See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/342474416

Genre Analysis in the Digital Era: Developments and Challenges

Article in ESP Today · June 2020

DOI: 10.18485/esptoday.2020.8.1.7

CITATIONS READS

25 2,170

1 author:

Sichen Ada Xia

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen
11 PUBLICATIONS 106 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Sichen Ada Xia on 28 June 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Review Article

Sichen Ada Xia*

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
scxia2-c@my.cityu.edu.hk

GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA:

DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

The widespread adoption of digital communication has led to the evolution of

human society into a digital and multimodal era. As genres are constructed to
address the problems existing in reality, they tend to absorb the digital and
multimodal elements and are developing into new forms and functions. In 141
consideration of these developments, genre scholars have devised theoretical and
methodological toolkits that might respond to reality. However, these newly
formulated insights are dispersed among various studies which warrant a
comprehensive review for the future scholars to refer to. In this context, the present
article surveys a wide range of studies available in the literature and identifies three
major developments in the genre analysis, namely, digital genre analysis,
multimodal genre analysis, and genre innovation. In addition to these developments,
it has been observed that in the digital era, the genre analysts are confronted with
epistemological, methodological, and ethical issues. In consideration of these issues,
the present report discusses the possible solutions that the analysts may consider
while researching digital-multimodal genres. The developments and challenges
identified in the present review reveal the social dimension of genre, and imply the
necessity of viewing genre as a socially-oriented, dynamic, communicative
phenomenon that corresponds to the continually evolving social reality.

Key words

genre analysis, digital technologies, multimodality, digital-multimodal genre.

* Corresponding address: Sichen Ada Xia, Department of English, City University of Hong Kong, 83, Tat
Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

https://doi.org/10.18485/esptoday.2020.8.1.7 Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

e-ISSN:2334-9050
SICHEN ADA XIA

1. INTRODUCTION
The notion of the genre has been continually holding an important position in
language studies and language education. One reason for this is the fact that the
useful, descriptive, and interpretive toolkits afforded by genre assist the ESP
researchers and educators in understanding the reason behind the construction of
a text in a particular way, prior to instructing learners to construct the text.
Another reason, from the perspective of the ESP learners, is that the conventions
involved in a genre may provide highly predictable steps for the beginners to
follow in their own efforts of construction of texts.
In this backdrop, many investigations have been carried out into this notion
(Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010). For instance, the English for Specific Purposes genre
tradition defines a genre as “a class of communicative events, the members of
which share a certain set of communicative purposes” (Swales, 1990: 58). The
Systemic Functional Linguistics genre approach, which focuses on the form and
meaning of language, regards genre as “staged, goal-oriented, social processes”
(Martin, Christie, & Rothery, 1987: 59). The Rhetorical Genre Studies tradition,
which centers on genres as social action in response to recurrent rhetorical
situations, perceives genre as a “conventional category of discourse-based in large-
scale typification of rhetorical action” (Miller, 1984: 163).
These definitions demonstrate the ubiquitous importance of the notion of
142
context in studying genres. In particular, the notion of a discourse community in the
ESP tradition, the argument of genres being socially oriented in the SFL tradition,
and the belief that genres are responsive to frequently occurring rhetorical
situations, indicate the social nature of the genre. In other words, a genre is socially
constructed and intimately related to the social context in which it is situated. If
the human society is constantly evolving, genres, which are rooted in and reflect
the reality, should naturally be developing into renewed forms and functions.
According to this argument, now since the contemporary society is becoming
increasingly technology-driven, it is highly probable that the practice of genre
analysis is influenced by this tendency. In fact, this assumption is evidenced by the
theoretical and methodological toolkits that are developed by the genre scholars to
address the changes caused by digital tools. However, these insights are dispersed
among various studies, which warrants a comprehensive review of the concerning
studies available in the literature in order to facilitate the genre researchers’
understanding of the status quo of genre studies.
The present report aims to satisfy this requirement by tracing the efforts put
by genre researchers for addressing the major changes caused by the rapidly
developing digital media and the challenges that remain unanswered in the genre
studies. On the basis of the understanding of the status quo of genre studies, the
present report intends to discuss the manner in which the genre researchers may
respond to these challenges in the technology-driven era. In order to achieve this
aim, two research questions are raised:

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

First, what major developments in the present way of performing genre

analysis are caused by digital technologies?
Second, what challenges are raised because of these developments? What are
the possible solutions that may be undertaken by the genre researchers to address
these challenges?

