Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Writing 2
Joshua Smith
26 November 2019
WP1 Paper
When discussing the topic of genres, the first thought to come to mind are genres that
are typically associated with entertainment, such as books, music or movies. What you may not
realize, however, is how genres can be applied to manyw aspects of our lives . One such example
of this would be genres relating to news in the technological form, something that has become a
major part of our lives in this generation. In my case, my definitive genre are tweets, from the
social media platform Twitter, but more specifically focused on news-related tweets. This genre
could have evolved from the platform of physical newspapers , which would be its antecedent
genre. Aside from the similar purpose and sense of urgency from both genres, tweets can be
defined as its own unique genre due to its conventions that are typically not identified in other
genres.
When relating news-related tweets to its antecedent genre of newspapers, there are a few
conventions that remain similar between the two. The main convention that is found in both
genres is the central purpose, which was the means to pass information amongst individuals.
Newspapers would seek out information on events that happen both locally and nationwide,
writing articles and printing out physical copies for people to read. With news-related tweets, it’s
the same purpose as someone on the media team of said news network will research and gain
done when they want to pass information as quickly as they possibly could. Newspapers may
take some time to be sent out, but the most important events that people should be aware of will
have priority in being printed over stories that seem to be less relevant or not as important within
the time frame. Tweets, however, will be sent out right away-- all the person must do is type up
their tweet then hit send, and it will be available to the audience intended. Nonetheless, both are
There are more conventions to each its own that separate the two, making news-related
tweets its own genre. For these tweets, it contains the typical conventions of a standard tweet,
which would be the following: broad audience, character limit, media ,and technological aspect .
The most notable conventions of news-related tweets that can separate it from the standard tweet
would be the formality and information entailed in the writing. These conventions can be used to
Because of the new technological developments made available for our generation and
Tweets are made on Twitter, a social media platform, whereas newspapers were physically
written on paper. Because of the process of physically creating newspapers-- typing up the
articles to be sent to printed out, then organizing the papers together-- there can be a delay in
sending out the information. With this technological aspect in mind, news-related tweets may
have emerged due to the fast speed technology provided for the information to be sent out
quickly.
Another convention, one that I believe stands out amongst the other conventions, is the
character limit associated with tweets. Within a single tweet, you can only use up to 280
characters. n Newspapers are s not faced with this character limit , as you can use multiple pieces
of paper and take up as much space as you wish with to type out the articles. Tweets are only
eligible to be sent out if they use less than or exactly 280 characters, otherwise you have to revise
it to meet this standard. With news-related tweets, however, they will provide a small summary
of what the article will be about, then attach a link to the full article on another website. This
summary can almost be like the header of a newspaper article: the line of writing that grabs your
The audience you’re writing to can also very different between the two genres. In
regards to its antecedent genre, newspapers can read a large audience, but typically it would be
focused on the town/city that the news station is located in. For example, a newspaper sent out in
the town of Vallejo would not make its way to a person that lives in Sacramento. The physical
paper would be focused on being sent out to Vallejo residents or those in close nearby towns.
With tweets, however, you reach a much broader audience. The intended audience would be
followers of the news account, who obviously followed to be updated on the news from said-
account. However, it’s not just limited to followers of the account. Somewhat like a domino
effect, there’s a feature on twitter where you can retweet a tweet, which is basically just like
sharing or passing on the information. From this, these news-related tweets not only reaches the
account’s audience of followers, but it's follower’s audience of their own followers.
Newspapers are intended to remain local or within the city of its location, but tweets can expand
separate it from the standard tweet. This convention is the formality of news-related tweets. With
the standard tweet you may find on Twitter, there is an obvious informality and casual tone to the
writing, as well as the aspect of having “no filter.” r To explain “no filter” in simpler terms, think
of it as having no guidelines or rules to how you write or what you write about. In news-related
tweets, there are some guidelines and rules to what you write and how it is presented. These
tweets are meant to be taken seriously, so it will follow a more proper format of writing, which is
typical in newspapers. This format would contain proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.
There’s an obvious difference in the content presented as well, as these tweets will only focus on
the news and have the purpose of informing what happened rather than how they personally feel
in regards to the event. While this is a similarity from the new genre to its antecedent, this is a
convention that defines news-related tweets as its own type of tweet in comparison to other types
This change in genre has developed from the new technological advances that have
emerged in the past years. While there are similarities between this genre and its antecedent
genre, there are conventions that not only separate it from its antecedent genre, but from other
tweets found in this platform. Because of this, you can say that tweets have become their own
genre. The conventions that really set it apart would have to be the character limit and broad
audience that come with tweets, as well as the formality of these tweets. The fact that a post
containing such little, yet formal, writing can reach a broad audience and provide them with
new information on an event that happened truly makes it unique. These conventions all
contribute to the reasoning as to why news-related tweets can be defined as their own genre, as
there isn’t another genre that could really present these conventions in writing the way tweets
do.