Facebook: Genre and Language Conventions
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at: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1iNGQyZmI1Yzk2ODZiMTQ1
This week’s
reading revolved around the concept of diaries transitioning into the digital
era. Diaries were a way to express your feelings onto a page, and were
generally kept hidden from the public; but now, “internet diaries (also known
as “blogs”) give access to lives in progress to a potential audience of
thousands.” (McNeill, 2011). Blogs are the ‘digital diary’ that is often used
today, and much like a blog, Facebook has been used to express feelings through
the use of the internet. Many people tend to update their status when they have
gone through some life event, no matter how insignificant it may seem. A
Facebook status gives you the power to tell everyone what you’re doing, and how
you feel about it, by using specific genre and language conventions.
As I mentioned
last week, Tuan (1991) states that there are different ways by which language
contributes toward the making of place. The language and genre choices people
make determine how people will interpret what they write on Facebook. In this week’s lecture, Van Luyn (2013) said “All
language use is framed in generic types. Genre is a precondition for
communication, for the creation and interpretation of texts.” There are
different ways to communicate expressions on Facebook. In a status, people
could use emotive language to
gain attention from others (sad status makes people worry about them and want
to comfort them; angry/swearing statuses make people concerned and want to help
them; happy statuses make other people feel happy for them etc). Also, the new
feature on Facebook allows people to add emoticons on their status to show how
they are feeling. This helps confirm their emotions and allows people to react
accordingly. Also, the use of capitals to show frustration or excitement
attracts readers, as does adding pictures either to their statuses or even just
as a post itself. These conventions will attract peer attention, whether it is
positive or negative. This demonstrates the idea of power within Facebook, as
the genre and language choices determine how people perceive you online.
Lomborg, S. (2011)
wrote an article called ‘Social media as communicative genres’. The Abstract of
this article states “This paper
establishes and discusses a conceptual framework for defining social media as
communicative genres, constituted by the interplay between interactive
functionalities configured at the software level and the invocation and
appropriation of various software functionalities to achieve specific purposes
in and through users’ actual communicative practices.” If you’re interested in
reading this article further, go to www.mediekultur.dk for the online
version, or http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/mediekultur/article/download/4012/5034
for the PDF file.
References:
McNeill,
L. (2011). ‘Diary 2.0?: A genre moves
from page to screen.’ In Language and New Media. (C.Rowe & E.L Wyss,
Ed.). Creskill , NJ
Tuan, Y. (1991). Annals
of the Association of American Geographers. Taylor
Van Luyn, A. 2013. BA1002:
Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Week 6 Notes (PowerPoint). Retrieved
from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Article
Link:
Image Credits:
Dear diary e-card
image retrieved at: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1iNGQyZmI1Yzk2ODZiMTQ1
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