The present paper is structured in the following manner. In Section 2, the

methodology used in the paper is described, and the considerations in terms of
selecting the literature are introduced. In the next two sections, the findings that
answer the research questions raised are presented. In Section 3, major
developments in the genre studies are reported. Section 4 addresses the identified
challenges in performing genre analysis in the present era. In recognition of the
developments and challenges, in Section 5, the possible solutions to be considered
in future research in this area are discussed. This section also makes conclusions
and suggests implications.

2. METHODOLOGY
In order to explore the impact of digital media on genre theories and practices, the
present report provides a review of a broad range of the concerned studies
167
143
available in the literature. In the process of selecting and reviewing the literature,
three factors are considered. First, the surveyed literature covers a range of inter-
disciplinary topics, including genre analysis, computer-mediated communication,
media studies, and multimodal discourse analysis. This is mainly because genre
analysis is being increasingly conducted using a combination of genre approaches
and other methodological approaches. Second, the surveyed literature includes
diverse sources, primarily because the report aims to probe into both theoretical
and methodological dimensions of genre studies, and this aim cannot be achieved
by referring to one single type of literature. In particular, the findings of the
present report are drawn from the monographs that focus mainly on the
theoretical advances, the journal articles that center on methodological issues in
empirical studies, and the edited books that have assembled the most
representative work in the target areas. Third, in the process of referring to the
literature, the focus of the investigation is maintained on how exactly the
researchers respond to the newly emerging issues in genre analysis. In other
words, for the purpose of the present paper, the investigation of the literature is
focused primarily on the theoretical and methodological frameworks employed by
the researchers to analyze the genres, rather than on specific genres that have
been analyzed.

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

3. DEVELOPMENTS IN GENRE ANALYSIS

The surveyed literature reveals three major developments in the present way of
performing genre analysis caused by the rapidly developing digital and multimedia
technologies: digital genre analysis, multimodal genre analysis, and genre
innovation studies.

3.1. Digital genre analysis

The first major development identified in genre studies is the internalization of

digitality. Digital technologies create “a new communication setting which
reconfigures the conditions to which pragmatic features of language respond”
(Giltrow & Stein, 2009: 9). This novelty in the communicative contexts may be
instantiated by, for example, the diverse users afforded by the Internet and the
increasing user-author interaction in the process of constructing certain types of
texts. These novelties are significant for the consideration by the researchers when
analyzing the context in which a genre is constructed.
These changes caused by digitality warrant theoretical innovations in the
genre theories to adapt to the new situations. Bruce (2010), while synthesizing the
ESP and SFL genre approaches, presents a dual approach which considers every 169
144
genre as a social genre defined as “socially recognized constructs according to
which whole texts are classified in terms of their overall social purpose” (2010:
329) and as a cognitive genre focusing on the rhetorical purposes such as
argumentation, explanation, and narration. The significance of this model in
analyzing digital genres is that it accommodates the complexity of integrating
social knowledge and rhetorical knowledge contributed by diverse participants
into the process of construction of a digital genre.
A four-parameter framework for analyzing digital genres is presented by
Heyd (2008). Firstly, the vertical parameter instructs the analysts to consider the
level of generality in categorizing the genres and to distinguish between the
notions such as supergenres, subgenres, and text types. Genres could also be
studied horizontally so that the researchers could observe the manner in which a
genre is related to other genres. For instance, a pop-out advertisement on the
Internet may lead to a tourism website, which possibly leads to a confirmation
letter. Relevant notions in this regard include genre repertoire (Orlikowski &
Yates, 1994) emphasizing genres enacted to perform activities in organizational
contexts or genre ecology (Heyd, 2008), which refer to a naturally formulating
generic constellation. The third parameter is the ontological perspective which
assists the scholars in identifying a genre from a top-down or bottom-up
perspective. A top-down approach for identifying genres assumes that classifying
genres is dependent on the pre-fabricated listing of salient features, while a

