Genre innovation, hybridization and multimodality: An analysis of research video abstracts

Abstract

Recent advancements in technology have impacted the ways genres are being produced and reproduced for a varied audience, thus fostering genre innovation. Genre innovation is defined as “departures from genre convention that are perceived as effective and successful by the text’s intended audience or community of practice” (Tardy, 2016, p. 9). Genre innovation manifests itself in innovative, multimodal genres in three layers; first a stylistic and modal variation; second, a rhetorical structure level; and third, a discourse level by mixing genres and discourses (Tardy, 2016). Situated within this perspective, this dissertation aimed at investigating genre innovation in the emerging, multimodal genre of Video Abstracts (VA). In study one and via an inductive analysis of VAs, it became clear that VAs are stylistically varied and utilize modes that are typical of both research and non-research discourses. This way they were distinguished into three types of Graphical VAs, Whiteboard VAs and Talking-researcher VAs. Due to modal variation, each VA seems to be an attempt at connecting to a different audience ranging from experts to non-experts. The second study then took a multimodal move analysis approach to the analysis of VAs and showed that VAs contain the typical moves that have traditionally been used in other research genres such as in research articles. However, what seemed to be unique and innovative in this genre is the multimodal realization of those moves, showcasing two types of innovation; dynamic illustration of researchers’ claims and creative mixing of various discourses and genres. The third study then looked closely into the second innovation or “interdiscursivity” in the WVAs of the study. Interdiscursivity is referred to as “creating novel and creative textual constructs by appropriating and exploiting conventions and semiotic resources typical of other genres and social discourses in constructing novel, hybrid genres” (Bhatia, 2010). Interdiscursivity in WVAs was used to achieve some of researchers’ private intentions, such as providing instructions on scientific concepts, evoking slight promotional impacts and entertaining and engaging viewers. The dissertation has both theoretical and empirical implications for both interested genre analysts and genre producers.