Connecting Genres and Languages in Online Scholarly Communication: An Analysis of Research Group Blogs

María José Luzón's picture
TitleConnecting Genres and Languages in Online Scholarly Communication: An Analysis of Research Group Blogs
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2017
AuthorsLuzón, María José
JournalWritten Communication
Volume341213
Issue433
Pagination441 - 471
ISSN0741-0883
Abstract

Blogs provide an open space for scholars to share information, communicate about their research, and reach a diversified audience. Posts in academic blogs are usually hybrid texts where various genres are connected and recontextualized; yet little research has examined how these genres function together to support scholars’ activity. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the affordances of new media enable the integration of different genres and different languages in research group blogs written by multilingual scholars and to explore how various genres are coordinated in these blogs to accomplish specific tasks. The study reported in this article shows that the functionalities of the digital medium allow research groups to incorporate myriad genres into their genre ecology and interconnect these genres in opportunistic ways to accomplish complex objectives: specifically, to publicize the group’s research and activities, make the work of the group members available to the disciplinary community, strengthen social links within their community and connect with the interested public, and raise social awareness. Findings from this study provide insights into the ways in which scholars write networked, multimedia, multigenre texts to support the group’s social and work activity.

URLhttp://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0741088317726298http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0741088317726298http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0741088317726298http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0741088317726298
DOI10.1177/0741088317726298
Short TitleConnecting genres and languages