Genre Analysis
Comp 2
Remixing, Fan Adaptations, and Digital Writing Space
Investigations of Social Media & Blogging as Writing Genres
What does a fandom/community post about? How does this expand our understanding of genre?
What do these concepts mean? Open Amicucci's article to the following pages (19-20) and summarize these terms within a section of your Genre Notetaking sheet. What would examples of these look like on social media about your essay topics? What would sample posts be about? (Can you find posts on your topic?)
#Genre Analysis
Social Media and Writing (Wordtune)
How does advice on social media posting, connect to writing techniques and what Amicucci discusses in her article?
Amicucci (On Social Media Writing)
- "Riffing" off other texts... How does this work?
- Gearing your content to specific audiences... This happens by... What do users want to interact with?
- Shaping your "ethos" on a social media platform...?
- Stylistic choices for visual rhetoric include...
- How does "intertextuality" help you understand social media as a writing genre? - What is borrowed directly from other content?
- How does "interdiscursivity" help you understand social media as a writing genre? - Why do people create posts the way they do?
The Do's and Don'ts of effective Social media usage
# Genre Analysis
# Genres
Social Media & Blog Activity
Individually, decide which activity connected to either Amiccuci (social media) or Reid (blogs) you want to focus on for today as you reference content or discuss your own examples of how you would create social media or blog spaces to share information on your content!
Later, we will form groups to see what strategies & approaches we took in our responses.
# Genres
Wrap-Up Discussion with Posts
- Which reading did you focus on in your post? What strategies/tips were important to you?
- What would be features or characteristics of your social media posts?
- How would you use a blog-space to show your interest in a game, influencer, or topic of interest?
How can social media and blogs connect to your Twin Essay Topics?
Blogging Genre Ideas & Content
-
Identify a Blog's Features
- How the community prioritizes their content
- How users navigate to find information they are looking for
- Use of Links, Hashtags, Emojis, additional social media content
- Use of Organization Brands or marketing
-
Identify a Blog's Content Strategy
- Does it engage in digital storytelling about a community? How?
- Does it promote or advertise community values or services? How?
- When a user visits, what content is most important?
- In terms of genre, will the blog engage in: social action, promote upcoming events, highlight successes/credentials, circulate important tech/media awareness among the community?
- Does the Blog link to additional content important to a group?
# Genre Analysis
Is my blog content networked to my social media?
Like all genres, each one includes technical features and components - let's take a look at the Blog...
Types of Blogging Genres on Media Culture Examples...
In-Class: Blogging Space Interaction
Select ONE of the sample blogs provided in Canvas reflect on answering Reid's question about the content:
1. Who is the audience and what should they get out of the blog's message?
2. What do you think the goal or need for this blog might be for a specific community, fandom, or topic?
3. What helps make the blog-site effective or convincing? Are there other connections to social media or other content?
Post Discussion and Blog/Site Hunt
- Report back to your group about what you focused on within your given sample:
- Did you identify the purpose of the blog site?
- What were interesting features of the blog?
- What community is most impacted by the blog?
- What style helps hook the viewer in?
- What helps establish the blogger/blog site's identity?
Can you find a blog example to support your research?
-Search for a blog site to support Twin Essay #1 Topic
-Search for a blog site to support Twin Essay #2 Topic
-What could you learn from a social media post?
Add any new URL links or content to your Genre Note-Taking Sheet!
# PRESENTING CODE
Genre Intersections
How do video games treat concepts of
history, geographical locations, and
environments?
From Lawler & Smith Ch. 12 - "Our study finds that using the creation and exploration of video games in history classes has proven an effective tool when applied to historical methods, study of history, and applying technology and computation skills to the classroom" (173).
Twine Case Study: History study in the classroom.
# PRESENTING CODE
Genre Intersections
How do video games treat concepts of history, geographical locations, and environments?
www.criticalplay.org
From Vlachos Ch. 13 - "I came to the conclusion that there are two particular digital game genres that very well captures the heart of how historians perceive and write environmental history - the notions of landscape and ecosystem, within first person survival video games and walking simulators" (190)
From Lawler and Smith Chapter 12
{Final World 10 Objectives}
- A.I. Friday Forum #10 - Social Media & Blog-related studies and examples: What interesting new genre examples could you find today?
- Genre Note-taking Sheet Check-In with Sources
- What sources about genres/remixes, blogs, or social media could you use in your writing? Show me your work in this document for credit today!
Brainstorm (3-5 mintues) Use a WORD DOC for later work in class.
You may have certain ideas in mind when you hear the word "genre" and what that means in terms of features, characteristics, and rules of that genre.
-What is your personal experience and understanding of a genre? Do you participate or contribute more with one type over another?
-What features make a genre stand out for an audience or group?
- What makes a genre unique or popular among a specific group?
- How can you identify characteristics of a genre?
Dr. Smothers' Interesting Genre/Remix Example:
What features and concepts of Genre are different moving from one example to the next? Is the audience the same or different? Why?
Genre & Remix: Facts and Ideas
Genres can...
- Be a form/medium of writing...
- Be a form/medium of communication...
- Serve the rhetorical needs of the group...
