Image from facebook.com

I will continue analyzing the Bridge Children’s Academy’s Facebook page in this post. I will focus on the Risk Rhetoric demonstrated throughout their site. Their site can be found at this link: https://www.facebook.com/bridgechildrensacademy/

1) The four constrains associated with risk rhetoric are “diverse risk frames, the complexity of risk topics, the emotionally laden nature of risk topics, and the status difference between organizations and audiences” (Hoffman and Ford 171).  The most common constraint associated with daycares is emotionally laden nature of risk topics. Most parents are typically nervous to leave their children with strangers. They might be concerned that the children will not be fully taken care of, fed, cleaned, and loved as well as they might be capable of doing

2) The audiences include parents who know their children very well, so in this instance, they are experts about their children. However, many parents have not taken professional classes on the development of children, which also makes them nonexperts. Many parents appear to be very happy with seeing images of their children have a good time as preschool.

3) The organization is aware of the risk of emotionally laden nature of risk topics and tries to counteract it on their facebook page. They do so by posting images of happy and healthy children in fun and educational activities.

4)  The main appeal focused on the facebook page of The Bridge Children’s Academy, is pathos. Because facebook does not offer large amounts of texts, the organization showcases images of the children. By showing smiling children, audiences are encouraged to feel that their children are happy and safe.

5) The organization portrays themselves as qualified to take care of the children because they acknowledge the great job their staff is doing, and they indicate that when making decisions about closings and delays, they turn to expert meteorologists and examine the radar.

6) The strategy that accomplishes audience invitation is Community Participation. The organization’s site allows all audiences to participate in their posts. They can review the Academy and also comment/ask questions on each post.

7) The organization does not specify what might happen if a child is not taken care of. Instead, the organization prioritizes that their child will be taken care of.

Image from facebook.com

For this post I will continue evaluating the Bridge Children’s Academy Facebook page. The page can be found at this link: https://www.facebook.com/bridgechildrensacademy/

1. Exigencies: A few challenges in the preschool’s rhetorical situation might be the controversies of having overweight teachers, the programs are not educational, and that some teachers may not be as loving towards children. The Bridge Children’s Academy has to oppose these common misconceptions are show their organization as educational, loving, and healthy. Their Facebook page successfully showcasing this by taking the opportunity to share images of teachers interacting with the children in playful and educational activities. For example, there are images of teachers playing with the children outside in a giant water slide, but there are also educational and healthy activities where the children are making applesauce.
2. Audiences: The organization targets their functional audience of the currant parents. If the organization were using the website to attract new families than they would have information pertaining to prices and programs. Instead, it currently has a laid back feel and gives updates on what the children are doing. This is important to currant families because they are interested in what their children are doing.
3. Constraints and Assets: The organization is constrained by their Facebook page. The Facebook page gives limited information and it is not ideal to scroll throughout the page in hopes of maybe find this information. It would be much easier for the organization to give information to prospective parents, if they had a website. I do not think time is a constraint for this organization unless a major issue arises that causes families to either not want to join the daycare, or want to leave. Any major news can either be a constrain or an asset to the organization. If the daycare is closing early one night, then families will not be happy and the organization will have to know how to handle the situation. However, if the preschool decides to give all the children new book bags then the parents will be thrilled. Many people have prior opinions about preschools, some believe that the children will be mistreated and ignored. The organization has to showcase their programs and teachers positively. They do this in the image at the top of the teacher and students making applesauce. The teacher is smiling which gives off a friendly appeal. Also, the children are surrounding her so they must like her.

Issues:

1. A particular issue the organization commented on was the impending weather. The organization portrays itself as taking cautionary measures to insure the children are safe, and that they are waiting for officials to notify them when it is safe to return to normal activities.
2. Parents are notified of changes and they can comment on the posts. The organization does not openly ask for feedback. However, when a parent made a suggestion concerning their “remind” app, the organization agreed. So audiences have a reasonable opportunity to influence the process.
3. Another issue the organization mentioned was the July 2018 Virginia outbreak of hand foot and mouth. The Bridge Children’s Academy shared an article concerning the disease, but the organization did not make any statements. When asked by a parent, the organization stated that they have not had any cases. This could have been stated before hand though. Also, they do not give any tips on how to avoid getting the disease or what they are doing to prevent it.
4. I think the organization is open about their issues pertaining to closings and phone issues. They are aware that parents might not like the information but they make it clear that these decisions are what is best for the children, parents and staff.

Image by facebook.com

https://www.facebook.com/bridgechildrensacademy/

1. The company’s website that I will be analyzing is The Bridge Children’s Academy Facebook page. Their page uses different forms of identity strategies to appeal to viewers and to be informative.

a) Association strategies: The page showcases association strategies in a few examples; the heading of the webpage is an image of children. This implies that the organization is associating themselves with children. Also, their logo is a bridge symbolizing their name and their association with its co-partner, The Bridge Church and their relationship with religion. Behind the logo is another image of children which strengthens their association to kids.

b) Differentiation Strategies: Bridge Children’s Academy portrays differentiation strategies on their Facebook page by signifying their reviews two times. This shows that they take pride in their high rated reviews and that they are better than other preschools.

c) Branding strategies in the rhetoric: The branding strategies used on this page are the logo, the reviews of customers, and pictures of the children. The logo is colorful and aesthetically pleasing which catches the attention to audiences. The high customer reviews can be used as branding because potential and currant customers will be impressed. Finally, the pictures of the children act as branding because it shows that they are having fun and learning.

d) In what ways do these strategies help focus on what is central and enduring about the organization? These strategies help focus on the organizations priority of the importance of happy, healthy, and educated children by showcasing images of happy children, educational activities, their religious relationship.

e) Channels of delivery: Ideally, organizations have multiple channels of delivery so that many different audiences will see the advertisements, instead of only having one for of delivery and reaching only one group of audiences. The Bridge Children’s Academy, however, only uses their Facebook page to publicize their organization. This limits their audience because they are only reaching Facebook-using adults. And the web page will only appear if that parents “friend” either likes or shares a post about the organization. The chances of one accidentally finding the web page are very slim.

f) In what ways might the rhetoric use an already-existing identity to advance the goals of the organization? The Bridge Children’s Academy is using an already existing identity to advance their goals. They are an extension of the popular Bridge Church located in Powhatan, Va. By using the same name and logo as the church they are expressing both of their connections with religion and God. Since the church was already well-known, many of their members also joined the preschool, which prevented the organization from having to brand and advertise much.

2. What are the key elements of the rhetorical situation? The rhetorical situation is that many people see preschools as babysitting or people are not comfortable with leaving their child with strangers. The Bridge Children’s Academy must fight these stereotypes and portray the organization as professional, educational, and loving to all children.

a) Identity-building rhetoric and Identity maintenance rhetoric: To successfully portray the Bridge Children’s Academy as holding these qualities they must first implement identity-building rhetoric and then maintain them. You must first showcase these qualities to bring in new parents/customers, but you also must maintain it so that parents do not leave.

b) Audiences: By showing reviews the organization is targeting new parents/customers in an attempt to portray themselves as credible. The images of the children and teachers targets both prospective customers and currant ones.

c) Constraints: The constraints that the organization must face are the stereotypes that many parents may have on preschools, like: not being educational, professional, or loving towards the children. The Bridge Children’s Academy must prove that they contain these qualities.