Genres in the Internet

The Romanian “Latchkey Generation” writes back: Memory genres of post-communism on Facebook

“…Before going into the analysis of the case studies, a caveat about how genre is used in this article is needed. Digital media genres have been attracting scholarly attention, but there are still a host of problematic issues concerning the special relationship between medium, software, and genre which are far from being resolved (Askehave and Nielsen, 2005; Crowston, 2010; Dillon and Gushrowski, 2000; Eichhorn, 2008; Giltrow and Dieter, 2009; Lomborg, 2011; Mehler et al, 2010; Miller and Shepherd, 2004, etc.). A proper discussion of the many, at times conflicting, viewpoints on how to theorize digital genres falls outside the scope of this article.…”

Rhetorical Genres in Code

“…Rhetorical genre studies have been concerned with the relationship between genres, their text, context, and the role of new media for decades (see, e.g., Yates & Orlikowski’s 1992 study of medial change and the emergence of electronic mail). A considerable amount of genre research concerning the role of digital technologies has focused on discourse genres such as the blog (see, e.g., Giltrow & Stein, 2009; Herring, Scheidt, Bonus, & Wright, 2004; Miller & Shepherd, 2004, 2009). Others worked to integrate genre approaches with systems-oriented approaches to study digital ecologies, including activity theory (Spinuzzi, 2003a; 2003b; 2013) and actor-network theory (Kelly & Maddalena, 2015; 2016; Read, 2016).…”

Hypertext configurations: Genres in networked digital media

“…In the literature, hypertext systems have been described as a more or less new genre emerging out of existing genres, breaking various limitations that were formerly considered to be constitutive of textual genres (Barnet, ; Bolter, ; Bolter & Grusin, ; Giltrow & Stein, ). Thus, linearity is often replaced with nonlinearity or multilinearity (Landow, ).…”

“…The question is whether these configurations should be considered as new genres or as additional features added to the repertoire of functionalities in existing genres. In contemporary functionalist genre theory (Askehave & Nielsen, 2005;Askehave & Swales, 2001;Giltrow & Stein, 2009;Swales, 2009), genres are described as constituted by purpose, functionalities, and narrative. Yates, Orlikowski, and Rennecker (1997), who are concerned with organizational practices, place particular focus on "the socially recognized purpose" and "common characteristics of form" (p. 1).…”

“…These are functional theories but they are in accordance with cultural historical activity theory (Andersen, 2015;Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010;Bazerman, Bonini, & Figueiredo, 2009) insofar as both traditions have shifted away from identifying the genre by looking at the similarities "between documents" to examine social action seen as "typified rhetorical JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-April 2017 DOI: 10.1002/asi actions based in recurrent situations" (Russel & Fischer, 2009, p. 163 [see also Miller, 1984]). In the literature, hypertext systems have been described as a more or less new genre emerging out of existing genres, breaking various limitations that were formerly considered to be constitutive of textual genres (Barnet, 2013;Bolter, 1991;Bolter & Grusin, 1999;Giltrow & Stein, 2009). Thus, linearity is often replaced with nonlinearity or multilinearity (Landow, 1992).…”