The title of the article “Blood on your mobile” is written by Jacqui Schmall from the Helium Online Magazine on April 8, 2008. The type of text used is a printed media based newspaper. The main issue in the article is the mining for coltan. The author’s main contentions are: the destruction of the gorilla habitat and the problems mining for coltan is creating. The tone of language the author uses is informative. The intended target audience are the mobile phone consumers, miners and phone companies. Some of the main persuasive language strategies the author uses are: Connation, Evidence, Attack, Exaggeration, Rhetorical question and Adjectives.

A main contention that the author has is the destruction of the gorilla habitat. This is because coltans are found near gorilla habitats. In order for a miner to properly get the coltan out, they need to clear the land so it is easier for them to remove the coltan from the ground. The process of clearing the gorilla habitat in order for better mining involves the death of many gorillas. This is because with the gorillas having nowhere to sleep, live and eat in, they will wander around for many days in search of a suited habitat for them and for their offsprings. With their habitat remove from the face of the planet, there and their offsprings’ chance of survival goes down bit by bit everyday as they struggle to replace the habitat they were deprived from. People would become desperate in search of food that they start to hunt gorillas as a source of food. They are simply called “bush meat” by many others. The author uses Evidence as a metalanguage strategy in the article to support his contentions. For example, 80% of the world’s Coltan is buried in DRC, not too far away from Kahuzi Biega National Park, where the remnants of the great Mountain Gorillas are making a last stand before becoming extinct. The intended effect of this metalanguage strategy is support the author’s contentions and make them more believable by providing evidence; statistics, facts, expert opinion and graph. In addition to this, the author also uses Rhetorical question as a metalanguage strategy. For example “Would you buy a mobile phone if you knew the coltan is mined by an 8 year old in horrible unsafe conditions?” The intended effect of this metalanguage strategy is to imply that the answer is obvious and also encourages the reader to consider the issue and to accept the author’s answers.

Another main contention that the author has is the problems mining for coltan is creating. This is because if you mine for something in a populated area, it will set off a chain reactions linked to the matter in hand. For example, if the miners clears the land in order to mine more solidly, they will have to clear the land. This will then set off a chain reaction to the mountain gorillas who will leave their designated habitat to somewhere else which will then set off a chain reaction to children mining for coltan which will then set off a chain reaction to people killing each other for the coltan because of its value in price. He author uses Connotation as a metalanguage strategy in the article. For example, “The gorilla habitat has been reduced and are referred to as simply “bush meat”.
The intended effect of this metalanguage strategy is to encourage the audience to accept that there is an issue and to persuade the readers to share a particular view of person or event. Similarly, another metalanguage strategy used to back-up the author’s point of view is Exaggeration. For example, “the militia is out of control. The intended effect of using this strategy is to create dramatic effect and argues with the use of shock tactics; appeals to fear.

In conclusion, this article appeals to feelings of pity and sadness towards the gorillas’ survival in the wild. This is because these powerful but gentle animals has done nothing wrong to us to be deprived of their home. They have coexist with us humans for a long time without causing any uprise. So I see of no reason to do that to them. However, there are actions that actions that consumers can take. For example, mobile phone consumers could turn in their old phones in return for a new one by refurbishing and recycling older phone models for a new one and that way, less coltan is needed to be mined and less blood will be shed in the process of it. The tone of the article was gentle but fierce. I agree with the author’s contentions because every living thing has deserves to live in a lifestyle they wish to live in peacefully where ever that may be. The most effective metalanguage strategies used in the article were Rhetorical question, Evidence, Exaggeration and Connotation.