Communication Genres and the Mediatic Turn



Communication Genres and the Mediatic Turn

Dr. Norm Friesen May 16, 2006

Abstract

The mediatic turn in computer systems design and analysis that is currently in its nascence is arguably long overdue. Broadly cognitivist and cybernetic frameworks associated with human factors and usability research have already been undermined in the 1990’s through what has been called an “ethnographic turn.” However, now that the personal computer and Internet have been commonplace for a decade or more, it is increasingly important to utilize mediatic terms –such as culture, genre, audience, or convention-- to come to a more complete understanding of their limitations and potential. By exploring a case in which the mediatic understanding of one technology --asynchronous textual communication-- has informed the use and development of systems and of related standards, this paper will provide evidence of the efficacy of such understandings in design and implementation. It will also reflect on the broader implications of the mediatic turn, such as its implied subsumption of pure technical rationality to historical, cultural and other factors.

Introduction

Genre is one of the oldest ways of conceptualizing participation, form, and contents in communication media. Understood as the “fusion of content, purpose and form of communicative actions” (Kwaśnik & Crowston, 2005; 76) the study of genre can be characterized above all as an inclusive and synthetic form of investigation. It involves not only formal principles, but also invokes practice, culture and history as well as questions of technical change and function. Thus, the rise of the novel, as a form or genre, is to be explained as as much an outcome of the spread of literacy as it is a product of industrial techniques of mass production, the interrelationship of serial and monographic publication forms, the rise of the middle class, or the creative output of figures like Dickens or Döblin. From Aristotle's discussion of mimetic modes in The Poetics to the classification of books and movies in you neighbourhood book- or video-store, genre is so pervasive in media as to easily elude explicit thematization.

This elusive yet pervasive character of genre is readily confirmed the context of everyday considerations of online communication, and in everyday discussions of systems design and application. In these contexts, technical forms are frequently identified and classified through the use of broadly generic terms (e.g. web pages, blog entries, forum posts). At the same time, there is a tendency to focus on the novelty or discontinuity represented by precisely the same technical changes and innovations, rather than on the continuity implied in by the invocation of generic labels (e.g., pages, posts and entries). Such an emphasis on the new and novel is perhaps understandable given the radical changes in networked communications late in the last century. However, given the stabilization of Internet technologies (e.g. browser technology) and of processes of their adoption (e.g. IWS, 2006), these increasingly ossified yet invisible categories and classifications become ever more significant in the study and also the design of systems they are used to designate. Even with the recent “ethnographic turn” (Tinker, 1998) in systems design and what might be called a gradual “constructivist turn” (e.g., Marková, 2000; Jonassen & Duffy, 1991) in psychology and educational technology, accounts and theories of design in educational technology systematically incorporating the institutional, social and cultural --emphasizing continuity rather than discontinuity-- are rare. The effects of institutional, social and cultural factors, when they enter into consideration in this area of study, tend to be understood either as impediments to or as consequences of technically-driven change. Thus, answering his own titular question “Will Information and Communication Technologies Make a Difference?” in the affirmative, MacDonald insists: “schools must adapt to it, since it will not be adapted to them” (MacDonald, 2005; 44). Similarly, seeing social and economic change as following inevitably from new media technologies, Sir John Daniel writes “media have been effective in enhancing the scale and scope of learning, which in turn has made it possible to achieve other social and economic development goals” (Daniel, 2005; vii). The causal chain leading to social and economic change --in which media and technology are the first link-- is clear. Technology and the change associated with it is much less commonly seen as been the outcome of a multi-causal dynamic involving social, cultural, economic, historical and other forces

In literature discussing the development of technical environments for education, the effective elimination of all factors to the exclusion of technical function and cognitive function of the user is more direct. For example, in a discussion of “Educational Ergonomics,” we read that “variability in cognitive performance (whose development and refinement is a primary focus of education) is [demonstrably] attributable… to specific design features of the learning environment” (Smith, T.J. 2002). Similarly, in an introduction to an article on learning from multi-media, the analysis is framed as follows:

