Abstract
Genre has always been a classic linguistic topic, especially in the studies of rhetorical occasions. Traditionally, it refers to a distinctive type of text, functioning as a means of constructing both the audience and the subject. Nowadays, however, communication practices are increasingly moving towards “being networked”. Consequently, science exchange and knowledge dissemination are getting diversified online, and new genres (digital genres in particular) spring up.
Science Communication on the Internet: Old Genres Meet New Genres, edited by María-José Luzón & Carmen Pérez-Llantada, provides a comprehensive examination of how genres are widely used on the Internet in response to new rhetorical exigences and modern communicative demands. The volume comprises 11 chapters, which can be divided into five parts with distinct foci.
In the Introduction (Chapter 1), the editors discuss the “trends and emerging themes” of genre studies in digital environments. A great many new terms are introduced, such as remediation of print genres, multi-genres, add-on genres, hyperlinked genres and context collapse. They emphasize the significance of “study of the synergies among digital genres and of the relationships between digital and traditional genres” (p.5).
Part 2 is composed of Chapters 2 and 3, both of which focus their attention on the evolution of scientific research article and genre change. Rich evidence is presented to prove a heavy influence of the Internet on changes in the modern research articles.
In Chapter 2, Joseph E. Harmon makes an investigation of dramatic genre changes and innovations in both scientific articles and journals. In his study, typical articles published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) are analyzed and digital genre topics like front matter, main text, and supporting information are illustrated. In doing so, the author elaborates how Internet technologies lead to evolutions and changes in science communication and knowledge representation. Harmon offers his own view on what additional changes may come in the future and suggests a direction for future researches.
Chapter 3, by Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher & Brad Mehlenbacher, also probes into genre change and genre evolution. The researchers first explain that at the start of online migration, genres were relatively stable in form and function. Nowadays, however, a demand for genre change is raised due to the “replication crisis”. In the study, they make an examination of the Registered Report genre, which reflects the evolution of online genres in science communication. It is noted that peer review process is being transformed by Registered Report. Thus, we can observe the complex interaction between the traditional genres and the new ones.
Part 3, consisting of Chapters 4 and 5, deals with the adoption of the specific new genres in scientific discourse such as graphic abstract (GA), author video, podcast etc. and their communicative effects on the audience. In Chapter 4, various forms and functions of GAs in chemistry & engineering texts are introduced. Graciela Rabuske Hendges & Christiane Salete Florek draw on the examples of original images in their study so as to analyze the “frequent use of color and drawings” in GA. Thanks to their vivid descriptions and comparisons, the reader is convinced that the graphic abstract plays a critical role in “attracting a wider range of readers” (p.59). Chapter 5, by Elizabeth Rowley-Jolivet & Shirley Carter-Thomas, investigates four audiovisual genres: Three-Minute Theses (3MTs) presentation, podcasts from popular science and a research journal website, and author videos from the Nature Video Channel or Elsevier journal websites. The descriptions and analyses of these specific new genres just reflect an actual evolution of genre, echoing to the subtitle of this volume: old genres meet new genres.
Chapter 6 stands alone as Part 4 because it looks into a special type of interaction in scientific communication: peer review. By way of corpus methodology, Ruth Breeze makes a comparison between author responses in traditional peer review and those online. It is claimed that the openness in those new formats brings about increasing complexity, which constitutes “continuity and change” in online genres.
Part 5 is composed of Chapter 7-11. These chapters are all case studies based on different disciplines such as business, engineering, epidemiology, religion and biology. Special attention is paid to contextualization (or recontextualization/polytextuality) in the process of knowledge dissemination. In Chapter 7, Carmen Daniela Maier & Jan Engberg take a multimodal approach to study the academic discourse at the website of Harvard Business Review (HBR). An insightful analysis of the relations between three articles published in HBR and their genre forms is made under two conceptual frameworks: knowledge mediation processes and levels of explanatory depth. Chapter 8, by Ivana Mirović, Vesna Bogdanović & Vesna Bulatović, is a case study of IEEE Spectrum magazine, which explores genre hybridity and hypertextuality in digital hypermodal articles. Chapter 9 is contributed by Deborah Orpin, and is a case examination of ECDC reports (European Center for Disease Control and Prevention) in the form of Twitter discourse. Chapter 10, by Graham Smart & Matthew Falconer, reports a distinctive and interesting research of religious discourse, namely, Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. Similarly, genre sets and recontextualization are investigated. In Chapter 11, Gwendolynne Reid & Chris M. Anson offer an appealing illustration of how digital genres are employed to reach general audiences in biological science communication. In sum, the five case studies provide an excellent discussion of how new genres “engage a diversified audience” (p.13).
Overall, the most prominent features of this book can be summarized as the following three aspects. First, Luzón & Pérez-Llantada provide us with an innovative research vision in discourse studies. We feel that science communication is undergoing profound changes. Second, data and examples presented in this volume are not only abundant but also naturally occurring. Third, a wide span of disciplines in both science and humanities are explored.
However, there are also grounds for minor criticism. First of all, the chapters of the collection are not clearly organized and lack logical connection between the chapters. Secondly, as a deeply involved strategy in digital genre employment, recontextualization means transferring and modifying meanings of an original text into new discourse (Luzón 2013; Freadman 2002). The discussion of recontextualization in this book could extended to more types of discourse besides academic discourse, twitter discourse, etc.