SITUATION OF DISCOURSE

Implied Author: Mark Zuckerberg started facebook at Harvard University. Assumptions that can be made about the author are that is very talented in computer programming and wanted to make some money off of his skills. Zuckerberg’s ethos is strong because he originally was a college student and knows what the age group is interested in and what things they would like to see on the website

Target Audience: The target audience of this website was originally college students and faculty, but has now expanded to almost anyone who wants to join the website. The goal of the creator is to have as many people sign up for the website as possible and for the advertising on the website to make the site profitable. I include myself with the implied audience because I am an avid user of the site. I think as an actual audience member I react well when new additions are made to the site.

Message: I think the message of facebook is to bring about interaction within groups such as the student body and to make communication easy. The site uses language to achieve its goals by allowing members to send messages to each other and to post comments on one another’s sites and pictures. The logos of the site is that it makes communication easy so that communication will increase and the site will be more frequently used. The pathos is that Zuckerberg has relationships with his friends just as the users do, he is also using the site to keep in touch and establish friendships.

Assumptions: Knowing that the maker of the site was a college guy, I think people would assume he is a little out there since he is so smart and involved in computers. Some people might think he is somewhat creepy since he has created a site which basically enables people to stalk other people online. The occasion of this website is bringing friends together across distances. Many people gain from this because you can find out what your friends are up to who went to other schools and it enables easy communication. Some people say the motive to create this website was to make an elite form of the myspace website which only people with college e-mail addresses could register for. I would agree with this point until the site began letting users join who aren’t enrolled in college. I think the motivation was to create an online social network that is popular and easy to use.