In order to design multimedia instructional materials that aid students’ comprehension, it is useful to be guided by a relevant empirical theory of how students learn. That is, a cognitive theory of multimedia learning which draws on dual coding theory, cognitive load theory, and other cognitive learning theories can give a direction to the study. (Mayer & Moreno, 2002; 107)

As a final example, in Education and mind in the knowledge age, Carl Bereiter uses the broadly comparable but more general term “tools” --of both a technical and a scientific, conceptual nature-- to describe the necessary conditions for technical optimization of e-learning systems: “Better [technical] tools are coming available, but it takes conceptual tools to understand and use them. The most basic of [these conceptual] tools are our conceptions of knowledge and mind” (Bereiter, 2002; 4). For Bereiter, as for many of his colleagues in the field of e-learning, ever-growing technical design potential associated with computers, along with human cognitive function, form an effective discursive horizon for the design and application of educational technologies and technical standards. From this can be abstracted an equation, which might read:

design features + cognitive function = educational effectiveness

This paper wishes to illustrate the effectiveness of proceeding from a starting point in many ways diametrically opposed to this. It aims to show that educational effectiveness is a product of a wide range of factors; indeed, that these factors (extending to the broadly cultural, social and historical) make any isolated understandings and measures of such effectiveness themselves open to question.

Technical Innovation and Mediatic Continuity

Writing in Rethinking media change, David Thorborn express an essential, general impulse that underlies this investigation impulse economically, in its interdisciplinary generality:

The new grows out of the old, repeats the old, embraces, reimagines and extends the old. To understand the Web, I’m saying --to understand our emerging digital culture-- we need a continuity not a discontinuity principle (Thorburn, 2004; 24, emphasis added).

Certainly one of the strongest expressions of mediatic continuity, the notion of genre stakes out an investigative terrain at the confluence of multiple factors, involving complex multicausalities, and multiple ontologies. Kwaśnik and Crowston explain: “Because genre is not any one thing, but rather an intersection of several phenomena in a context of use, its study has spanned many disciplines and areas of practice, from the arts to metadata….” (Kwaśnik and Crowston, 2005; 76). The example of metadata --data used to describe, label and classify other data-- is a rather technical and obscure genre instance, but also one that is important to this paper, and which will be discussed in greater detail later. For now, it is important to note that the range of contexts in which genre has been utilized as a form of analysis –in industry (e.g., Spinuzzi, 2003), academy (e.g., Ylönen, 2001), cultural production (e.g., Berger, 1992), in addition to the humanities (e.g., Altman, 1982)—certainly testifies to its power as an analytic device. Despite this variety of applications, however, the characteristics associated with genre are remarkably similar. For example, writing of “Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication” Berkenkotter and Huckin, for example, state that “identifiable form and content” and “community ownership” are among its essential features (Berkenkotter & Huckin, 1995). Writing of the Web in general, Burnett and Marshall define genre as “a comfort zone of a patterned sign system that both an audience and an industry can read with relative ease” --but over which neither party exercises complete control (Burnett & Marshall, 2003; 90-91). Kwaśnik and Crowston sum up a number of other definitions and characteristics typically associated with genre:

most definitions include some consideration of the form of a document and sometimes of expected content. Most also include the notion of intended communicative purpose. Finally, most include the notion of social acceptance; that is, a document is of a particular genre to the extent that it is recognized as such within a given discourse community. In fact, successful membership in any number of social contexts requires a fluency in the genres in use in that context. (Kwaśnik & Crowston, 2005; 77)