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

bottom-up approach, also referred to as ‘folk taxonomy’ (Heyd, 2008: 198), relies
on the perception of the relevant discourse community in identifying the genres.
The last parameter guides the researchers to view genres from a dynamic and
diachronic perspective in order to understand the manner in which socio-technical
factors, such as the development of digital platforms, influence the evolution
process of a genre. In doing so, the genre is no longer viewed as an isolated and
static entity, but rather as an interconnected, vibrant, and resilient social
phenomenon. Specifically, a genre does not exist in a vacuum, but rather in a
vertical or horizontal relationship with other genres. It also responds to the
continually progressing technologies and benefits from them. These features of
interconnectedness and vibrance allow the resilience of achieving different
communicative purposes under different social circumstances to the genres.
Santini, Mehler, and Sharoff (2010) developed a three-level analytical
framework to analyze “web documents” (2010: 9). In consideration of the
multilayered structure allowed by the hyperlinks on websites, this framework
instructs the analysts to study the web genres at micro, meso, and macro levels.
Investigation at the micro-level focuses on “the page-level units and their
constituents” (Santini et al., 2010: 11). Although this framework does not specify
the resources that should be investigated at this level, it is reasonable to assume
that it includes the semiotic features on a specific webpage, such as the use of text,
image, and layout. At the meso level, attention is focused on the inner structure of
the website, i.e. the sitemap. Finally, at the macro level, the analysts are instructed
to investigate the inter-textual referencing involved in a website. For instance, how 145
is a website, as a whole entity, connected to the external Internet world? Using this
three-level analysis, researchers are able to gain a thorough understanding of the
manner in which different layers of the web genre are orchestrated to serve its
communicative functions.
Another attempt at considering digitality in genre analysis was performed by
Askehave and Neilson (2005), who constructed a two-dimensional model to
describe the digital genres as text, and, more importantly, as a medium. In this
model, the users of digital genres are endowed with two identities on the basis of
how they use the target genre. If the users are interested only in the text, they
undertake the conventional role of a reader who “zooms in on the text” (Askehave &
Neilson, 2005: 128); on the other hand, if the users use the digital genre as a portal
to other information sources, their identities change from readers into navigators
and the text becomes a medium. This model is applicable in the description of the
characteristics of certain hyperlink-dominated digital genres such as the homepage.
However, one possible criticism against this framework is that it does not
provide a clear explanation of how the concept of move could be operationalized in
a text containing hyperlinks, which might interrupt a traditionally defined
rhetorical move unit (Mehlenbacher, 2017). In order to respond to this criticism,
the analysts may require considering the facts that digital genres supply the
readers with various reading paths (Baldry & Thibault, 2006) and that a reader

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

may choose to read according to a dominant mode used in a text (Kress, 2003). For
instance, when reading a homepage containing a large portion of text along with a
hyperlink, a probable reading path would be to read the complete text first, prior
to clicking the hyperlink which would lead to a different rhetorical structure.
In this section, the surveyed literature informs the researchers regarding one
significant development in genre studies, namely, digital genre analysis. This
development has been facilitated by advances in digital technologies, which cause
dramatic changes in communicative settings. These changes further implore
renewed frameworks in order to facilitate analytic procedures. The frameworks
introduced above approach the digital genres from various perspectives. Despite
the different points of emphasis in these frameworks, they deal with a common
theme in digital genres, namely, the enhanced interconnectedness among the
discourses. Although it is common for genre analysts to place a genre in relation to
other genres, this practice has become complicated because of digital technologies
that enable a text to be conveniently hyperlinked to other texts. This function of
hypertextuality further produces possible ways of constructing genres, and at the
same time, it enables the readers to consume genres in their own customizable
manners. This affordance, therefore, requires the analysts to consider the
differences created by the hyperlinked content in the realization of communicative
purposes of the genre, especially when compared with a non-digital genre without
hyperlinks.
146
3.2. Multimodal genre analysis

The second notion that appeared frequently in the surveyed literature was the
multimodal genre, which refers to the genres that involve the use of multiple
communicative modes. According to Norris (2004), communicative modes may be
divided into embodied and disembodied modes. The former refers to the modes
that are produced by humans to express their thoughts, feelings, or perceptions,
for example, speech, gestures, head movement, facial expression, gaze, etc., while
the latter refers to the modes to which people may react, such as print, layout, and
music. These two types of modes, when combined, construct various multimodal
genres. Since the present report considers the role of digital technologies in
influencing communication, this section discusses only the research works
concerning digital-multimodal genres that have been constructed mainly by
disembodied modes.
The multimodal genre analysis approach applies the notion of the genre
being a socially-motivated, goal-oriented activity for multimodal communication.
This approach assumes that all genres are multimodal, as a genre is a higher-order
phenomenon that imposes a structure of communication, which itself is inherently
multimodal. The literature that has been referred to informs two aspects of

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

methodological progress, namely, multimodal move analysis, and the Genre and
Multimodality framework.

