Madison Aker Aker l

Professor Gardiakos

ENC 1102

4 February 2020

Genre Analysis and Intertextuality

Political knowledge in the United States is at an all time low. Most citizens do not have

the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. However, the use of social media is at all an

all time high. When you combine the lack of knowledge and the accessibility of social media,

citizens become wrongfully informed with misconstrued and biased information, or so many

people believe. A study was performed and in the academic article called, "Mediating Roles of

News Curation and News Elaboration in the Relationship between Social Media Use for News

and Political Knowledge" written by Chang Sup Park (Ph.D. Southern Illinois University) and

Barbara K. Kaye (Ph.D. Florida State University) in the academic journal called, Journal of

Broadcasting and Electronic Media. In this study, 1,135 South Korean adults were surveyed and

the study found out that "news elaboration and news curation are positively related to political

knowledge and mediate association between social media use for news and political knowledge"

(455). This means that social media develops news curation and it is used more because of social

media. In turn, many people had a preconceived misconception that social media limits political

knowledge. The article goes into detail stating that just because one is exposed to or see's the

news does not mean that someone has learned something, instead political learning "depends on

cognitive reasoning that sti mulates learning" (455).

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The reasoning behind the look of the article is the functionality of it. All academic

articles have a similar look and construction. For example, each paper begins with the title,

authors and affiliation, abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments,

and the works or literature cited. The reason for this is the ability to easily read and understand

the purpose of the article. Before reading a research article you can have a quick overview in the

abstract that states the reasoning, the st11dy, and the outcome of the data collected. By all

research articles having a similar form it makes it easier for people to read, but also establishes a

genre. A genre is a type of form shared in the discomse community. A discourse community is a

group of people that share similar beliefs and ideas. Jn this case, the discourse community of

research articles is people who explore different concepts or opinions and find factual

information to support their theory. The genre is the research article itself having a definite

appearance in the construction of the aiticle.

The genre includes information about political learning and the uses of information. One

question that the article asks is "Is social media use for political news positively or negatively

associated with political knowl edge?" (458). It begins to explain that it is dependent on the

person using social media. If the person using social media is more interested and engaged in

learning more about the subject, it would be a positive use . However, political efficacy and

political interest play a huge role in determining the learning capability through social media. A

person who votes more, voices their opinion are more likely to learn. The article also states

according to Eveland, W. P. Jr. (2002). frequent news users that use social media are more likely

to engage in more detailed way, positively affecting political knowledge, because they are more

likely to find out more. Date and surveys using percentages, factors, and formulas, are also listed.
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The data shown helps to support their argument. Also included is other research done. In order to

build credibility, the authors use other talented authors to make their claim in supporting their

research. Enlisted in the article is a bunch of questions answered with previous researchers who

have performed studies that correlate with the debate, in order to further build their hypothesis

and research.

In this genre, language that is used is sophisticated and very formal. However, it is

understandable to readers who may not know the subject as well as the researchers. This is

because in order to inform the publi c, the research must be done in a manner where the audience

can easily understand the purpose and the outcome of the research done. This can be seen in the

abstract, or first part of the article, where most readers look first. Although, further into the

article especially in the data collection portion, a reader that is not familiar with the figures and

numbers may have as great understanding. The a11icle continues to then summarize the data

collected, making it easier for readers to comprehend what was the outcome.

The genre works to get things done in the community by having certain requirements

needed to fulfill the statement of being a research article. One of those is the format, previously

explained, that all research articles have to have a formal and easily accessible appearance.

Another way the genre works is the intertextuality used. In order to be a credible research article,

it must use other articles to support and build its argument. Also, the research done helps get

things done in the community. By having a topic that is applicable to many citizens, especially in

the United States, it makes the research have a greater effect. Social media and politics is a huge

part in society and by having a genre that is credible, organized, and backed up by facts and

studies, it is beneficial to those who want to know more.

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Throughout the article, many other sources are credited in the development of the piece.

The author uses other sources in order to gain credibility and create a hypothesis based on

observations and research. By using other researchers the author becomes more trustworthy

because of their ability to read and research. James Porter, who wrote about intertextuality, states

that "the creative writer is the creative borrower". In this case, the author is advanced and

intelligent because of all the research and investigation they did when "borrowing" information

in order to make their claim.

