2 peer review of Audience Analysis

Primus- Audience Analysis memo draft 2

Memorandum

Date: 26 May 2023

To: Professor Jones

From: Jessica L. Primus

Subject: Suicide Prevention

Suicide Prevention is vital for our society. Suicide is an epidemic sweeping not only our nation but countries across the world. There is a mental crisis happening in our world and the internet is a vital resource to help not only people who may suffer and contemplate suicide, but the providers assisting them. I have analyzed two websites and articles for their approach to suicide prevention. The articles were The Psychology of Suicide: From research understanding to Intervention and treatment from the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association- JPMA ( https://jpma.org.pk/article-details/11360?article_id=11360) and We can all prevent suicide from the 988 the Suicide and crisis lifeline ( https://988lifeline.org/how-we-can-all-prevent-suicide/).

The article from JPMA aimed for the audience of the provider and even stated in the introduction “As clinicians and researchers, it is pivotal responsibility of mental health professionals to establish prevention and intervention programmes to reduce the risk of suicides.” The 988 website aims to prevent suicide completion by being a resource for people who know someone struggling with suicidal ideations, attempts, or mental illness. JPMA uses technical language and sentence structure that shows their audience is highly educated on the medical side of mental illness. The audience seems to have exposure to the patients suffering from suicidal ideations and the impact on their medical care. The article from JPMA uses some medical jargon with words like “spousal bereavement, neuroticism, thwarted belongingness, personality disposition, and dis-regulation” (Ali & Rehna, 2022, para. 2). The JPMA article has an average sentence of 17 words and an average paragraph length of 15 sentences. The statistics used are from Pakistan though and show that the primary audience is providers in Pakistan. JPMA appeals to its audience and tries to persuade it with logos and ethos appeals such as “It is a national priority to protect individuals against the tendency to commit suicide. Care by primary care professionals plays a pivotal role in identifying and treating individuals with suicidal ideation (Ali & Rehna, 2022, para. 5). The website is giving providers statistics and logical information on suicide that shows how they should be ethically obligated to do something about it as medical providers. The audience of the 988 website takes on a more personal level for their support system and appeals to all education levels of someone just trying to help someone they care about. They do not need to have extensive knowledge on mental health or medicine, as it is all simply stated and presented there is no specific jargon used. The average sentence length on the 988 website is 7 words and there are only 5 complete paragraphs on the page with an average of two sentences and the rest are bullet points. 988 uses ethos and pathos to appeal to their audience with claims like “Suicide is not inevitable for anyone. By starting the conversation, providing support, and directing help to those who need it, we can prevent suicides and save lives” (988Lifeline, 2022, para. 2). No one wants to see someone they care about complete suicide and knowing someone in a desperate state like that can be emotional. The Lifeline website empowers their audience to help in those emotional times. 988 is a phone number though and only active in the U.S. where its primary audience therefore resides. The websites take on two different formalities. The JPMA website gives a formal look of a medical journal and report since it is a narrative review while the 988 website is informal to appeal to different audiences. The JPMA website is all in one font with the only distinction in the bold letters of the sections. There are no graphs on either page, but the 988 website has a picture with different hands shaping a heart, and tables to display their information. The 988 also has two colors on it giving depth and a more welcoming look to the website. Although there are no clear advertisements on either page, the 988 website has two links to SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association, and Vibrant emotional health which is formerly the Mental Health Association of New York City (MHA-NYC), both associations which help fund and administer the 988 lifeline.

Both websites try to spread their exposure and knowledge to their secondary audiences. Both websites originate and have a primary audience in one country but give resources and guidance to others on the internet. JPMA has a secondary audience of providers worldwide as they have given their articles to outside websites such as PubMed which allows access to the national library of Medicine and is used as a resource for medical providers to retrieve information. JPMA also uses statistics from an Australian study as reinforcing information. 988 is a lifeline that can be called in crisis by patients suffering from suicidal ideation and is accessed online worldwide as a suicide prevention resource. They also offer a Spanish option to expand their capabilities.

The websites of 988 Lifeline and the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association both tackle the difficult subject of suicide prevention from two different angles. Both websites maintain the same goal of preventing completed suicides amongst the world population and hopefully improving mental health care. Both have a primary audience focus on the support system of mentally distressed individuals on a worldwide scale. JPMA comes from the provider’s side with medical intervention and care while 988 comes from a loved one’s side as someone who can personally support the patient with close care.

Resources

Ali, H., & Rehna, T. (2022, June). Journal of Pakistan Medical Association. JPMA. https://jpma.org.pk/article-details/11360?article_id=11360

We can all prevent suicide. Lifeline. (n.d.). https://988lifeline.org/how-we-can-all-prevent-suicide/

What we do. Vibrant Emotional Health. (2022, July 15). https://www.vibrant.org/what-we-do/