3.2.1. Multimodal move analysis

Multimodal move analysis is an enhanced version of the move/stage analysis

method used in the ESP and SFL genre approaches. In the analysis of text-
dominated genres, the analysts normally begin with the identification of the
rhetorical moves/stages in a text, followed by the investigation of the manner in
which lexical, grammatical, and organizational resources are exploited to realize
each move, and eventually achieving an understanding of how these moves, as
functional units, together realize the communicative purpose(s). However, when
applying this analytical framework to the analysis of multimodal genres, it is
necessary that the researchers notice that the realization of individual rhetorical
moves would probably involve multiple semiotic resources. As elaborated by van
Leeuwen (2005), while analyzing these “multimodal stages” (2005: 76), it is
required that the analysts identify the different modes involved in an individual
move and understand the relationships among the modes to decide whether the
move is elaborative or extensive.
This method may be integrated with other discourse analysis approaches for
investigating genres. For instance, Lam (2013) integrates this method with the
corpus approach in order to investigate the inter-discursive performance, hyper- 147
textuality, and multimodality in a web genre named the Internet group buying
deals. Using the combination of the quantitative approach and the qualitative
approach, the author was able to calculate the frequency of each move and how the
multimodal elements were exploited to realize each move. One interesting finding
of Lam’s research was that multimodality could be viewed as a continuum, with
“mostly linguistic” being one extreme and “mostly multimodal” (Lam, 2013: 17)
the other, and that the level of multimodality in each move is, as she argued,
determined by the specific communicative function of that particular rhetorical
move.
In addition to static multimodal genres, the multimodal move analysis
method may also be applied to the investigation of dynamic genres such as videos.
Hafner (2018a) applies this method to investigate an expert digital genre, namely,
the video methods articles, which refers to the videotaped demonstration of
laboratory procedures used by experimental scientists. Subsequent to the
identification of the moves and steps involved in the genre, the author elaborates
on how the written, spoken, and visual modes interplay in the move of
Demonstration and how these modes are manipulated for enhancing audience
engagement in the move of Introduction.
In summary, although the list of the studies using multimodal move analysis
method is not long, the existing studies in the literature have confirmed the
potential of this method in extending the move analysis method, from its

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

traditional use in the analysis of text-dominating genres to the investigation of

both static and dynamic genres involving multimodal elements.

3.2.2. The genre and multimodality framework

The second progress in the study of multimodal genres is the development of genre
and multimodality framework (hereafter, abbreviated as GeM) (Bateman, 2008).
This model is inspired by the notion of the convention in the concept of genre. In
traditional genre theories, the genre is regarded as an outcome of certain social
contexts, and therefore, the organization and lexico-grammatical choices involved
in the genre are constrained by certain communicative purposes (Miller, 1984;
Swales, 1990). Scholars using GeM extend this understanding to the construction of
multimodal documents and argue that the selection of multiple semiotic modes is
also socially motivated and constrained (Bateman, 2008, 2014a; Bateman &
Wildfeuer, 2014; Evangelisti Allori, Bateman, & Bhatia, 2014; Hiippala, 2014, 2017).
On the basis of this assumption, a framework for the systematic and
empirical study of multimodal genres is constructed. According to Bateman
(2008), analysts require considering three sources of constraints schematizing
multimodal genres. Canvas constraints refer to the constraints resulting from the
“physical nature” (Bateman, 2008: 18) of the multimodal artifact being produced,
such as paper or screen. Production constraints refer to the constraints arising
from the production technology, such as the limits on page size, the economy of 148
time or materials, etc. Finally, the consumption constraints refer to the constraints
caused by the way in which the document is consumed by the readers, including
factors such as time, place, manner of acquiring the document, etc.
In consideration of these constraints, GeM framework offers an “annotation
schema with multiple analytical layers” (Hiippala, 2017: 277) to guide the
empirical analysis. When analyzing a multimodal genre, researchers first divide
the basic units of the content in a document (base layer), for example, various
blocks of images and texts on a webpage. Subsequently, they look at the
hierarchical structure and the spatial arrangement of those units (layout layer),
which is followed by the investigation of the rhetorical relationships among those
basic units (rhetorical layer). Finally, the researchers are supposed to observe how
the readers are navigated when they read the documents and how the target
document is connected to other documents for facilitating the consumption of the
document (navigation layer) (Bateman, 2008; Hiippala, 2014, 2017).
The annotation is then stored in a file for further reference with the other
instances of the same genre in a corpus, and certain recurrent patterns could
emerge from the cross-reference. Since this framework renders the multimodal
features of a genre enumerable and quantifiable, it enables comparison among the
multimodal genres from different perspectives. For instance, a few researchers
using GeM performed cross-cultural comparisons in tourist brochures (Hiippala,
2012), global news items on tabloid newspapers (Kong, 2013), product packaging

