Analyzing My Genre

You know those videos shared on Facebook that are titled “Are you killing your children?” and the post is captioned with “MUST READ!” and you find out the video is about how new studies suggest eating Fruit Loops could increase your chances of having cancer?  This is basically my genre, with maybe a little less hysteria.

Appelo, Jurgen. "YouTube icon" 08/2012
via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic.

Here are some examples:

·         Example 1

·         Example 2

·         Example 3

·         Example 4

·         Example 5

Social Context

The short videos that are shared on Facebook can come from a wide range of websites.  YouTube is popular, but often these videos are shared from news sites and Facebook groups.  My platform will be the Huffington Post.  The subject can have a wide range of content and subject, but most focus on explaining current events or new studies.

News casters and news companies use these videos often to explain a situation or report on the new studies and opinions that affect people’s daily lives.  The videos on the Huffington Post are found within or at the end of an article.  It serves to further the information presented in the article and provide visuals.  It may also provide information on a slightly different idea that is related to the topic of the article.

Rhetorical Patterns of the Genre

The information is not meant to repeat what has just been said, but give a further extension of the information.  It includes both facts and opinions, but excludes strong biases.  The videos sometimes include experts or simply new casters reporting the ideas and research of others. 

Since the videos are found on the tech page of the Huffington Post, many of them rely heavily on logos and the presentation of facts.  However, many of the videos are added to articles to bring the news to a personal level or apply it to everyday life.  This often leads to a use of pathos.  Through bringing on experts to talk, they are also sometimes using ethos.

The videos often open with an introduction that puts the video on a personal level.  They quickly describe the current situation and then go into explaining the opinions or applications of the facts.  The speakers are clear and concise.  They use short to medium sentences to keep the knowledge easy to comprehend since the listener cannot go back and “reread” a sentence.  The speakers might also start and/or end with a question.

The videos are meant to reach a large group of people so they do not use specific jargon or slang.  The tone is always friendly and inviting.  When the audience can see the speaker, the speaker cannot usually get away with be harsh or aggressive as they can in writing.  The word choice is simple but specific, as they have only so much time to state their idea.

Analysis

The genre tries to include the general public but does not reach out to experts, scientists, etc.  The genre encourages writers to take on the “friendly neighbor with good advice” role.  This encourages the audience not to feel inferior but intrigued. 

When speakers use videos and social media, the audience can connect better.  A speaker that publishes in a scientific journal may seem very distant compared to a speaker that posts to Facebook.  These videos value visual aids and clips of daily life.  They value ideas that get to point quickly and are simple enough for the general public to understand.


Reflection:

Austin's post discussed his genre of an opinionated news article.  It was extremely different from my genre as it is very structured in the visual look of it.  It showed me that I really need to take advantage of the visual appeal of my video.  Stef's genre is very similar to mine.  After reading her post, I realized some of the traps I could fall into in my own genre.  I will have to be careful not to just list off a bunch of facts and opinions,  I need to be building an argument and supporting reasons and rhetoric.  Although this is basic, it will be easy to end up with no real argument.