Genre

This week's readings focused on genre - what it is, what it does, and how it can be used to aid in creating content. The readings made me think of all the genres that the environmental justice movement uses to accomplish their various goals.

The current events in the environmental justice movement this week covered a lot of different ground intended to reach a variety of audiences. While there were many examples of genres we've extensively covered in class, like social media posts, digital flyers, and blogs, there were also genres that may not necessarily be thought of as such. For example, the climate justice pavilion at COP27 is a genre, and one that is situated within a genre set.

There are rules that are generally followed when organizing and enacting an in-person forum. The pavilion, although new at the climate summit this year, followed the same guidelines of form and content that established climate summit forums follow. There were a group of experts, some performing pre-planned talks, others participating in panels, and some form of question and answer period. This genre exists within a genre set with accompanying genres such as speeches, research studies, academic papers, and invitations to present.

Although professional presentations are a vastly different genre from a social media post, each of these genres play an important role in moving activism forward.