Janelle Gutierrez

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 many 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

information on an event, both locally and globally.

 With the sense of urgency you can find in both genres, these two forms of writing are

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

done with a sense of urgency to send out information to a large audience.

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

define news-related tweets as its own unique genre.

Because of the new technological developments made available for our generation and

generations to come, we have created a new means of communication to spread information.

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. Newspapers are 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

attention and creates this want to read the full article.

The audience you’re writing to can also be very different between the two genres. In

regards to its antecedent genre, newspapers can reach 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 as far as

reaching hundreds to thousands of people globally.

 There is a convention to news-related tweets that is similar to newspapers, but will

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.” 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

of tweets you may see on Twitter.

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 on 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.