Cadet Lythgoe
ERH 101-03
MAJ Garriott
29 September 2016
Help Received:
Laura Parsons helped with brainstorming and organization.
Activity System analysis of Bryan Christy’s “Special Investigation: Inside the Deadly Rhino Horn Trade.”
The National Geographic Society has been the face of our planets education since 1888 (Government).They have helping the globe, and people of all ages and interests, become better equipped with knowledge of the world’s wildlife and history. This non-profit organization has a variety of members that help to accomplish their objectives such as photographers, biologists, scientists, and journalists. One of the goals of Nat Geo is the preservation of wildlife all over the globe, and they gain the help of numerous supporters in order to accomplish that. The main tool that The Nat Geo Society uses in order to communicate to their members is the widely known Magazine, National Geographic. Through this readers can gain insight to what is going on throughout the world and can get information on things that Nat Geo believes need to be helped. As an investigative reporter for Nat Geo, Bryan Christy takes readers of their magazine into sympathizing journey as he explains the controversy over the rhinoceros’ horn trade in South Africa. In China and Vietnam, rhino horns are beginning to become a believed remedy for things ranging from cancer to simple hangovers (Christy). In his story, “Special Investigation: Inside the Deadly Rhino Horn Trade,” Christy asserts a affiliations with the Discourse Community, or Activity System, of people looking to become enriched with the problems of today’s world, because the work agrees with the ideas of Donna Kain and Elizabeth Wardle, community motives that influence their objectives, specific tools to properly communicate to its members, and a social basis that constitutes the purpose of Christy’s article.
One of many ideas that Kain and Wardle give for an activity system is that “the types of activities that activity theory is concerned with are directed towards specific goals” (Wardle 276). Christy’s story was printed in order to accomplish one of the main objectives Nat Geo is trying to accomplish as a whole, and that is too preserve the world’s wildlife. By investigating the issues surrounding rhino horn trafficking, Christy is showing the readers of Nat Geo, who may be able to help in the effort to fix this issue, become educated on the problem. In Christy’s article he argues that it is not the issue of taking the rhino horn, but the way of how it is being taken. When poacher’s take a rhino horn, they often kill it because they do not want to have to fight the animal to take its appendage. If a mother rhino has a baby and the poachers are attacking the mother, it will often return to its mother and be killed in the process. Thus, destroying the next generation of this rhino family (Christy). By ending the poaching, and promoting a much safer venue for taking rhino horn, this activity system can accomplish their goal which is to end the scare of rhino extinction (Christy). In the article, Christy interviews a rhino breeder in Klerksdorp, South Africa to explain the way he takes rhino horn, “each week my staff takes about 10 to 15 rhinos and tranquilizes them.. shaves there horns.. and then revives them” (Christy). When a rhino horn is properly shaved it grows back and the owner can continually shave the horn (Christy). (((((Need Closing sentence)))))
According to Kain and Wardle, in order to properly communicate inside a discourse community, or activity system, the members of the group must act together using tools to accomplish the shared goal (Wardle 276). Using the National Geographic Magazine, Christy shows this as a tool to communicate to its members. Not only is it Christy that is performing the activity, but he has a photographer, Brent Stirton, that helped capture the horrifying mistreatment of rhinos in South Africa. One picture shows a rhino laying in the dirt, bleeding out from it flesh wound after having its horn cut off at the skull. The emphasis on the picture is that it is trying to get people who are viewing the article to feel for the rhinos and push them to try and get involved in the effort to stop the poaching. The pictures are the pathos of the article, which is putting influence not only readers of one specific discourse community, but another discourse community which are readers who are just looking for an interesting story to read. When people read, they are looking to feel something, and are more drawn to read about topics that make them feel emotion. Christy uses a picture of a baby rhino, who is injured, being held by a caretaker as a tool to make reader’s feel sympathy towards the rhinos. In this discourse community of professionals and viewers, Nat Geo uses these tools to further communicate to their reader’s to help influence their involvement in a key goal of Nat Geo’s mission, to help preserve our world’s wildlife. ///// include more evidence///////
Another idea Kain and Wardle identify in their chapter about activity systems is the idea of a “social basis”, that allows viewers to see the things that influence a groups certain activity (Wardle 278). Christy’s article puts together the three main parts to social basis which include, Rules, Community, and the Division of Labor (Wardle 278). To avoid conflicts within the activity system, Christy goes into this article with “rules”, or guidelines, in order to sustain from having any bias towards the either two parties of the rhino horn trafficking. One being the authorities of South Africa, who want the poaching of rhinos to stop, and the other being the poachers who are killing the rhinos. Christy interviews one specific poacher who is widely known, Dawie Groenewald, but he does not take a hostile voice as he interviews him. Rather, he tries to see things from his point of view (Christy). Kain and Wardle describe another part of the social basis, being the “community”, which is “the larger group of which the subject is a part of… the interests of the group shape the activity” (Wardle 278). Not only is Christy interested in helping solve the issue of rhino trafficking in South Africa, but he is displaying the objective of Nat Geo itself as a larger activity system which is again, to preserve wildlife and to educate its members on the issues today’s wildlife faces. The last part of the social basis that Kain and Wardle describe is “Division of Labor,” which is “the tasks described within the activity system” (Wardle 278). Each person of Nat Geo has their duty in order to get their objective accomplished. For example, the investigative reporter, Christy, has the job of investigating the issue on rhino horn trafficking, and Nat Geo has professionals who makes the article look attractive and organized in order to achieve optimal influence on the reader. All of these terms in the social basis of an activity system come together to constitute the purpose of Christy’s article.
Kain and Wardle describe activity systems as “ a group of people who share a common object and motive over time, as well as te wide range of tools they use together to act on that object and realize that motive” (Wardle 275). Christy asserts an affiliation with the discourse community, or activity system, of people looking to be enriched with issues of today’s world that National Geographic feels are should be addressed. The ideas of Kain and Wardle’s “activity systems” are displayed in the Christy’s article “”Special Investigation: Inside the Deadly Rhino Horn Trade,” through Nat Geo’s motives, social basis, and the tools they use to communicate to its members (Christy). /////// Needs improvement//////////
Works Cited
Christy, Bryan. “Special Investigation: Inside the Deadly Rhino Horn Trade.” Special Investigation: Inside the Deadly Rhino Horn Trade. National Geographic, 19 Sept. 2016. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Society, National Geographic. “About the National Geographic Society.” National Geographic. National Geographic. Web. 21 Sept. 2016.
Wardle, Elizabeth A., and Doug Downs. “Activity Theory: An Introduction for the Writing Classroom.” Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 273-83. Print.
Government, US. “National Geographic Society.” U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.