For my final project I’ve changed my word from “quare” to “ballroom culture”. The form I want to write in is as if I’m writing a newspaper/magazine article. I’m picturing this as sort of being like an essay but with a slightly different tone and with images. I’m also going to be pretending to write in a magazine such as the New York Times where it’s a pretty large audience that likely doesn’t have a ton of familiarity with ballroom culture. I will be using the movie Paris is Burning, as well as the TV Show Pose and other outside sources to support my piece.
My potential audience is likely somewhat liberal or open minded since they’re reading from a newspaper such as the New York Times. However, it can be a mixed bag so it’s possible they’ll be skeptical of ballroom culture at first, or confused by it. They might, however, be familiar with Pose, or have listened to a podcast on ballroom culture. Because I’m not sure, I’m going to assume no familiarity. The readership of the New York Times was about 51% men and 49% women in 2021, which also might impact how the readers interact with the piece. Additionally, the majority of them live in the US so they have familiarity with queerness in an American context.
One generic convention for newspaper articles are quotes. I might take quotes from the film or TV show, or speak to someone in real life about their reaction or exposure to ballroom culture. A second generic convention is a catchy title. I’ll want to come up with a catchy phrase to explain what the article is about and why people should read it. A third generic convention is linking to other sources instead of formally citing them in the piece.