- Respond to situations of the writer...
- Have action-oriented goals, they accomplish tasks...
1.
2.
Genres have...
- Rules the community follow. They are...
-Expectations how and what they should communicate... They are...
- Features that determine how they work... They are...
- A specific visual aesthetic... They must look like...
3.
For a Fandom, Researching Genres will...
- SHOW the communication methods of the group.
- DEMONSTRATE important aspects of information sharing, what content is valued.
- CIRCULATE additional ideas the group should be aware of.
- PROMOTE group ideas and goals.
-RECRUIT new members
# Genre/Remix
# Genre Analysis
Exploring Genre/Remix Reading Questions
ISKO's Genre Webpage
- What are genres? Who has written about them? Where did they get their start? How do they apply to digital and electronic content?
Kyle Stedman's "Remix Literacy & Fan Compositions"
- What is a "remix"? What are the 7 skills of a remix literate composer?
Bronwyn Williams "The World on your Screen: New Media, Remix, and the politics of cross-cultural contact"
- What is Mass Popular Culture? What does globalization mean for fans of popular culture?
In-Class Week 9: Genre/Remix Concepts
STEP 1. Find and select a direct quote/paraphrase or summary that shows a deeper understanding of genre or remix that helps an audience better understand the content's purpose and message. What's an interesting genre example your article gives? Are you familiar with this genre and if not, what may be features of the genre you would need to know about? What could be other connections to this genre?
STEP 2: FIND YOUR OWN GENRE/REMIX example online! Individually, add an interesting example of genre you want to share based on browsing online and connecting to your interests. Why did you select the example of genre you did? What are its features? Be sure to have a URL site in mind for describing your genre.
Next class session we will use your URL and we will practice discussing factors that fans/audiences use to identify the genre.
# Visual Genres
How do visuals impact genres?
Visual rhetoric/communication within genres can:
- Impact audience actions
- Influence decision-making by viewers
- Help others understand a concept
- Organize and design our ideas and writing more effectively
- Show practical and functional needs of the community
- Provide interpretations of your writing.
Images are for:
- First-hand accounts
- Historical moments
- Showing Data
- Contexts (situation)
- Simplify a concept
- Connecting with the audience/reader
- Designing/influencing brands
Dr. Smothers' Genre Highlights from World 9 Readings:
- From ISKO: "In relation to genre as social action, scholars sometimes use metaphors to explore the role of genre," and specifically the word "ceremony" is used to show how any genre takes place within a larger conversation about a topic or issue important to the group; these ceremonies are when genres cause action, need for support, links to hashtags, connect to a person's story, and result in meaning-making across the group (ISKO, 5.0)
- From Stedman: "Online communities also remind us of how much our publicly created identities revolve around the question of what we like - the music, the shows, the books that we can't get enough of, that we love so much that we even take the time to create our own stories so that we can hear more" (p.120)
Dr. Smothers' Genre Highlights from World 9 Readings:
- From Williams: "James Gee has noted that online communities have facilitated the growth of 'affinity spaces' where individuals are brought together not by identity or location but by their shared interests in popular culture or other common interests. As Gee has pointed out, online technologies have created virtual affinity spaces for an almost inconceivably wide range of interests" (Gee, 2004 as cited in Williams, p.28)
How does an understanding of Genres and Remixes change or confirm which of Gee's Learning Principles are most important for us to connect to our writing/research? - Go to our Canvas Reflection on Gee's Learning Principles.
# Genre Analysis
Navigating our understanding of Genres...
Dr. Smothers' Interesting Genre Examples:
What features and concepts of Genre are different moving from one example to the next? Is the audience the same or different? Why?
Final World 9 Objectives
A.I. Friday Forum #9 - On Genre/Remix Examples
- What's something more I can learn about genre?
- How does A.I. back up ideas from our readings this week?
- Can I find some useful and interesting sources about genres or remixes?
- What kind of genre or remix do I want to explore further?
How do cites like Twine, Itch.Io, and the Interactive Fiction Database change how we look at genres?
Return to James Paul Gee's Learning Principles Reflection
Download the Genre Note-Taking Sheet for use next week!
Genre Site Interactions
- Find your colored groups URL samples
of a genre/remix.
- Leave a reply to each of your group members that addresses some of the following:
- Fandom (affinity group) questions
- Purpose and intent of the genre/remix
- Literacy skills to interpret the content
- Goals or outcomes of genre/remix (reviews, criticisms,)
- Research potential of this genre/remix
- A connection to one of the past Twin essays
Research Buddies
-
Skim through your classmate's ideas:
- What do you like that they have in their current project?
- Where do you see a place they could EXPAND on?
- Is there a place where GENRE could come more into the conversation? (Textual, Narrative, Digital genres?)
- I like what you are doing with X.... will you use a specific genre for inspiration?
- Feedback on Primary research, visual evidence, or secondary sources - where might additional content help your conversation or expand it to include content on genre?
- Do you have a suggestion on how their thesis statement could incorporate the idea of Genre more?
- If you investigate a new genre, WHY? Where will it go within your project?
- Upload a copy of your Genre Note-Taking Document (from Week 9)
