Mentor Text Analysis-Christi Chan

In the mentor text “The Satirical Resurgence of Reefer Madness”, it hooks the audience by the music and the way the narrator was narrating.  She uses storytelling about this American girl to humor her audience and these researching clips . The music was like a jazz genre in the beginning and then used this accent to engage her audience. She also used voice-over to tell viewers information. The text incorporates research by referring to the history of alcohol consumption and also drugs like marijuana being prohibited and how people dealt with it. She uses vintage clips and images of gangster organizations, bars, and people. It also stated after the prohibition, the benefits from it and how there was anti-marijuana propaganda. She mentions this film called “Reefer Madness.” It was used to scare people from marijuana. Yhara’s video started by joking about how silly Reefer Madness is. She then explains it was made to scare people about marijuana. Next, she talks about how people started laughing at it and treating it as a cult classic. Finally, she connects the film to today’s issues and talks about its lasting impact as a joke. The video is 26 minutes long and the audience she was trying to reach was younger viewers because of the humor but mostly everyone as well. The video essay comes to an end by showing how Reefer Madness went from being serious anti-marijuana propaganda to a funny joke.  Her message reflects how people’s views on marijuana have shifted over time and one of the reasons was the film and how the media can shape what we believe. This mentor text inspired me to make my project entertaining with a funny intro. I would definitely do a skit. I would avoid the movie references maybe. Other than that, everything she did is something I would emulate such as put visuals and do voice-overs, music and an entertaining intro.