Don't you just love Pittsburgh??

I've been doing some thinking about what newspaper I would like to write my editorial for, and I think I've narrowed it down to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Not only is it a popular publication that is read by a wide range of people, it also publishes a variety of articles. In addition, I am familiar with the layout since I read it often, which is a plus.

I was originally thinking about writing my editorial for an animal rights publication, but I now realize that wouldn't make much sense because my audience isn't necessarily aimed towards staunch animal rights supporters.

research for my genre

For my initiating action project on animal rights, my genre is going to be an editorial. I did a bit of research and found out some interesting information that I never knew about editorials.

Basically, editorials are a person's views on current events. They aren't news, but rather opinions based on facts. The main reason why an editorial writer writes one in the first place is to express his or her opinions on a fact or hotly debated issue. Generally, editorial writers have a lot of freedom in what they say in their writing, but their finished pieces have to be based on facts, not solely opinions. Also, editorial page editors under each newspaper have the final say before the editorials are published. This is to maintain the newspaper's credibility. Some issues most frequently chosen by editorial writers are concerning politics and elected officials in towns, the environment, and the economy. The editorials I found on the NY Times website weren't any longer or shorter than the average newspaper article.

I think the great thing about editorials is that their writers have freedom to express their opinions. They are not just spitting out facts like regular newspaper articles. Editorial writers are able to interject their ideas in with the facts, making for interesting and thought-provoking reading. Editorials enable their readers to consider both sides of an issue and either disagree or agree with the author.

I think editorials are a refreshing break from the very cut-and-dry world of regular newspaper reporting. They are a great thing to read if you are on the fence about a certain issue.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/newspaper3.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/

initiating action

In the animal rights community, I feel that a major problem is how animal activists are viewed by the public. A lot of times the public hears the words "animal rights," they think about the extreme fringe of the animal welfare movement. They think of the PETA extremists and the Animal Liberation Front, people that blow up animal research labs, threaten animal researchers, and ask Ben and Jerry's to use human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their ice cream (see one of my old posts!). I believe that this turns the public away from believing in and learning about animal rights.

What I want to prove is that a lot of animal rights organizations are not the fringe extremists that people believe them to be. I feel that writing an editorial is the best way to accomplish this. I plan on using my past research with the an animal rights group here at VT (For the Sake of Animals) to strengthen my argument with their comments on how extreme they think PETA and the Animal Liberation Front really are. My audience will be primarily geared toward people who think that animal activists are extreme, crazy, unjustified, ridiculous, etc. I think writing an editorial will be the most effective way to prove my point by, in a sense, "exposing" the less extreme side of the animal welfare movement.

What many people don't realize is that the majority if animal rights supporters are not crazy and do not condone such violent behavior. It is my hope that people will be able to see this truth through my editorial.