The notion of acceptance, expectation, identifiability and recognizability --all associated with by members in a social community or context-- is common to all of these definitions. It is also of paramount importance to this paper. Such community acceptance and expectation implies a history and also a general continuity of use, which can involve what researchers have further identified as “genre repertoires” –a set of genres used in combination by a community over a period of time (Orlikowski & Yates, 1994). These factors also imply a continuity of corresponding forms, understood more specifically by genre researchers in terms of the gradual “reproduction,” “adaptation” and “evolution” of traditional genres (e.g. print genres) in new media (e.g. the Web) (Crowston & Williams, 2000; Kwaśnik & Crowston, 2005). In addition, generic forms can gradually proliferate, with “meta-genres” (e.g. the blog) giving rise to a variety of sub-types, more or less formally defined (e.g. the video blog or vlog, or audio blogs or blog-hosted podcasts, etc.). In the context of educational technology development and design, all of this means that any new technical form is not simply adopted by users based, for example on “comparative advantage” or “trialability” (Rogers, 1995: 208), but that its use is wrapped up with much more complex questions of how forms gain recognition and legitimacy in communities, and with reference to their other factors, such as genre repertoires, genre evolution, and the social and other influences that effect all of these.

More abstract and explicitly negotiated technical artefacts such as standards and protocols also do not escape the multi-causal communal and evolutionary dynamics of genres. One example of a standard prominent the domain of educational technologies, the Learning Object Metadata standard (IEEE 1484.12.1-2002, or simply, the LOM), can serve as an example. In setting out to define metadata specifically for modular, digital resources for teaching and learning, the LOM, in effect, invoked a new educational genre, the “learning object.” (The term “object” derives from “object-oriented programming,” referring obscurely “to an instance of the data structure and behaviour defined by the object's class” FOLDOC, 2006). Naturally, genres of educational material and their characteristics have been the subject of scholarship --from relatively recent instructional theories of message design (Fleming & Levie, 1993) to age-old considerations of the presentation in children’s picture-books (e.g., Comenius, 1658). Associated with this are genres such as the “textbook,” “syllabus,” “reading list” and many others familiar to various groups of educational practitioners and within various kinds of educational organizations --although generally not considered in specifically generic terms.

However, the learning object, whether conceived in terms of genre or as sheer technical and cognitive capability, has not redefined the lines and boundaries of traditional teaching by technical fiat, as some seem to have envisioned (e.g., Merkow, 2002; Hodgins, 2001). Arguments and interpretations for the limited success of learning objects overall have varied --ranging from incompatibility with existing practices (Friesen, 2004) to the reluctance of potential adopters (Cohen, in press)-- but this outcome certainly could also be understood in terms of genre: The sheer number and heterogeneity of educational genre types and repertoires --tests, reports syllabi, exams, exercises, lessons, plans-- presents difficulties of its own. An attempt to subsume and order them in terms of the “meta-genre” of the learning object creates further difficulties in terms of classification (e.g. CanCore, 2004). and arguably also in terms of culture. In this connection, it is also not surprising the specialized technical connotations carried by the term “object” presents its own difficulties for community acceptance and recognition among pedagogical practitioners.

Epistolarity and “Discussion”

Let us now turn to an example of the positive potential for genre as a heursitic device in educational media and standardization. Such an example can be found in the technologies, practices and adaptations of email, and more specifically, message-based discussion forums, which allow messages to be composed and accessed by all members of a given group class, or cohort. The latter application and its use go by a variety of terms, being called “bulletin boards” (e.g., Beckwith, 1987), “decision support systems” (e.g., Sproull & Kiesler, 1991), support for “communities of inquiry” (e.g., Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000), and perhaps most frequently, simply “discussion forums.” Curiously, the analysis of email and also of these educational forums specifically as genre –whether the generic precedent be a literal bulletin board or letter-writing (epistolary) traditions generally-- seems rather uncommon (one exception is Beckwith, 1987): “what remains under-examined,” as one communications scholar observes, “is the extent to which older technologies, such as the postal service shed light on issues such as presence and intimacy” in email (Milne, 2003). And the case is no different, of course, for education and the its own technical applications.

