PB1b: Genre Generators

This was my favorite generated comic. I went on to generate twenty some odd alternatives to look at the consistency or inconsistency of the generated genre of weird, confusing comics. The hilarity lies within the randomness that created a genre of three panels and two awkward characters. Most of the quotes included in the formula to create the short dialogue are interchangeable in that they are independent statements—most of the time—and require minimal context for their humor to be displayed. The facial expressions or actions of Simon and Finlay are all random and make for unexpected turns in the story conveyed, such as Finlay shooting himself through the bottom of his head. The genre of these comics is characterized by goofy senselessness, but, in the first few goes at the “generate” button, repeats already surfaced, showing the lack of depth in selection pool for the website, but as advertised on the site, the tens of thousands of possible outcomes are impressive when evaluating the assumed lack of funding or manpower for Pandyland. The audience is probably varied for such a genre generator, as comics are funny to almost anybody, as long as the content is demographically appropriate. For example, it would be difficult to expect a kindergarten student to laugh a joke about Ann Coulter.

As far as the meme generator goes, the function of the site was a bit confusing and I didn’t fully understand its purpose. It provided pages of viral memes such as Bad Luck Brian and the Buzz Lightyear image. These pictures have been on every website on the Internet. Twice. And this website possibly was created to allow people to post new, random memes to their Twitters and Facebooks. Nearly all of the memes were simple square pictures captioned with a basic phrase on the top, and the punchline at the bottom. The punchlines vary in topic; some are social commentaries and some are just short non-contextual jokes. Regardless, memes took over the web in recent years and it is no surprise that the genre has expanded as virally as it has due to the simplicity of most of the jokes and the fact that they are contained to about ten words total for each meme. The site allows people to explore the inner workings of the genre such as selecting a picture and adding text as well as simplifying the process to a simple input with an immediate end product.

The last genre generator created a research paper you input a name for the author of the article. The “Abstract” section explicitly states the purpose of the essay or technological discovery. The “Table of Contents” is oddly followed by the separate sections, rather than a list of titles and identifiers (such as page numbers) for the sections, which is the expectation of a reader when they see the words “Table of Contents” at the beginning of any work. The generator works independently of the user input (the author’s name), so the genre is already created, but for a few phrases strung together to form a semi-cohesive paper. The genre also uses highly academic or specialized vocabulary throughout the product, because an audience of a research paper will usually be fellow researchers who fully understand what is being said. But for an eighteen year-old, the selected vocabulary is highly confusing, and if one of the researchers were a professor as well, they would sometimes have to dilute the thoughts presented in their professional publications in order to explain the content in a way that an undergraduate student can absorb what is being presented.

PB1A: Dissecting a Genre's Rhetorical Features and Conventions

To define a soccer game summary, one must look at the setting, the news article’s form, and the audience and it’s expectation and response. In the digital age, most soccer stories will be found online, ceaselessly updating the world’s fan base, so the audience must expect to find these articles on sports websites, particularly on a European newspaper’s site if the reader is interested in one of the more popular international leagues. These articles can also be found in print newspapers daily or in sports magazines. These stories will also usually be published in the short hours following the game’s conclusion. As for the structure of the article, it is usually written in a normally objective manor by journalists who specialize in the coverage of soccer. The text includes a headline and byline followed by the meat. The headline usually contains the two teams’ names and an interesting action verb intended to draw in readers scrolling through all of their search results. The byline credits the writer and for cases in which the writer is well known or respected, this too can draw in readers. The body provides the information, and it is made up of several features. Most articles follow at least a semi-chronological path in describing the course of the match. Usually towards the end of the article the writer includes quotes from the postgame conference or other interviews conducted to intertwine reactions from players and managers. These traits are commonplace in articles throughout the sports world, so in that, soccer game summaries are extremely similar to game recaps in other sports. Because of soccer’s European influence, there are slight differences that separate the international game’s media customs from more Americanized, commercialized media sources for other sports. For example, the articles use oft larger vocabulary in comparison to that of, say, a basketball story. This is likely creditable to cultural differences between the USA and England, per say; nonetheless, the discrepancies with other sub-genres of sports writing make soccer articles particularly interesting to read. The aspect of online reading of soccer articles that is often nearly as appealing as the article itself is the comment section. Unlike in physical newspapers, though, online comment forums allow for fan (audience) response. As exemplified in any big story’s comment section, soccer fans have a balance between humor and knowledge, and there are plenty of readings in the post-story text that are worth the time for a good laugh or an impressive bit of input or opinion. The purpose of the article is to provide a synopsis for readers who missed the game or who are looking for a different take on the match from what the announcers had to say during the game. The audience, easily recognizable as those who are interested in a game or league or player enough to read more on the subject, expects almost entirely impartial summarization of the completed contest and possibly to be linked to other articles extending from the game, such as expert analysis. The game summary provides basic information for those looking for a quick bunch of notes to recap the happenings of the Saturday morning rivalry game or a foundation from which to form more advanced opinions on the formation deployed by the manager. Regardless, the simple form of writing offers several purposes within a semi-refined audience, and like every other genre, this one is similar enough to fit in the category of sports writing, and specialized enough to qualify for its own genre.