Jose Antonio C.
Dasig November 16, 2020
ELS – 2
ELS 2107, T/TH 12:00 – 1:30
Prof. Charity Turano
Discourse Analysis Activity: Analyzing Genres
Chosen Blogs: NBC Basketball Blogs (Sports) and [Link] Game reviews (gaming)
My blogs (or blog sites) mainly focuses on sports and gaming, respectively. The
basketball blogs are intended for those who are familiar with the game of basketball and the
jargons that are associated with it (mostly terms used for the rules such as travelling, three
points). These include athletes, coaches, casual players, etc. who are able to recognize terms
related to the sport. On the other hand, gaming blogs are targeted towards those who are
familiar with gaming terms and devices and for this particular blog, it includes everything related
to Sony’s Play station platform from the games, peripherals, and releases. The discourse
community for this particular type of genre often include casual to die hard gamers, game
enthusiasts, and collector of game consoles. People mostly read gaming blogs to be updated on
new releases and to be able to determine what to buy next. As mentioned by Jones (2012),
discourse communities consist of ‘expert’ members of a particular genre and these members
often interact with one another to share and expand upon their knowledge. Both blogs feature a
comment or a discussion box wherein readers or members of the same discourse community
can discuss and interact with one another thus fulfilling this one characteristic. For example, in
gaming blogs that feature a game review, people would often discuss another related game and
give similarities between the topic game and the relevant game and in doing so, they produce
an even wider discourse.
According to Swales (as cited in Jones, 2012), two of the most important characteristics of
discourse communities often include members that have common goals and members with
common means of achieving that goals. Both discourse communities also share the same goals
within their respective groups to be able to reinforce others. For example, with basketball blogs
the goal of the discourse community is to be more knowledgeable and updated with the game of
basketball and these blogs help them achieve this certain goal. Members of basketball
discourse communities are those who are able to play basketball and for gaming blogs, those
who have access to consoles (Play station with this particular one) so common means exist.
However, the discourse community found in gaming blogs do tend to deviate from what Swale’s
defines discourse communities as. Members of the gaming discourse community would
sometimes argue among themselves and express different opinions of from each other
(personal opinions about games, which console is superior, etc.). Aside from that, the
community is mostly intact and accommodating. I believe that my chosen blogs help these
discourse communities in further improving and reinforcing their knowledge about the genre
through new information and a chance to discuss with a member of the same group.
Communicative purposes of these two blogs often differ in the purpose of what they want to
communicate. Basketball blogs sometimes contain information or general opinions about the
game, but it mostly consists of inspirational messages (encouraging players to train and play
harder) and scientific data with regards to the game. These sports blogs also often ‘filter’ and
highlight content from the same or a related website that the readers may visit. Gaming blogs
often expresses the opinions of the writer about a particular game or console and if he would
recommend it to the reader or not. Of course, these opinions do come with general information
about that particular game or console, but the rest of the text would only include the authors
ideology and they would often ask how the reader feels about it and asks them to discuss it in
the comment section.
Jose Antonio C. Dasig November 16, 2020
ELS – 2
ELS 2107, T/TH 12:00 – 1:30
Prof. Charity Turano
Move structures are vastly different between the two chosen blogs. With gaming blogs, the
author would always start with general information of the game and mentioning past content
while in
sports blogs, authors would often share a real – life basketball experiences to engage the
readers. Moreover, basketball blogs would often include ‘hyperlinks’ or highlights to some other
blogs within the website. For most of the blog, gaming authors would only express their
opinions, while in basketball blogs, they often have data or scientific evidence with a particular
topic. For example, one blog made mention of the “American Psychological Association” when
mentioning the empathy plays a big role in the game. Moving on, gaming blogs often utilize the
diary – type of entry because authors would almost always use the first – person pronoun ‘I’ and
narrate their experience when playing the game. I believe the moves utilized by these blogs are
effective in delivering the intended purpose. Gaming blogs are there to express the personal
experiences of the author with a particular item that the reader can understand and relate to,
while basketball blogs are there to point out necessary information (thus the filters and
highlights) that readers can easily access to better improve and motivate them to play.
Blogs such as these are connected through networks in a sense that one discourse topic will
eventually lead to other topics (other users might cite other discourses when presenting their
information). This can be achieved through the comment or discussion sections wherein
members of the community will begin to discuss among themselves other topics related to
games (for gaming, people might discuss other games or consoles and for basketball, people
might begin discussing other sports or maybe their own personal experience with it). The blogs
themselves are also related to other topics that discuss that particular genre (basketball is under
sports, while games encompass a wide variety of narratives or gameplay). Genres like gaming
are found within a much larger genre ecology, in a sense that when a new topic releases (a
game for example), older versions of the topic become less talked about and eventually become
irrelevant. For example, a game that was released way back in 1990’s will definitely not have
much traction when compared to modern games. This is especially true today as games seem
to release by the dozen each year and most of the older games get snubbed. This is not
necessarily a bad thing because as I’ve mentioned above, new games entail newer discussions
and these new discussions may eventually point towards these older games (and new
discourse arises). Blogs such as basketball seem similar towards scientific blogs since they
both frequently quote scientific studies and highlight other related studies. Aside from the
occasional motivational content, most sports blog incorporate a very technical form of writing
often citing studies that will help inform the reader about various ways they can improve their
game (backed with scientific data).
Reference:
Jones, R. (2012). Discourse Analysis: A resource book for students. In Discourse Communities.
Retrieved from:
[Link]
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Jose Antonio C. Dasig November 16, 2020
ELS – 2
ELS 2107, T/TH 12:00 – 1:30
Prof. Charity Turano
