Analyse af 'Cyber Manners' af Bill Ratner

I have chosen, to analyze the non-fictional text, ‘cyber manners’, that is written by Bill Ratner. The 3 main focus points, that I want to work with is; Writer/speaker, reader/audience and circumstances. The reason I chose the questions in those main topics, is because they are some really good questions, that go in depth and aren’t at all confusing, and that can be really helpful if you are analyzing a non-fictional text, like this one.

Writer/ speaker:

The author behind ‘cyber manners’ is 71- year old Bill Ratner. He was born in Minnesota, in 1947. He has a daughter that was born in 1987. Not only is he an author, he’s also a voice actor and performance artist. Bill has been featured as a voice actor in cartoons like kung fu panda, family guy and alien’s vs monsters. His voice is also used to narrate documentaries and commercials. Bill Ratner is a very successful author, he has won many excellence awards. His book ‘parenting for the digital age’, (which also includes the part ‘cyber manners’) came out in 2014, and he has since, went to many story-telling events, where he talks and promotes his book.

Bill Ratner establishes his ethos and gaining the trust of the readers, by empathizing with the victim ‘Essie’. He explains the dangers of cyber-bullying, and the dangers of anonymity, and how easy it is for people to hide their identity in the internet. He uses fake names, because he doesn’t want to expose the real victim and perpetrator. He has a believable source, which is the therapist he mentions. In page 2 and line 5, he tries to come with a psychological explanation, to why young girls have such a hatred for each other growing up, example:’’ but young girls tend to be more verbal and will push other girls to engage in negative conversation for the purpose of finding where the limits are.’’ (line 10) He writes a pretty accurate explanation, and it is pretty believable, because it happens every day in almost every female friend group, it happens at home, school and even their workplaces, when they grow up. Girls always try to tear each other down, for the sake of feeling better and superior towards the girls. It helps them with their self-esteem and insecurities, even if the feeling of euphoria only lasts temporarily.