In western literary analyses, the study of the epistolary genre is commonplace, especially as it appears a form of literary production, in the genre of the epistolary novel. In her book-length study, Epistolarity; Approaches to a Form, Janet Altman examines this fictional genre, which flourished in the English language in the 18th century. She concludes her considerable analyses by providing a manifold definition of the episolary form and its inherent dynamics generally. And she give to this general form and dynamic the name “epistolarity.” Altman characterizes epistolarity as being “charged with paradox and contradiction. The opposite of almost any important trait” she explains, “can be equally a characteristic of the letter form” (Altman, 1982, 186). Of the six paradoxical characteristics Altman describes, five are of clearly potential significance to email and its educational derivatives. Her descriptions of these are provided here in abbreviated form:

1) The letter (or more generally message), serves “as a bridge/barrier (distance breaker/distance maker);”

2) “The letter's dual potential for transparency (portrait of soul, confession…) and opacity (mask, weapon…)”

3) “I/you, here/there, now/then. Letter narrative depends on reciprocality of writer-addressee and is charged with present-consciousness in both the temporal and the spatial sense.”

4) “Closure/overture; discontinuation/continuation of writing. The dynamics of letter narrative involves a movement between two poles: the potential finality of the letter's sign-off and the open-endedness of the letter seen as a segment within a chain of dialogue.”

5) “Unit/unity; continuity/discontinuity; coherence/fragmentation. The letter's duality as a self-contained artistic unity and as a unit within a larger configuration make it an apt instrument for fragmentary, elliptical writing and juxtaposition of contrasting discrete units….” (Altman, 1982; 186-187)

The analytical efficacy of these characteristics can be illustrated by applying them first to an example from the epistolary tradition proper. These same characteristics will then be applied to an example of the re-imagination, extension and adaptation of this genre --specifically in the form of online discussion messages.

Focusing on the production of “epistolary presence” and not referencing any of Altman’s work, Milne (cited above) gives an example that is remarkably illustrative. It takes the form of a short quote from a letter sent by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1842:

If I do not empty my heart out with a great splash on the paper, every time I have a letter from you, & speak my gladness & thankfulness, it is lest I shd. weary you of thanksgivings! (Barrett Browning, as quoted in Milne, 2003)

In this single sentence, aspects of the letter as bridge/barrier, its potential for emotional transparency, and its “present-consciousness” for both correspondents are all manifest: The writer is obviously glad to receive the letter, but worries of tiring her correspondent with her own reply. Additionally letter constructs a present for the glad but concerned writer and also for the possibly weary recipient. Interpenetrating all of these dynamics is the obvious tension between continuity and (the potential for) discontinuity in the communications.

At first glance, it might be easy to think that the above example is too manifestly emotional to have any kind of counterpart in online educational discussions. (Indeed, recalling phrases such as “decision support groups” and “communities of inquiry, it is clear that these types of discussions have often been seen as being marked by a comparative lack affect.) However, here is an example, that, if not exemplary of expected academic discussion, may also appear typical:

Thank you, Jacques, and thank you again. I see you share my frustration with wondering where that darn post went after you pressed "Send"! (Ruth, Week nine, student-moderated conference) (quoted in Rourke, 2005)

All of the aspects of epistolarity identified in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s letter are again apparent here: the message is a bridge of sympathy and shared frustration, confirming the similarity of experience between two correspondents; in its emotional transparency, the two brief sentences constituting the message also attempt to unite the “here and now” of the writer with the recipient –implying the presence of both at the keyboard, each wondering about the whereabouts of a posting after having sent it. And this technological uncertainty on the part of the composer and recipient underscores the tension between continuity/discontinuity and coherence/fragmentation that can be said to underlie any exchange of messages.

Indeed, a brief look at the results of careful empirical research into educational discussion online can be interpreted as providing confirming evidence of the “epistolarity” of these forums and communications. For example, in one widely-cited study, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) categorize online discussion forum messages according to four events or categories that correspond to a model of critical thinking. Of these four (“triggering event,” “exploration,” “integration,” “resolution”) their studies found that by far the greatest percentage of messages fit into the second of these categories, “exploration.” Such messages, as Garrison, Anderson and Archer explain, are characterized (for example) by the exchange of “personal narratives/descriptions/facts (not used as evidence to support a conclusion)” (Garrison, Anderson and Archer, 2000; 89). Although they confirm the potential for epistolarity in the form and content of messages (rather than in their particular characteristics), these general findings have been confirmed through other studies. As Rourke observes in a review research in this and related areas,

