Questions for Genre Theory from the Blogosphere

TitleQuestions for Genre Theory from the Blogosphere
Publication TypeBook Chapter
Year of Publication2009
AuthorsMiller, Carolyn R., and Dawn Shepherd
EditorGiltrow, Janet, and Dieter Stein
Book TitleGenres in the Internet: Issues in the Theory of Genre
Pagination263–290
PublisherJohn Benjamins
Place PublishedAmsterdam
Keywordsaesthetic, blog, change, digital, exigence, genre, media, medium, rhetoric, stability
Abstract

The blog illustrates well the constant change that characterizes electronic media. With a rapidity equal to that of their initial adoption, blogs became not a single genre but a multiplicity. To explore the relationship between the centrifugal forces of change and the centripetal tendencies of recurrence and typification, we extend our earlier study of personal blogs with a contrasting study of the kairos, technological affordances, rhetorical features, and exigence for what we call public affairs blogs. At the same time, we explore the relationship between genre and medium, examining genre evolution in the context of changing technological affordances. We conclude that genre and medium must be distinguished and that the aesthetic satisfactions of genre help account for recurrence in an environment of change.