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

messages (Thomas, 2014), and the landing pages of tourism websites (Nekić,
2015). Besides the cross-cultural comparison, cross-media comparisons in terms
of usage of the multimodal elements have also been performed. For instance,
Bateman, Delin, and Henschel (2007) investigate the differences in the usage of
multimodal resources between traditional newspapers and electronic newspapers.
Similarly, Hiippala (2017) compares digital long-form journalism and the landing
page of traditional feature journalism, and identifies the different uses of
navigation resources such as hyperlinks between the two media.
The GeM framework provides a template for a thorough analysis of the
multimodal genres by combining the quantitative approach with the qualitative
approach. In addition, as evidenced by the aforementioned research work on the
cross-cultural comparison, the GeM framework emphasizes that the study of
multimodal artifacts requires considering the context of culture and situation.

3.3. Genre innovation

In genre analysis, digitality and multimodality have contributed to the third

development in genre studies, the phenomenon of genre innovation. Prior to
probing into this notion, it would be useful to recollect a closely related notion, i.e.
genre convention. In his definition of the genre, Swales (1990) states that shared
communicative purposes may schematize a genre in terms of structure, content, 149
and style. Miller (1984: 163) interprets genre as “a conventional category of
discourse-based in large-scale typification of rhetorical action”. Words such as
schematize and conventional are used to highlight norm or convention as a core
feature of the genre. Tardy (2016: 9) echoes the statements of the aforementioned
authors by arguing that “without a norm, we cannot have departures; without
departures, we cannot have innovation”. Therefore, genre innovation, according to
different scholars, refers to “adapting the existing conventions in new ways”
(Fairclough, 1992: 69), genre creativity achieved through variation and critique
(Devitt, 2004), or appropriation of generic resources from one genre to another
(Bhatia, 2004, 2017). A further systematic definition is offered by Tardy (2016: 9),
who describes genre innovation as “departures from genre convention that are
perceived as effective and successful by the text’s intended audience or community
of practice”.
Tardy’s definition identifies two elements in genre innovation. Firstly, the
author intends to flout the established genre conventions to a certain extent.
Secondly, the departure requires to be acknowledged by the related discourse
community. In consideration of these two elements, several questions may be
raised. Why does genre innovation occur? How far does a genre require straying in
order to be regarded as an innovation? Who all are eligible for innovating in
constructing genres, only the expert authors or all the authors? How may we
measure the degree of acceptance of an innovated genre?

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

In order to answer these questions, genre scholars have put forward certain
conceptual and analytical frameworks. Bhatia (2004, 2017) argues that genre
innovation in the professional context stems from the requirement of people to
achieve their private intentions without conspicuously violating the publicly
accepted communicative purposes. These requirements lead to discursive
strategies such as genre mixing and genre-bending which, if recur in similar
communicative scenarios, could contribute to relatively stable genre colonization
and appropriation. Tardy (2016) puts forward a further systematic analytical
framework for researching innovation in the academic context, which includes the
investigation of text, social environment, and readers’ reception. In order to
investigate texts, the author advocates the application of the move analysis method
and the corpus-based text analysis methods, with special attention to the atypical
use of rhetorical strategies. Since texts are constructed in a social environment, the
author further suggests using ethnographic and longitudinal approaches to achieve
a thorough understanding of the social context where the innovation is occurring.
Besides text and social environment, Tardy also advocates the consideration of the
responses of actual readers as it is the readers who “give rise to judgments of
innovation” (Tardy, 2016: 47). In order to achieve this, several quantitative and
qualitative approaches may be employed, including “correlational studies, textual
responses, observational studies conducted on readers, diachronic studies, and
experimental studies” (Paul, Charney, & Kendall, 2001: 389).
The trend of genre innovation has been facilitated largely by digitality and 150
multimodality. For instance, Hafner (2018a) identifies two innovations in a digital
academic genre referred to as the video methods articles (VMA). Firstly, afforded
by multimodality, this genre demonstrates direct audience engagement, which is a
sign of colonizing generic features of a conference presentation. Secondly, the
digital technologies used in VMA allow the precise demonstration of laboratory
procedures. This is almost impossible to realize in traditional research articles
where writing is the dominant mode of communication. Therefore, in this digitally
mediated academic genre, use of digital and multimodal resources contributes to
its departure from the traditional academic genres. Another genre referred to as
the science-focused crowd-funding proposal (Mehlenbacher, 2017) is a hybrid of
the traditional grant proposal and the scientific research article. Different from the
traditional grant proposal, the readers of which consist of mainly the experts in the
target area, this new genre has a wider range of online audiences with diverse
backgrounds. In order to magnetize the online audiences, the genre manages to
employ multimodal resources such as images and short films, which furthers its
departure from the traditional genres. The aforementioned two examples indicate
that genre innovation arises as a result of genuine communicative requirements
and that in certain circumstances, these requirements may be satisfied by digital
technologies and multi-media.

