Over the last few years there has been a rise in accidental overdoses involving children, but it hasn’t become an up and coming news story until recent. Since children haven’t matured physically and mentally they are affected by medications differently than adults are. A lot of medications adults take are not intended for young adults let alone children, and with the advancements in medicine, there is a wider range of medications being prescribed to patients. When it comes to understanding this issue, there is no one better than the doctors and pharmacists themselves. Their professional perspectives on the issue can give insight to better understanding why this is becoming such an issue. From the Journal of Pediatrics, G. Randell Bond documents in his article and case study, “The Growing Impact of Pediatric Pharmaceutical Poisoning,” the understandings of which medications, and under what circumstances, is responsible for the noticeable increase in pediatric medication poisonings. On the other hand, the popular perspective gives more of the personal understanding and is expressed for average person to understand. Tara Parker-Pope from the New York Times writes an article titled “More Accidental Drug Poisonings of Children,” which talks primarily about the overall topic itself and why professionals think there may be a problem. Another major part of the article is the space for readers to provide comments on the topic. This gives insight to what the general public thinks about this issue.
The professional genre of writing is intended toward other professionals. In the article explained previously, there are a lot of names of medications and groups of types of medication that only other professionals of the same discipline as the author would understand. The audience would include professionals from the medical field as well as other science and math based fields. Included in the article are statistics of different medications that are most commonly overdosed as well as percentages of the severity of the dose. It would be important to know which drugs are the most frequent ones that are overdosed on in order to find means of preventing future overdoses. What the audience might not know is the break-down of the number of children it affects and the different ages from 0-5 that ingest the medications. The way that the journal is outlined is only for those who understand the structure of a formal report. There are separate sections for methods, results, and a discussion of the results as well as figures and tables to support the results. The purpose of the professional journal is to inform other professionals about the severity of the issue and also to provide support and information on the topic that is pediatric overdosing.
The professional journal is extremely thorough when it comes to analyzing the topic. Anytime there is a topic of concern pertaining to the medical field, soon after there are statistics and case studies done in order to better understand the issue. With the issue of pediatric poisoning, the professional genre establishes its credibility by providing not only statistics, but where the statistics come from. The journal isn’t someone’s opinion, or a certain view on the issue, it is the fact of the matter whether it be good or bad. The credibility is based on the availability of the information, and this journal doesn’t exclude any important facts that could sway the readers’ opinion about the topic. As far as emotion, since this is a scientific journal, it lacks the emotion that persuades the reader to think one way or another. The overwhelming statistics to someone who isn’t accustomed to reading journals like that will feel overwhelmed with all the information, which is why it is directed toward professional audiences. The evidence that is used to support this topic is statistics. Since this is for a professional audience, statistics is the most sensible way to give supporting evidence. The journal gives over the counter drugs and prescription drugs and which ones are most commonly overdosed on. The information given is time consuming, in order to get a clear understanding of the topic. There is a lot of information given and there are tables and graphs to help better explain them which are important in the professional genre.
On the complete other side of pediatric poisoning, there is the popular genre. This type of genre is directed toward the average reader that wants to be up to date on the recent news headlines. There are minimal statistics, and quotations from professionals in the article. The audience of this article would be men and women, primarily parents of children that want to learn more about this, to most likely keep it from happening to their child. With the information provided, the audience will either use it to lock up their prescription and over the counter medications. What is most interesting about this article is that there is a place where people can comment on the subject and give personal anecdotes on the topic. No one buys something online without reading the reviews to make sure the product is what they say it is, well the same goes with this article. The personal stories and input can give a better understanding from the point of view from people who have experienced it or want to give their own input about the matter. Depending on who is reading the article is going to depend how much time they spend on it. This is an interesting topic that affects thousands of families, and parents of young children will be spending the most time reading and understanding why this issue keeps happening. A really interested parent will lock up their medications after reading it to make sure something like that doesn’t happen to their child. The main purpose of this information is to inform the public about this issue, and bring awareness to the fact that this could happen to anyone. The message that the audience should get from this is that parents need to keep their medication out of the reach of children especially if they have a lot of prescriptions.
The popular genre is informative to the average person to keep them updated on recent news. The genre gains credibility by having a few statistics as well as dialog from a professional. In order to make something credible, the information needs to come from a credible source. The article can also invoke a feeling of fear; fear that the readers own child could be at risk for an accidental overdose of drugs. What really give a strong message are the comments at the end. People can post their thoughts about the topic and give personal anecdotes. That is the most emotional part of the article. The comments also give insight to other reasons why the poisonings occurred. For example, not all the time is it the doctor or the pharmacists fault, but the parents, and they are failing to mention that to the hospital when their child ends up there after being given a different drug then they are supposed to be taking. The evidence that supports this are links to other scientific journals discussing the issue and giving commentary from professionals in the article saying that this is something to be concerned about. This article is an easy read and isn’t too long for the kind of information that is being presented. It leaves the reader wanting to know more about the topic.
The two different genres are targeted for two very different audiences. The professional genre is targeted for medical professionals that want to know the facts. On the other side the popular genre is targeted to the everyday person wanting to read the headlines in news. The popular audience can include families wanting to know why the rise in accidental overdosing is happening. However there is a common thread between them. In order to make the popular genre credible it needs a professional source. The professional journal is the reference material used to write the popular article. The professional journal does an excellent job giving supporting facts to the issue. It displays them in tables and charts to give a more clear understanding of what information is being presented. It gives a great framework to future articles on this topic. However, what it lacks is interest. Unless the reader is a medical professional this journal is not interesting to the average reader, it only appeals to professionals and not at all to the popular audience. The popular genre is a light read and not too in depth, but also informative about the topic. It is written with just enough information to give the reader what they want to know. This article can be for any audience including professionals, but it doesn’t give the detail and facts that most professionals want to know. Overall the effectiveness of both articles is where is should be for the audience it is intended for. Both teaches the reader something that they might not have known before, and because of that they are both successful pieces.
References
Bond, G. Randell. "The Growing Impact of Pediatric Pharmaceutical Poisoning." The Journal of Pediatrics. The Journal of Pediatrics, 16 Sept. 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(11)00771-2/fulltext#abstract>.
Parker-pope, Tara. "More Accidental Drug Poisonings of Children - NYTimes.com." Health and Wellness -Well Blog - NYTimes.com. New York Times, 16 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/more-accidental-drug-poisonings-of-children/>.