Empirical observations of computer conferencing in distance learning consistently find a predominance of monologues, relational communication, or superficial interaction and a meagre amount of collaboration and knowledge co-construction (Rourke, in press)

It is such personal and “superficial” communications, rather than collaborative critical-reasoning or problem-solving that fit with the manifest history of and likely, the community expectations for related communication genres. Such communications also present a potential fit with the paradoxical narrative dynamic and tensions described by Altman --focusing on the maintenance and articulation of “interaction” and “relation.” It is then perhaps a question of negotiating epistolary tensions –of observing and leveraging the tension of continuity/discontinuity and coherence/fragmentation to minimize monologues, for example—that may present a productive emphasis for both practice and theory. Of course, these characteristics are overwhelmingly social rather than overtly educational or goal-directed. Since this is the case, it would seem important to consider carefully the sociality of discussion forums (e.g. Kreijns, Kirschner, & Jochems, 2002) and the cohorts that typically populate them, and to understand how this sociality, in turn, may contribute to educational goals.

Genre and Standards Development

The importance of genre for the design, implementation and use of educational technologies can be further illustrated through an example from the realm of standards and protocols. This is provided by ISO FCD 19780-1, “Information technology – Collaborative learning communication (CLC) –Part 1: Text-based CLC.” This is a draft standard defining a set of data models “which allow communication forum contributions and their attributes to be represented in a vendor-independent format for interchange, storage, retrieval or analysis by a variety of systems” (ISO FCD 19780-1; 2006, 1). Along with the earlier-mentioned LOM standard, this “Text-based CLC” document is part of a growing number of standards for online educational technologies, systems and contents. All of these standards have as their common goal the open compatibility of these systems and contents, allowing resources to be easily shared and reused, thereby preventing excessive vendor control over these systems and contents. But unlike other educational standards, this “CLC” standard focuses on collaboration (rather than content provision and use), and on already-recognized and -accepted systems and genres (rather than, for example, the “meta-genre” represented by the learning object). In addition, this standard utilizes the general structuring of data and of patterns of interaction already established as generic “norms” in discussion forums. In addition, it derives from these the precise definition of sets of data elements which can be used to transfer data between different systems and environments. The data elements defined in the standard are grouped in interrelated tables or “models.”

|[pic] |

|Figure 1: Tables, elements and interrelationships in the Text-based CLC standard. |

Following the examples set by discussion systems (and by their epistolary forerunners) these data elements include items such as author and date, which serve, in a sense, as “metadata,” describing or labelling message contents. This standard also follows on these generic precursors in defining data elements that link messages to one another (e.g. as replies), and associating messages with particular forum environments or communicative contexts. The many additional elements in the data models, above reflect a further insight offered by the educational use of the online discussion genre: Namely, that despite its stability and broad similarity across implementations and practices, there can arise a range of minor variations that, for example, are used to reflect various forms of participant information and a range of characteristics of the “environment” or technical context in which exchanges take place. (These are represented, for example, by the element EV8, “Characteristics” and EX8, “Characteristics,” and the elements subsumed beneath them.)

Conclusion

This paper has attempted to illustrate the significant contributions to technical practice, research and design in e-learning that may potentially be gained by tracking a “mediatic turn” in these areas. By emphasizing broadly mediatic or generic continuities and evolutionary dynamics, such a turn helps to inform the development of common, standardized data-models, and provides at least one way of accounting for and affirming dynamics that seem persistent in educational discussion forums. Understanding that user and group expectations, acceptance and understandings of media are shaped by genre, however, may not always simplify research into such media. Standing at the confluence of economics, history, culture and other factors, genre as a heuristic device certainly involves a highly interdisciplinary orientation. But the use of genre in research will also help to ensure that a greater number of significant and powerful factors (e.g. social, economic and historical) are accounted for. Consideration of such factors may save developers and researchers the effort of designing or searching for dynamics of rarefied purposive-rationality in mediatic contexts, when much more familiar, generic ones may suffice. And it is on these factors –as much as on cognitive or computational function—that technical and educational efficacy depends.

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