Where Do Genres Come From? Week 3, Session 1 New Digital Genres Carolyn R. Miller

August 12, Class schedule revision Week IV: New Genres in Teaching and Learning Monday, August 6 at 2:30 pm Plagiarism and the internet, with Prof. Bazerman Bazerman, "Paying the Rent: Languaging Particularity and Novelty." Tuesday, August 7, regular time and place Brooks, "Reading, Writing, and Teaching Creative Hypertext." Palmquist, "Writing in Emerging Genres.”

August 12, Today’s agenda Shepherd & Watters: cybergenres Yates et al.: genres in electronic communication Giddens and structuration Some comparisons Break Reports (how many?)

Cybergenres extant novel replicatedvariantemergentspontaneous Shepherd & Watters, “The Evolution of Cybergenres”

Cybergenres extant novel replicatedvariantemergentspontaneous

Cybergenres extant novel replicatedvariantemergentspontaneous two different processes

Questions Non-digital genres are characterized by, digital genres by. Why do non-digital genres not have functionality?

Questions Novel cybergenres “have no real counterpart in another medium.” Do they have antecedents? If a genre is “spontaneous” does that mean it has no antecedents? Can a “replicated” genre also be spontaneous? or a “variant” or “emergent” genre?

Cybergenres extant novel replicatedvariantemergentindigenous two different sources

Yates, Orlikowski, & Okamura labsABC teamsSG1SG2SG3SG4SYSDPS newsgroups (all) announce, reports, headlines, release, guide, lookfor, etc. (local) SG1, SG2, etc. genresall: 7 newsgroup -based genres SG4: 4 genres SYS: 5 genres

Yates, Orlikowski, & Okamura labsABC teamsSG1SG2SG3SG4SYSDPS newsgroups (all) announce, reports, headlines, release, guide, lookfor, etc. (local) SG1, SG2, etc. genresall: 7 newsgroup -based genres SG4: 4 genres SYS: 5 genres

Yates, Orlikowski, & Okamura labsABC teamsSG1SG2SG3SG4SYSDPS newsgroups (all) announce, reports, headlines, release, guide, lookfor, etc. (local) SG1, SG2, etc. genresall: 7 newsgroup -based genres SG4: 4 genres SYS: 5 genres

Explicit and implicit structuring Explicit structuring  intervention by mediators  deliberate shaping of genre norms for community  replication, modification, innovation Implicit structuring  tacit enactment  migration, variation

Genre structuring: influences Community’s existing genre repertoire Tasks at hand Users’ prior experiences Role and action of mediators Context and history of community Affordances of media in use

August 12, Anthony Giddens 1938– British sociologist Central Problems in Social Theory, 1979 The Constitution of Society, 1984 Consequences of Modernity,

August 12, Giddens: basic concepts Structure: Rules and resources, organized as properties of social systems. Structure exists only as “structural properties.” System: Reproduced relations between actors or collectivities, organized as regular social practices. Structuration: Conditions governing the continuity of transformation of structures, and therefore the reproduction of systems. Central Problems, p. 66

August 12, Giddens: structuration structuration rules resources rules resources

August 12, Giddens: duality of structure structure agencysystem resource outcome concreteness of action abstractness of institutions self other(s)

August 12, Giddens: structuration Possibility of change is inherent in every circumstance of social reproduction (210). Continuity of social conduct assured through social reproduction (duality of structure). Routine action is strongly saturated by the “taken-for- granted,” that which does not require a rationalization or account (218).

August 12, Genre and structuration Genre mediates between macrostructures and micropractices (S&S, p. 270) “The Cultural Basis of Genre” (Miller, 1994): culture (or society) is constituted and reproduced (in part) in and through the instantiation, reproduction, and modification of genres

Questions for Yates et al. What is the basis for identifying genres—in project-wide newsgroups? in local newsgroups? How might the method of identification affect the results? If the “memo” genre overlaps with “genres having more specific purposes,” is it a really a genre?

Comparison Schryer & Spoel Shepherd & Watters Yates et al.

Comparison Schryer & Spoel Shepherd & Watters Yates et al. regulatedreplicated variant emergent explicitly structured regularizedspontaneousimplicitly structured

Cybergenres extant novel replicatedvariantemergentspontaneous explicit structuring implicit structuring regulated genres regularized genres

August 12, 2015 Assignment for Thursday Reading Cosio & Dyson, “Identifying Graphic Conventions …” Miller & Shepherd, “Blogging as Social Action”

August 12, 2015 Assignment for Thursday Brief paper (500–700 words) In one brief paragraph describe a digital genre (exigence, audience, constraints). Then in one paragraph each use two of these frameworks to analyze it: regulated or regularized, extant or new, explicit or implicit structuring. In a final paragraph, decide which framework is most useful for this purpose.

Reports What issues do the digital media raise for the use and study of genres?