The Power of the Girl and The Power of the Victim Role Assigned to the Audience

[T]he relationship of the so called "audience", to writing as such, to the situation that inscribed communication establishes and to the roles that readers as readers are consequently called on to play. (Ong 2)

Ong states how differently the process of understanding and delivery differ from speech to writing, the difference created also shapes the audience. Writing evolved through speech and the uses for such speech. When speech was the only way of sharing knowledge one did not need to fictionalize his or her audience, one could simply play off the audience's responses, and thus elaborate how he or she would expand or minimize content in the speech for the audiences entertainment. Ultimately all sharing of knowledge is for one person to give and another to receive, thus the delivery process and the receiving process of information changes drastically with how it is presented. Speech is a two-way street with unblocked channels, one orates and instantly sees the audiences reaction, one knows its audience due to their actions (laughing, frowning, etc), that enables a street in which one can give and receive simultaneously, this creates a space with less room for interpretation. While in writing we face the problem of being in a one-way road. The writer cannot see the audience's response and or see how to shape his or her content differently for the audiences enjoyment.

Thus the writer must make (fictionalize) his or her own audience in order to be able to write a story in which the knowledge within the story is understood; the way the author intended it to. The fictionalization of the audience helps to shape the story as it formats it in a way where a group of intended people are able to capture it. Written text looses immediacy and intimacy which is why a writer must fictionalize his or her audience in order to create a bond with the reader, this fictionalization forces the reader to put him self in a role which allows for perfect understanding of the material that is being talked about.

Hemingway paved a new way of writing that creates intimacy with his audience. The use of "the" and "that" serves as a way for the writer to give less description of an item and makes the reader not question what is being presented. Using phrases like "the mountain" or "that summer" makes the topic more relatable to any person at any time. If no specific mountain is named then the reader does not need to imagine that specific mountain, the reader imagines a mountain he or she has seen; creating intimacy. Also not specifying what summer it is leaves room for the interpretation of what  year that summer was in. Using nouns to ones advantage to leaves open interpretation as a useful tool in earning intimacy with the audience, creating information that is easily relatable thus creating a strong bond between writer and reader.

The Power of the Girl is one that involves immediacy, and intimacy all at once. It is formatted in an electronic platform that uses moving images and words. It is a platform that can be easily accessible and is not limited to any type of person, shortening distances between the reader and the writer. The information is put on a public site in which millions of people can have access to. Unlike some authors that only write to specific groups of people, Nike provides material that is for everyone. The material is presented in a way that any person of gender and age can understand. The author (Nike) fictionalized the audience as any person that is willing to help and enact change. Helping and action are basic human drives that we all stride for subconsciously, thus Nike provides information that we are all willing to accept and acknowledge. Nike's shaping of their audience is one that fits mostly every person on this planet. Creating information that is easily understood and easily enacted results in a wider spread message.

"We Have a Situation" creates the perfect audience for the message being delivered. The message is a call for action, action towards change with how woman roles are viewed in our society. Simply by using the word "we" in the title it gives off the sense that everyone of us is being affected by this problem. Nike puts every single one of us in the victim role, we are all victims of our societies views toward woman. The use of a clock with increasing numbers relating to age refers to logic, also the use of a young woman being poor and pregnant and having to sell her body to support her family is one that attracts empathy from the reader causing intimacy between the call for action and the viewer. Word like "poverty" and "spreading HIV" are all very relatable topics that no one wishes to posses, thus giving grater power to an empathetic audience, thus returning that power to the writer. If immediacy and intimacy can be created through a text, then the text becomes a two way street similar to direct speech.

Ong's theory in fictionalizing an audience and having the audience mold into the intended audience is one that serves true to this day! With specific uses of language one can shape and form the audience without the audience knowing they are being shaped. "I Dare You", "Ticking Clock", and "We Have a Situation", all execute Ong's audience theory perfectly and efficiently.