1.10. Genre theory

The genre perspective is one way of studying the emergence of new media or sub-media (Ihlström, 2004). The term genre originally describes a distinctive type or category of literary composition (Ihlström, 2004). The genre perspective was introduced to IS research by Yates and Orlikowski (1994; 1992) who investigated organizational communication based on it. By employing various computing devices and the internet, the genre research agenda has broadened not only to organizational, but also digital genres (Ihlström, 2004). The genre perspective employs communication, while also exploring the rationale or reason for enacting the communication (Ihlström, 2004). In general, genre of communication is characterized by socially recognised substance and common characteristics of form(s) identified by a community (Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). Substance refers to social motives, such as purpose of communication (Honkaranta, 2003). Form of a genre refers to physical and linguistic features like layout, language and media (Honkaranta, 2003; Yates & Orlikowski, 1992). The theory helps focus on communication needs in eParticipation projects and the context, substance and form the eParticipation technology is embedded in.







References:


Honkaranta, A. (2003). From Genres to Content Analysis. University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä.

Ihlström, C. (2004). The Evolution of a New(s) Genre. Göteborg University, Gothenburg.

Yates, J., & Orlikowski, W. J. (1992). Genres of Organizational Communication: A Structurational Approach to Studying Communication and Media. Academy of Management Review, 17(2), 299-326.

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