Week Five: Topic Refinement by Daniella Sousa

This pitch assignment was very useful in refining my topic because my initial topic was very broad. My first research question was “how are advertisers able to manipulate us into buying their products?”, but after this assignment I realized that my question wasn’t specific enough for a 15 minute podcast show. I formulated my research question to be more specific by using a specific example in order to show how advertisers manipulate. After continuous research and looking at ads, I thought the most interesting ads were the tobacco ads from the 50s. I was interested in how different the ads are that we see today, than how the ads use to be. This made me start to think what, in today’s society, will we look back on in the future and see that is so ridiculous and manipulative? I then finalized my question to be: “how were advertisers able to manipulate society in the 50s in order to widely sell tobacco, regardless of its effects? How can we relate this to advertisements we see today?” I found my topic was much more interesting and relatable once I found a specific example to focus on.

                I think the pitch assignment is a very useful pre-writing exercise because it helps you to really think about your topic. You must thoroughly think about your audience (which is something we don’t usually do), think about why our topic is important and think about the broader issue it covers. When you act as if you are selling your work to be broadcasted, you spend a lot more time refining your topic and making sure that it is as concise and interesting as can be.