
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