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

4. CHALLENGES IN GENRE ANALYSIS

The second objective of the present report was to identify the challenges
confronting the genre analysts. The literature survey revealed that the challenges
caused by digitality and multimodality mainly include identifying the genre types,
determining the generic structure, demarcating the context, and making decisions
on the ethical issues.
A primary difficulty that confronts the researchers in the digital era is the
identification of a genre. This difficulty is caused mainly because of the different
levels of generality in the genres (Bateman, 2014b; Giltrow & Stein, 2009; Heyd,
2016). For instance, could “cybergenre” or “chat” be viewed as genre types?
Bateman (2014b: 240) problematizes this nomenclature by criticizing the lack of
“useful genre commonalities” that could be generalized from this way of naming. In
order to solve this problem, a few researchers propose to establish a system that
differentiates between supergenre, genre, and subgenre for demonstrating
different levels of granularity in describing the features of a genre (Askehave &
Nielsen, 2005; Giltrow & Stein, 2009). Nevertheless, systematic theories to
describe the properties of the newly-emerging multimodal and digital genres have
not been formulated so far (Bateman, 2014b).
The second difficulty encountered by the researchers is how to determine the
generic structure of the multimodal genres. This challenge arises mainly due to the
171
151
uncertain reading paths afforded by digitality and multimodality (Bateman, 2008,
2014a, 2014b; Giltrow & Stein, 2009; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006; van Leeuwen,
2005). Different from the traditional text-dominated genres which contain “linear
succession of stages” (van Leeuwen, 2005: 75), multimodal and digital genres
provide the readers with options to determine their own reading paths, which are
not necessarily linear and could be circular or even concentric. These self-
determined reading paths could result in different ways of composing meaning
(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). A vivid example of this contrast may be obtained in
the example of four bird field guide pages published in four different years
provided by Bateman (2008, 2014b). The text-dominated guide page in 1924
offered the readers an almost exclusive choice of reading the guide in sequential
order; however, the guide page in 1996 which contained an increasing number of
visual elements and side columns, supported multiple reading paths. Van Leeuwen
(2005) explicated the notion of multiple reading paths by using examples of an
exhibition room and a CD-ROM containing educational material for children and
concluded that the reading path is a cognitive decision to read from the most
salient elements to the less salient ones.
The third difficulty lies in the demarcation of the context in which a genre is
situated. Digitality complexes the spatial, temporal, and cultural aspects of the
social contexts through the creation of different strata of online and offline spaces
(Jones, Chik, & Hafner, 2015). This complexity is further complicated due to an
enhanced interaction and blurred boundaries between the online and offline, the

