Sydney
Keys
Dr.
Wielgos
Writing
2
20
February 2014
The effectiveness of the CDC?
The CDC or Center for Disease Control
is the government agency in charge of the nation’s public health. The CDC’s
web page on obesity’s purpose to relay information about the rise of obesity in
the United States. They want to convey the issues that accompany obesity are
not only deadly but costly as well. They attempt to make this argument by using
visuals and statistical percentages. The website is intended for the everyday
person along with medical professionals so they can utilize these facts and
statistics to help them in their profession.
Essentially the CDC has credibility
because they are a government agency. Even
more credibility is apparent because they have access to a lot of information
that the regular person would not be able to obtain. Many of the guidelines
doctors and medical professionals would use in their profession come from here.
Have you ever walked into a medical establishment and seen information from the
CDC? Making sure they put the USA.gov image (see
fig.1) on the page was so you know the information here is reliable and
credible.
However, when it comes to the logos
aspect of the pages the information is not effective. The downfall is all
the statistics and all the information in the text is information that the CDC
has acquired through their own research. Even though it’s a government agency
you still would expect them to be able to present information from somewhere
else that agrees or conflicts with the information that their posting on the
site. The web page about Adult obesity was
dated. The last time it was updated was August 2013 so it might not be showing the most
current information and the current state of the nation’s health. The same
issue was evident in the visual statistics as well. The most up to date visuals
that illustrate any statistical analysis of obesity rates in adults is from
2010 (see figure 2). This information could not
be used for current information relating to obesity rates as they are today.
(Fig.2.
Percent of Obese Adults in United States from CDC’s page on Adult Obesity)
In
contrast, the page on basic childhood obesity had some good points that the
adult page did not include. They included references and citations form other professionals
on the page rather than just data and statistics from themselves. They make
sure that they outline the risks that go along with childhood obesity and how
it affects their health. The text has the percentages of how likely children
are to developing disorders like high cholesterol in relation to obesity and
that the trend could continue into adulthood. However, once again they had the
same drawback as the previous sections on the site and by showing dated information.
When it comes to the quality, of the information, this website illustrates both
textually and visually, I find the pages have more issues than good points.
On the other hand, The CDC made
very good use of pathos. Emotion can be a very strong strategy to use especially
when it has to do with your life. The CDC made sure they used this when saying that
obesity can cause many diseases; including certain types of cancer and that, these
issues are the biggest cases of death that can be prevented. They do this by to
shock people and strike a chord with them so they really see how devastating
obesity and your diet can be on your health. Whenever our mortality is,
concerned people tend to take notice. The CDC wants people to realize that
these complications can be avoided by making lifestyle changes. They also use
this tactic when it comes to using visuals. The visual map statistic that
includes the dropping in obesity rates with low income children are in blue
cool colors (figure 3). In contrast, the final adult map statistics are in
shades of red and warm colors (figure 2). They utilize strategy because the red
warm colors jump out at you. Red colors are usually associated with alarms and
caution. The CDC wants these colors to set off a mental alarm when you see
them.
(Figure 3 2011 State Prevalence among
Low-Income Children Aged 2 to 4 Years from CDC’s Page on childhood obesity)
Using
emotion was a skill they illustrated in childhood obesity as well. By making sure,
they show the health, risks will have consequences now and later in life. Parents
will take notice of this and realize the food that they feed and have available
to their children will have an effect on the quality of life they will have as
adults. As a parent, you want your child to have as healthy and long of a life
as possible so you would not do anything to stop that. Therefore, they utilize
these intimidating statistics to state children are at risk as well. When they show
these pictures on the childhood obesity page, they use images of children at a
park and engaging in active behaviors, (figure 4, 5) they do this so you sit
and reflect and question yourself. Does my child look like this? Is my child
active enough? Are these the foods I have available to my child? They touch on guilt
because if you answered no to any of those questions then you and your family
might be a part of the rising trend in obesity and health disorders.
(Figure 4. Sport
playing child from CDC’s page on childhood obesity) 
(Figure 5 child at the park)
Therefore, when
it comes to this website as a whole it demonstrate some good aspects and some
areas for improvement. They utilize a
few statistical images but the text is the main focus of their argument. The data
might have been somewhat out of date but the text and visuals complemented each
other very effectively. The pictures amplify
the understanding of the text. While reading statistics and data is helpful. Seeing
color coded images accompanying the data illustrates another aspect of he
argument. Doing this really helps your audience understand how critical this information is Their strongest skill was making use of emotion. They make you
take a serious look at your lifestyle and the consequences of not altering them.
The layout would be more effective if all the information for adults and
children where In two separate areas (see figure 7). Just to get all the facts
concerning adult and childhood obesity you must travel to numerous pages .
In all they have some good aspects but ultimately their approach isn't effective . In order for people to absorb your information and deduce that
you are a reliable source the information
needs to be current.
Work Cited
Centers for Disease Control.
Government Website Badge. Digital image. Centers for Disease Control Adult
Obesity. Centers For Disease Control, Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html>.
---.
“Percent of Obese Adults in United States.”
---. “State
Prevalence among
Low-Income Children Aged 2 to 4.”
---. “Sport playing
child.”
---. ”Child at the Park.”