Three of the citations used have a similar proposal to the idea being discussed. The

reason for this is because when making a statement, the article needs to have solid proof from

other researchers that is claim is accurate and supported to make a valid hypothesis. An author

would not use other articles that completely went against what they were trying to say, unless

they were trying to disprove their theory, but this is not used in the article.

Each source contributes to the conversation by adding more support for the claim and

research proven. For example, one statement is from "Mediating Roles of News Curation and

News Elaboration in the Relationship between Social Media Use for News and Political

Knowledge" is, "Although social medi a is for news sharing, which would seem to boost political

learning, 59% of Twitter links are retweeted without actually being read (Gabielkov,

Ramachandran, Chaintreau, & Legout, 201 6)" (458). When going to this article and reading

more, it proves the statement made by the arti cle that not everything seen on social media is

learned. That it takes someone who is interested in finding out more and having the desire to

want to learn about political learn ing, as opposed to the people who retweet something without it

actually being read. Although one thing 1 noticed is the different types of research that were
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used. For example, in the "'Social Clic ks: What and Who Gets Read on Twitter?" written by

Gabielkov, Ramachandran, Chaintreau. & Legout, I do notice a major difference. They support

their argument by saying that 59% of Twitter links are retweeted without actually being read, but

the question is, how many relate to politics. Another example is an article called "Social curation

on the website Pinterest.com·· wri tte n by Catherine Hall and Michael Zorro. While the authors

use this to support their claim that "News curation can be viewed in the context of the evolution

of a participatory web, where users acti vely create, evaluate and distribute information" (468)"

when looking into the article by Hall and Zorro, there is no mentio n of news curation, only social

curation. Social curation is the same concept, gathering ideas of other people's images or social

media posts relevant to a certain topic and shari ng it with your fo llowers. However, Pinterest is

also not a site known for news sharing. This sets the idea that not all articles directly support the

idea the authors are making. Instead, a very broad and generalized statement is made and the

authors use that as evidence for support.

One way I think the artic les used for support could have been used differently is not

altering the main concept that was researched. I th ink the author contorted the information to fit

their argument rather than what the atiicle itself stated . By using more a1ticles it defi nitely did

seem to build credibility because of the amount of time, research, and effort put into creating a

well organized and structured hypothesis wi th observations. However, when privately

researching, the author almost pro ved their point, that in order to actually learn, you have to do

more research than what you have read.

lntertextuality is the use of other tex ts interrelated, but people use texts in a different way

to prove their poi nt. Whi le the research and data collected in the research article are factual, the
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development of the article is contorted. While texts may be used in others to show credibility,

they may be altered or changed to fit the perspective the author wants you to see.
 Works Cited

Cho, J. , Shah, D. V. , McLeod, .I . M., McLeod , D. M ., Scholl , R. M ., & Gotlieb, M. R. (2009).

Campaigns, reflection, and deli beration: Advancing an O-S-R-O-R model of communica-

ti on effects. Communication Theory, 19( 1), 66- 88. doi: 1O. ll 11 /comt.2009.19.issue-1

Gabielkov, M., Ramachandran, A., Chaintreu, A. , & Le gout, A . (2016) . Social clicks: What and

who gets read on Twitter? ACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review, 44(1 ),

179-1 92 . doi: 10.1145/296479 1

Hall, C., & Zarro, M . (20 12). Social curation on the website Pinterest.com . Proceedings of the

of the American Society for Info rmation Science and Technology, 49( 1), 1-9.

Park, Chang Sup, Barbara K. Kaye . " Medi ating Roles of News Curation and N ews Elaboration

in the Re lationshi p between Social Media Use for News and Po litical Knowledge."

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. vol. 63 , no. 3, Mar. 2019, pp. 455 -473., doi:

10.1080/088 38 15 1.2019.1 653 070

Porter, James E. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Com munity." Rhetoric Review, vol. 5, no . 1,

1986, pp . 34-47., doi: 10.1080/0735019860935913 l.