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

physical and the virtual spaces (Hafner, 2015; Jones, 2010). As the participants
shuttle between different spaces, the integrity of the context may somehow be
invaded, and this invasion could impact the construction of the genre in the
context. In the view of the high complexity in capturing the context of digital
discourse, researchers have been suggested to develop appropriate strategies to
collect data regarding the online and offline context (Hafner, 2018b).
In addition to the challenges related directly to the analytical practices, in the
digital era, genre researchers encounter ethical dilemma at certain times. The two
intertwined questions on ethics arise against the background of digitality. First, the
digital technologies, to a certain extent, blur the boundary between private and
public, which in turn raises questions regarding the extent to which a study might
jeopardize or invade the participants’ privacy. For instance, considering the case of
online chatting room communication, King (2015: 134) argues that “even though
that chatting was conducted in ‘public’, it was only intended for a certain public–
the men who sought those chat spaces, registered a nickname, and spent time
chatting there”. This argument implies that even though the participants in the
chatrooms were posting in publicly accessible forums, they nevertheless viewed
the chatroom as a kind of private space (Hafner, 2018b: 385). Therefore, genre
researchers are encountered with a decision to be undertaken in terms of whether
the targeted context is a public or a private space. The answer to this question
could lead to the second issue. If the evaluation of the context indicates that the
target context is a private space, then how do the researchers obtain informed 152
consent from the diverse participants on the Internet? These ethical
considerations are important for the genre researchers to contemplate in their
analysis of online genres.

5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The present report provides insights into the latest developments in genre studies
and identifies the challenges encountered by genre researchers. The surveyed
literature reveals three major theoretical and methodological developments in
genre studies. First, rapid developments in digital technologies lead to the
emergence of renewed communicative settings and novel generic practices, which
warrants the genre scholars to develop frameworks that address the new generic
features resulting because of digitality. The frameworks which probe the digital
genres from different perspectives share the common denominator of addressing
the function of hypertextuality involved in the digital genres. This reminds the
genre researchers of the necessity of positing a genre in an ecosystem for the
investigation of the manner in which a genre is intertextually related to other
discourses.
The second development in genre studies is the increasing consideration of
the use of multiple semiotic resources in digital-multimodal genres, which is

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

allowed by the advances in multimedia. The fact that an increasing number of

genres employ multimodal resources to achieve their communicative purpose
raises two major questions. The first question is how the genre scholars may
identify the generic patterns in a non-linear text, such as a poster or a webpage, in
an empirical manner. A follow-up question is how these scholars may
systematically investigate the utilized multimodal resources in order to realize the
communicative purposes. In consideration of these two questions, the Genre and
Multimodality framework and the multimodal move analysis method were
developed. The third development in genre studies is genre innovation, defined as
the departure from genre conventions. In order to study innovations in generic
practices, scholars have been advised to consider the receptions of the readers, in
addition to the text and the social context.
It is noteworthy that the three developments described above are interrelated.
The development of digital technologies allows the utilization of multiple semiotic
resources in the construction of digital–multimodal genres. Moreover, the
tendencies of digitality and multimodality contribute to the innovation of genres,
mainly because the digital functions and the multiple modes of communication
prepare the authors with resources to achieve unconventional communicative
purposes or to achieve communicative purposes in an unconventional way.
Therefore, when investigating digitality, multimodality, and innovation in genres, it
is useful for the researchers to have the mindset of viewing these developments as
interconnected, and to further explore how these developments facilitate each other. 153
In addition to these developments, digital media also challenges the genre
analysts with epistemological, methodological, and ethical challenges. The
epistemological issue centers on the identification of the genre types. In order to
address this issue, a possible and primary direction is to go back to the eternal
dichotomy of analyzing language, i.e. its form and function. Applying this pair of
concepts for the identification of a genre from a class of texts, either digital or non-
digital, multimodal or non-multimodal, the analysts may investigate whether these
texts have commonalities in terms of linguistic, organizational, and navigational (if
applicable) features, and at the same time, whether they have shared
communicative purposes. A comprehensive consideration of the form and function
of the genres may complement the probable subjectivity and “impressionistic
characterizations” (Bateman, 2014b: 245) in identifying genres in the digital era.
The methodological challenges encountered by the genre analysts include the
recognition of the generic structure and the demarcation of the context. The reason
for the difficulty in recognizing the generic structure is that digitality and
multimodality allow non-linear textual structures. Although it is not possible to
draw a complete procedural framework at this stage by synthesizing perspectives
of different scholars, in order to handle this difficulty, a preliminary analytical
protocol may be generalized. An initial step that the analysts may undertake is to
determine whether the target genre is linear or non-linear. Multimodal genres with

