Week 11 - Genre - Miller, Devitt, Gallagher

This piece by Miller, Devitt, and Gallagher covers this idea of genre being multimodal, and how categorization of semiotic modes across communication technologies shapes communities, and constitutes the permission of questions when it comes to patterns of symbolic interaction.

But before I get into what I understood about this article, I’d like to say I am very familiar with rhetorical studies, genre and their relatedness but I also tend to walk away from readings that tie these topics together confused. But Miller, Devitt, and Gallagher seemed to clearly outline what a genre is and why “categorization is not a matter to be taken lightly, – George Lakoff.” They argue that genre is multimodal, multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and multi methodological. From their 1st argument they state that, “...not until the late twentieth century, as electronic and digital media prevailed, did rhetorical studies begin to notice the affordances of multiple modes of delivery and expression as constituent characteristics of contemporary genres.” This is interesting because now more than ever I think this fact is more observable across contemporary social media platforms with each of them having a distinctive tone that is seen in user expression and semiotic modes.

I think beyond rhetorical studies this point for the reading was particularly insightful, that “Genre awareness can emphasize the local situatedness of rhetoric, with attention to not just the regularity but also the variation within genres.” The author then goes on to talk about the various settings where one could use their awareness of genre to respond to various texts, contexts, and patterns. This was significant to me because it exposed the real world application of genre awareness which I think helps you internalize why being able to identify genres can be useful.

Black feminism and genre are connected in that black feminist like many social advocacy groups use the the analytical and explanatory framework provided by genre to asses trends within both culture and discourse.