Abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the works from Magazine, Newspaper and APA journal based on the topic “Gender Difference in communication”, the contrast between the writing and way of expression including the technical aspects between these three are highlighted. It also covers the primary aim of an article and the reader’s point of view and the better ways to get one’s work reviewed.
Part 1
The debate has been going for a while now, and may not be, in favour or against any of these discussions about the Gender Difference in Communication however there have been a lot of different works in Magazines, News Papers and Journals related to the topic and though the inferences might be similar the expression differs in abundance due to the method of connection with the ultimate audience. There is a feminist group of writers that has formed an opinion based on the softer side of the fairer sex if we see such an article from either of the three (magazine, Newspaper or an Apa journal) we would realize that on one had where the magazine tries to target very firmly the audience within scope and would not step back in publishing even favorable comments regarding the same, a newspaper or an APA journal will basically talk about the key aspects and will give naturalistic comments on the topic which will have a neutral flavor towards both the sexes[1].
The APA journal specifically would be more concerned about the reliability and validity factor in comparison to the other two the reason being that not only from a psychological tangent but also from the research perspective it is required to be more responsible in the type of content that is being published and Finally the newspaper is just a resource that basically involves itself in spreading awareness about any given discussion point, hence the realistic approach might be present but the reliability can be questioned as another important factor is to make it interesting enough for the reader and hence while doing it the reliability can be at risk easily[3].
Let’s move ahead to the next set of related aspects; talking about the research guidelines that are usually used we will see drastic difference between the three models of writing, picking up the magazine first will make us realize that sample size, control groups or experimental groups are not a part of the writing team usually as the discussion is based on the ideology and not the science[2].Hence, a magazine is not really concerned with the statistical handling of the information most of the writing is focused on independent variables as it’s the subjectivity that matters from them and the view provided are fairly ideas of the writer and not backed by data. Newspaper on the other hand shows a slightly improved version and has mostly experienced groups working on the material which as a result gives rise to the presence of dependent variable; considering the fact that a newspaper will only talk about something when there is some kind of a social or economical activity which will attract the readers we can infer that the print media might show a little inclination towards the political views of the readers in abundance [2].
APA journal on the other hand will have a very sophisticated control experimental groups, there might be, a team, handling different functions of research that will add value to the article making it variable dependent, the article of an APA journal hence will involve references that have led to the inference drawn as a part of the article[3].
Now that we have discussed from the technical perspective how the articles of a Magazine, News Paper and APA journal differ, it is time for us to move to the more subjective features e.g. the presentation style, the author’s purpose and the intended audience. So once again lets analyze the magazine first that starts discussing the topic “Gender difference in communication” where he uses a sentence “I have nothing to wear” in order to attract the reader, now this sentence if said by a woman would more closely mean that she does not have new clothes however the same coming from a Man would more commonly be explaining that his clothes are not clean, now this clearly shows that the style is freestyle and the targeted audience would be more of young people, wanting to read light stuff and not go into too much of Why ? Where? And How? [3]
Moving on to a newspaper this is more likely to become a sudden attention seeker to the society, the discussion will have an interesting headline and if possible a few lines from the article placed in bold to attract the reader. It is very important to notice here that the author’s purpose here will shift from entertaining or engaging the reader to providing knowledge and awareness about the topic hence the reader can expect to come across a fair amount of data download, thus the audience will also shift patterns and will now be a little more selective with respect to the topic and will only read if they have a keen interest in the topic and are into the position of forming their opinion on the same[4].
Finally, an APA journal will be much more promising in terms of the content and will ensure that despite managing to entertain and educate the reader it will have a very detailed study on the given topic and will present views and opinions of many so that the reader can take enough download in order to form his/her own opinion[3].
It is also important to discuss that from a reader’s point of view what are the three things that should be questioned? The answer to this may differ from individual-to-individual but based on the discussion above & considering the welfare of masses it is important to ask oneself while reading:
- Will the content written add value to the reader in any form?
- What is the author’s pointy of view and purpose of writing?
- Is there a recommendation given to a particular opinion? If yes, then Are there enough proofs to support the recommendation?
Part 3
Review is now a very important part of any article; it not only gives a final touch to an article but also ensures that the writer learns from his mistakes. Copy editors are therefore in demand these days as they are the key players of any given final work that a writer takes up, more over they tend to commercialize the article in order to make it more useful from the selling point of view however the debate is that how does peer review which is a part of the APA journal holds an advantage over the normal review done by the copy editors. The answer is actually hidden in the points that we have just discussed related to the copy editors, so the first justification would be that copy editors being professionals tend to loose the human touch and the peers will not examine from a professional writer’s perspective the would rather be like any other reader who will focus on the content and interest and will give free flowing ideas that may work in the long run[5].
Secondly, peers are the best to understand the purpose and limitations of a writer and therefore prove to be much more useful as they have seen the content being developed from scratch (most of the times) and have a fair idea of the audience’s mindset. The third point will revolve around the fact that peers will be working in the same environment and hence will have good hands on edge over research and development hence there might be instances when they are successful in providing references from their part of study and nay be relevant to the topic thus adding great value to the content. Finally, it improves the healthy competition among the group and helps the reviewer also learn a lot from the content.
References
[1] Heidi M Reeder - A critical look at gender difference in communication Research
[2] Dr. Eggerichs - Cracking the gender communication code Chattanooga Times Free Press, 10/04/09 ·
[3] David C. Geary - Male, Female, second edition American Psychological Association 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242 www.apa.org/books
[4] Sonja K Foss; Eileen Berlin Ray - Introduction: Theorizing communication from marginalized perspectives 2009
[5] Erman Yukselturk; Safure Bulut - Gender differences in self-regulated online learning environment - Introduction Distance education has evolved from print-based correspondence courses to interactive web-based courses over time. Recently, the...Educational Technology & Society, 07/01/09
