The term discourse community refers to a group of people who share a topic for discussion or an idea which they need to be brought forward and a solution found. In most cases, discourse communities entail people who share common values and who have a shared history. There are certain conditions that one ought to meet so that they are accepted to join a discourse community. One of this condition is that they must take and learn the typical ways in which the people on that community argue and communicate. As a community member, I have been involved in film marketing. Through this marketing, I have had the opportunity to interact with many people.
The term film marketing refers to the promotion of films to get people to purchase them. I have conducted film marketing for quite some time, and therefore I have had a better opportunity of interacting with the community. To effectively promote and sell the films, I had to join the discourse community. In the discourse community, I had the opportunity to share and discuss such information and which concerns movies.
I got to understand the idea of discourse community when I was in high school. During this time, we used to discuss and act some of the movies which we had watched over the weekends and holidays. However, my schoolmates looked at us just like regular agemates, but we were a family that had grown and developed to love each other. Initially, it was hard for one to thrive in a discourse community, but with time, we gained enough experience on how to interact in school and became one team that was hard to defeat. It is evident that for any society to thrive, the members of that particular society have to share some responsibilities and knowledge (Swales, pg. 215). Therefore, it became my sole role to understand that for me to be accepted into the discourse community, consequently, I had to show my commitment as a team player and be ready to elaborate on my skills and knowledge when communicating with other people and community members.
Logos and ethos play an essential role in the discourse community. This because they are the pillars which are used to convince the upper-class men and women. As a starter in the city, it becomes necessary for one to adhere to the rules and the regulations given by the seniors. Due to the zeal and the pressure for one to become one of the members of the discourse community, the starters have a hard time because they have to handle the hard and the dirty job. They have the responsibilities of bringing water and are entitled to showing maximum respect to the upper-classmen. If any problem arises in the discourse community, then it is the responsibility of the juniors to explain the reason why the problem occurred.
Attitude, grade, and skills are essential aspects of the discourse community. when I joined the film marketing team; respect was the most important aspect because it was one of the rules that governed the marketing team. However, most of the people did not have a problem with this since we had interacted and learned most of the aspects which were needed. However, a small group of the members did not perform well in marketing. When one of our members was struggling, we had to join all of us as a team and help if we needed to win the market (Donna, pg. 165). We performed many activities to help our struggling members. This included obtaining help from teachers and tutors when there was a danger or a fear that we may experience some poor performance in our marketing team. When people have a moral and are committed to doing certain things, it becomes necessary that they have to succeed no matter the challenges. Therefore, one of the key aspects that I learned was that a positive attitude is always better than an adverse reaction in any sphere and where success ought to be achieved.
In our marketing team, our leader made it clear that he preferred a person who cared about the team and an alright marketer than just a great marker who cares about himself and not the welfare of the discourse community. I learned that one of the critical aspects of the discourse community is that a person who leads others towards the right path and cares about the welfare of the whole town is highly preferred than just an individual who cares less about the well-being of the city. I, therefore, learn that people like and love those who have a positive contribution to the society. Therefore, even though one might not be useful in doing a specific activity, if he or she has the community at heart, then the particular person is automatically loved and boosted by the city. If he or she requires any support, he automatically gets a boost from the society (John, pg. 17).
In our marketing team, I always ensured that I worked hard and did my best to motivate myself and my discourse community not to lose our potential. Our marketing team leader provided that we got to understand how the knowledge of ethos takes place in being part of the team. Therefore, he assured that the success of the marketing team relied on us. When we were playing, we understood that it was us who made the decision to join the team and therefore we had to work hard to ensure that we performed well. We had the understanding that we were not forced to do anything by our leader.
Our marketing team comprised of the junior members in the society. The group was made in that manner since that’s how we thought was the best method of helping achieve our goals. We had scheduled time on Friday evenings when we would join together and discuss the issues that we thought were of great importance to our team.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that discourse community plays a vital role in helping society achieve some of its goals. As a teenager, film marketing is one of such discourse communities that I have been part of. Marketing made me work and communicate with my team, something which I would not have managed to do on my own. To form part of the community, it requires one to be dedicated and commit their time to help build an active community. It maintains an individual develop and acquire skills that are crucial for existence and smooth running within the society.
Works cited
Swales, John. "The concept of the discourse community." Wardle and Downs (2014): 215-28.
Swales, John M. "Reflections on the concept of the discourse community." ASp. la revue du
GERAS 69 (2016): 7-19.
Alvermann, Donna E., et al. Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical
media literacy. Routledge, 2018. 165
