The given comparative analysis will focus on the topic of depression described by two websites. The first one is Healthline, intended to inform and educate the general public, whereas the second website is Care Cloud, written for an audience of clinicians and professional psychologists. In the case of Healthline, the assumption is that the readers do not have any form of background knowledge. However, for the Care Cloud, the audience needs to be familiar with the coding system and the Fifth Edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD) (Care Cloud, n.d.). Both websites have no specific indications to appeal to or target a reader’s gender, cultural background, or age, but education level and occupational differences exist. For example, on the one hand, the Healthline website does not expect its audience to have an educational background in psychology or medicine, which extends to the occupation as well. On the other hand, the Care Cloud website assumes that the reader knows the coding for mental health diseases, such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
The secondary audience for Healthline includes any person interested in learning about depression, whereas the primary audience is most likely comprised of people experiencing some symptoms of depression and suspecting that they might have it. In other words, any general public member might use the information found on Healthline without having prior knowledge or training to understand the mental disorder. However, the primary audience for the Care Cloud website is professional psychologists, and the secondary audience is comprised of psychology students and clinicians working in related fields. The general audience website uses the persuasive strategy of logos with some elements of pathos, which means logic, reason, as well as emotion as sources of appeal. There is a noticeable effort to connect with the audience through language and organization of the information, which are meant to be conveniently and comprehensively read. In the case of Care Cloud, the language is based on ethos and logos only since the appeal to authority comes from the World Health Organization (WHO). There is no effort to connect with the audience since the language is direct, concise, and informational.
The Healthline website does not use any form of technical language, where even symptoms are elaborated in understandable terms and words. In addition, no specific jargon is utilized throughout the page. When it comes to Care Cloud, the text heavily relies on technical terms and jargon, such as ICD, major depressive disorder (MDD), F33.1, recurrent onset, and others. For example, F33.1 is a code known among psychologists to code major depressive disorder as a disease (Care Cloud, n.d.). Both websites rely on lists to organize information, but the parts comprised of texts on Healthline use a combination of short and medium-length sentences. The average sentence length for the webpage is between 4 to 15 words, such as a sentence stating: “sad and upsetting events happen to everyone” (Higuera, 2021, para. 9). However, Cloud Care uses longer sentences in general, but short sentences are additionally present due to using of jargon to make the statement concise. An example sentence states: “This medical classification list is generated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and is used to help healthcare providers identify and code health conditions” (Care Cloud, n.d., para. 4). Thus, the average sentence length for the Cloud Care is between 16 to 30 words.
In the case of the average paragraph length, both websites have around two sentences for each paragraph. There is no significant difference between the given metrics. It means that both websites want to make the texts more readable, including the general audience as well as the professional ones. Another important similarity between the websites is that they strictly utilize formal styles of communication since their goals are to inform and educate their respective audiences. The Healthline website contains Google Ads as banners, which means that it has commercial purposes and views the audience as customers for its advertisers. In other words, the audience is comprised of the general public, which translates to higher website traffic and potential capitalization on the user base as source income. Cloud Care website does not have any form of advertisements, which tells that the audience is not perceived as customers but rather as professionals referring to Cloud Care as a source of technical knowledge.
The Healthline website uses videos, illustrations, and images to enhance the readers’ experience. The images include a graphical depiction of people coping with or suffering from depression. The situation is different with Cloud Care, which only uses one image to inform the audience about the coding framework of ICD-10. Therefore, both websites rely on the persuasive strategy of logos and adhere to the formal style of communication since depression is a serious mental health disorder. However, it is important to note that key differences can be observed in terms of language, jargon use, sentence length, and advertising.
References
Care Cloud. (n.d.). ICD-10 code F33.1. Web.
Higuera, V. (2021). Everything you need to know about depression (major depressive disorder).Healthline. Web.