Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

Elsevier e-Journal at the University of Arizona Library.  02/26/16

In this blog entry, I will be analyzing the journal entry that I found from the last blog post.  This journal publication was found in Elsevier, the Public Health Journal.  

1. Who are the authors/speakers published in this specific issue of the academic journal you've selected? How many different authors are published here? What do you know - or can you find out - about these people? How are the authors/speakers portrayed in the journal issue? Cite specific details from the journal issue in your answers.

     The authors are S. Heinrich, F. Laporte Uribe, M. Roes, W. Hoffman, J.R. Thyrian, K. Wolf-Ostermann, and B. Holle.  So there are a total of 8 authors for this journal essay.  Dr. Stefan Heinrich is a professor in Germany of Numerical Analysis, Uribe is a PhD in New Zealand, W Hoffman is an epidemiology and pediatrics expert.  Since there are so many contributors to this journal entry, I don't have the time to research every single one of them, however, I would assume that they are all experts in their field, otherwise, they would not have gotten the grant proposal accepted.  These authors are portrayed in the journal issue just as the authors and then are not really talked about throughout the rest of the essay.  The focus of this research essay is on the dementia patients, not the authors.  

2.  Who is the intended audience for this particular journal issue? How can you tell? Are there any secondary audiences included here? Cite specific details from the journal issue in your answers. 

      The intended audience for this particular journal issue are the other researches and experts in the field of public health who focus on dementia in the elderly.  The secondary audiences might be the caregivers of the dementia patients because the research was done on how the communication between the caregivers and the clients could be improved.  I can tell that the intended audience is for professionals in this field because the experts are the ones who understand the lingo that is mentioned throughout the entry and they will be able to do something with that information.  In the first paragraph of the article, it says, "Around the world, family caregivers play the most important role in supporting people with dementia."  

3. What is the context surrounding this particular journal issue? How does this affect the content of the journal? (See the bulleted questions on Student's Guide page 180 for specific questions about context). Cite specific details from the journal issue in your answers. 

• Date: August 3rd, 2015
• Medium: Research Analysis/Essay for a the Elsevier Journal of Public Health.
• Events: The German Ministry of Health picked the 13 Dementia Care Nurses that would be interviewed for this research project.  The German Ministry of health were able to choose these thirteen specific DCNs because they were the company that was funding the research.   
• Social Movements: "In 2012, approximately 24.3 million people were affected by dementia worldwide.  This number is expected to double every 20 years" is what the introduction of the research paper says.  It is because of this extreme rise of dementia in the elderly that this research had to be conducted. 
• Cultural Backgrounds: Since the research was done in Germany, technically the evidence would relate to only Germans.  However, "this situation applies to many countries worldwide" according to the research analysis. 
• Surroundings: This was published in Germany and the research was done in Germany as I said in the section above. 
• Other Texts: Any text that is scientifically proven that is about the importance of dementia among the elderly and their relationship with their at-home nurses.  

4. What is the overall message of the journal issue? How did you decide this? Cite specific details from the journal issue in your answers. 

    The overall message of the journal issue is that "family caregivers play the most important role in supporting people with dementia (PwD) at home" and it is extremely important that the relationship between the caregiver and the patient is strong.  This was presented to me as one of the main points that was reiterated throughout the introduction of the journal issue.  

5. What purpose is the journal issue trying to achieve? Cite specific details from the journal issue in your answers. 

     The purpose of this journal issue is to make aware to people that the "existing dementia support services are often not efficiently linked with different stakeholders in the come-care setting".  This journal entry is supposed to let the companies of dementia caregivers to inform PwD better about the options they have for at-home caregiving.