Shalla Phan

Writing 2
Wilson
October 10, 2016
WP1
Celebrity journalism and status updates are two genres that you can read in order to keep
up with what is currently going on in the social media world. In the 2000s social networking hit
its stride with the launch of multiple social networking sites. A popular social networking
website and app that soon made its way to the top of the social media pyramid was Twitter. The
site was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Noah Glass. Twitter
allows users to create messages called tweets, with a limit of 140 characters. Twitter users are
allowed to read and post tweets and are able to do this through their website, Short Message
Service (SMS), or their mobile device app. Twitter users can also gain subscribers, known as
followers who are able to see what the user tweets, retweets, and likes on their twitter page.
Following popular social media websites, TMZ a celebrity news website which is on top of the
gossip industry, discusses the daily gossip of the world of entertainment. Readers can access this
information through their website or mobile app which contains photos, interviews, articles, and
videos. Social networkings progression over the years has been incredible and is possible
through the convenience of electronics such as, smartphones, tablets, computers, and laptops.
The conventions used on TMZ and Twitter contribute to the rhetorical purpose of these celebrity
gossip and social networking sites which is persuading their audience that Brad Pitt was the
reason for the divorce, or to decide whether or not the divorce is important to be ballistic over.

The topic of Angelina Jolie filing for divorce from Brad Pitt has been all over social
media. Sites like Twitter and TMZ have information and opinions crawling all over their mobile
apps and websites. Twitters audience has had thousands of different emotions that is portrayed
through their tweets. It is quite obvious that Twitter has a distinct lingo known as Twitter
Language. This is the use of profanity, acronyms, abbreviations, slang, emojis, and hashtags.
The reason for Twitter Language is it allows the user to easily tweet their opinion, conversate,
and connect through the very small limit of 140 characters they are given. Twitter studies reveal
results about Twitter usage and that 40% of tweets were pointless babble, winning the total
tweets captured in the span of two weeks, but it was followed by 38% of conversational tweets.
(Kelly, 2009) The topic of Brangelina divorce on Twitter falls into both categories of pointless
babble and conversational tweets. As I searched on Twitter Brad and Angelina Divorced, my
Twitter page was instantly filled with hundreds of tweets on the topic. Reading through them I
noticed the different emotions of each and every tweet and it varied from being shocked,
surprised, sad, and even irritated at the news. Turning to TMZs article titled, ANGELINA
JOLIE FILES FOR DIVORCE FROM BRAD PITT: Allegations of Substance Abuse, Anger
(TMZ Staff, 2016) the diction of the article was similar to the tweets I observed on Twitter. As I
read through the article I noticed that the TMZ Staff abbreviated words which shows a sense of
laziness. They also cite their sources as Our sources say which comes off as an unreliable
source because we are given no specific information of who they obtained these statements from.
TMZ is also responsible for giving Laura Wasser, a family lawyer, the nickname disso which
stands for marriage dissolution which is shows a sense of informality.
Twitter users read these tweets on the topic of Angelina and Brad because it is more
convenient for them to hear and read trending topics from a group of people with different

opinions. It allows them to interact and socialize with them easily by reading their tweets which
contains their opinion or information. When you tweet about relevant topics and voice your own
truthful opinions it can stir up a controversy and that is how the writer accomplishes the texts
social actions. Readers of TMZ use the celebrity journalism genre because the human brain is
hardwired to tune into gossip. Humans are actually quite eager to read about any type of
misfortunes of celebrities because they love to see what mistakes they make in their personal live
so they can avoid making that mistake (Dovey, 2015). By writing on what the people want to
hear and by doing research so the information they are giving is truthful the audience appreciates
it and continues to come back to the writer for more information concerning the topic.
The rhetorical purpose of the Brangelina tweets on Twitter was to tweet your opinion
about the divorce so the audience (your Twitter followers and other users) can hear. I believe that
the authors of the tweets I observed in my search of the divorce is successful at using the
conventions to fulfill the texts rhetorical purpose because the audience on Twitter will read the
authors tweet and decide for themselves if they agree with them or not. The author was able to
act and make a change by influencing others to think about the Brangelina news themselves.
TMZs rhetorical purpose was to persuade the audience that Brad Pitt is the reason for the
drama filled divorce. In the article provided by TMZ the citing statements all are made to be
be against Brad Pitt. It manipulates the audience by making Angelina Jolie the victim and makes
us, the audience, feel pity that she is married (soon to be divorced) to a man like Brad Pitt. A man
that is claimed to have a alcohol and marijuana addiction in which Angelina is fed up with. To
top the addiction the article claims that Brad Pitt is a child abuser because of an incident on a
plane in which he allegedly got wasted, and went wild and physical with his kids. This adds
another reason for the audience to believe that Brad Pitt is the monster in the marriage and by

Angelina Jolie filing divorce makes her the hero because she made the decision for the health of
the family (TMZ Staff, 2016). All in all it persuades the reader to believe that Angelina Jolie is
right for filing for divorce against Pitt and demanding for full physical custody of all six of their
children due to her soon to be ex-husbands behavioral issues. I believe the author, TMZ Staff
is successful at using the conventions to fulfill the texts rhetorical purpose because by reading
the article the audience creates their own opinion based off the information the author published.
Although parts of the articles makes it seem as an unreliable source because of their informality
it still allows the audience to use their own personal views on topics to create a biased opinion.
The author will create thousands of different opinions from the audience making the topic very
popular.
Thus, the conventions the authors used in both the TMZ article and on Twitter were
successful in fulfilling the texts rhetorical purpose. Using conventions creates clarity for the
reader and cancels out any confusion or misinterpretations the reader might possibly encounter.
Conventions are very important to the reader because it allows them to fully understand what the
author is trying to say. When the author lives up to the expectations of their audience it gives
them more information to form their own opinions.

Works Cited:
1. Dovey, Dana. "The Science Behind Why We Love Celebrity Gossip So
Much."Medical Daily. N.p., 24 Nov. 2015. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
2.
Https://www.facebook.com/lauren.hockenson. "Our

Guide

Language." The Next Web RSS. N.p., 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.

to

Twitter's

3. Kelly, Ryan. "Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results About Usage - 40% Is
Pointless Babble." Twitter Study Reveals Interesting Results About Usage - 40% Is
Pointless Babble. Pear Analytics, 09 July 2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.
4. Staff, Digital Trends. "The History of Social Networking." Digital Trends. N.p., 5
Aug. 2014. Web.
5. "Twitter." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016.
6. Twitter. N.p., n.d. Web.
7. 9/20/2016 7:28 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF. "Angelina Jolie -- Files for Divorce
from Brad Pitt ... Allegations of Substance Abuse, Anger." TMZ. N.p., 20 Sept. 2016.
Web. 09 Oct. 2016.