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

linear and sequential stages, such as text-dominated genres or films, may be

analyzed by adopting the multimodal genre analysis method (see Section 3.2.1).
In the case of genres with a non-linear structure, the analysts may select
between a reader-centered and a design-centered approach. A reader-centered
approach implies that the identification of the generic structure is dependent on
how an individual reader chooses his/her specific reading path, regardless of the
path intended by the author. This could be identified by the use of eye-tracking
methods (Bateman, Wildfeuer, & Hiippala, 2017) to trace the readers’ reading
trajectory. The advantage of the reader-centered perspective is that the
researchers are able to have the exact knowledge regarding an individual reader’s
“traversals” (Lemke, 2009: 283) in reading a non-linear discourse, thereby
allowing the analysts to observe how the reader reconfigures the meaningful
elements and customizes his/her own generic structure. However, the
disadvantage of this perspective is that since different readers may select different
reading paths, it would be energy-consuming and unrealistic to invite all the
readers to trace their reading paths. A supplement to this disadvantage is what
could be denominated as a design-centered perspective. This approach begins with
an analysis of the multimodal or the digital design itself, regardless of the multiple
reading paths that the readers are probably going to undertake. A typical method
based on this perspective is cluster analysis, which is widely adopted in the
analysis of WebPages or posters (Baldry & Thibault, 2006; Benson, 2017).
The second methodological difficulty is associated with the demarcation of the 154
boundary of the context and is caused by the fact that digital technologies multiply the
contextual layers. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the context, an
important step which the researchers may undertake is to develop an applicable
taxonomy of the environments which shape the context. Hafner (2018b) described the
three contextual layers that could exert an impact on the construction of genres
online, i.e. the physical environment, the virtual environment, and the screen
environment. These three layers could intersect and contribute to the formulation of
the situation in which a genre is constructed. In addition to the situational context
(Jones et al., 2015), it is necessary for the researchers to investigate the global context
in which a genre is situated as well (Benson, 2017), because digital technologies
enable “new and complex global flows of cultural products and ideas” (Jones et al.,
2015: 9) that could impact the genre construction practices.
It is noteworthy that besides the increased complexity, digitality also brings
with it convenience for the researchers in analyzing the context. One important
affordance of digitality is that it enables the researchers to investigate readership.
Earlier, when an article was published, it was inconvenient for the researchers to
investigate the manner in which the readers responded to the text, as they were
unable to specify who had read the work. However, with the prevalence of digital
technologies, researchers are now able to observe the readership by collecting and
analyzing the comments following the online discourse (Sugimoto & Thelwall,

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

2013; Sugimoto et al., 2013; Tsou, Thelwall, Mongeon, & Sugimoto, 2014;
Veletsianos, Kimmons, Larsen, Dousay, & Lowenthal, 2018).
Digital technologies also bring with them the consideration of ethical issues.
In order to approach the ethical aspect of digital discourse research, analysts could
begin with distinguishing between the private and the public domains.
Researchers may first comprehensively evaluate the target communicative
scenario by asking the following questions: Where does the communication occur?
Does the venue include specific notifications regarding how the contents should be
used, such as the ‘terms of use’? Who are the authors and addressees of the
discourse? Do they possess the legal, physical, and mental capacity to undertake
decisions on whether their utterances could be studied? (AoIR, 2002; Hafner,
2018b). If in the evaluation the target context is determined as publicly accessible,
such as in the case of YouTube texts (Benson, 2017), YouTube comments (Benson,
2015), or TED talk comments (Sugimoto & Thelwall, 2013; Sugimoto et al., 2013;
Tsou et al., 2014; Veletsianos et al., 2018), where the posted contents encourage
responses from the public or the participation of general public, the researchers
are under less obligation to protect privacy in the context with high publicity.
On the other hand, if an all-encompassing evaluation of the context indicates
that it is a communicative scenario with limitations on entry or sensitive personal
experiences, it is necessary for the researchers to consider how to obtain consent
from the participants using appropriate means. In a virtual communication context
such as an online chatting room or a forum, it may be different for the researchers
to obtain informed consent compared to obtaining consent in an offline context. 155
The means of informing participants are dependent on the functions afforded by
the digital site or applications. For instance, in the chatting room studied by King
(2009, 2015), researchers were able to contact the participants individually
through anonymous emails. After asking for permission from them, the researcher
directed them to another website where they could access all the transcriptions
and subsequently undertake decisions regarding the deletion of certain data,
removal of their username, or complete withdrawal from the project. Angouri and
Sanderson (2016) utilized the functions afforded by a healthcare forum to obtain
the participants’ consent. Although the authors could not send emails to the users
individually, they could, by following the terms of use mentioned on the forum,
post an introduction to the research project to inform the participants regarding
the objectives of the research and the participants’ rights. Subsequently, the
authors allowed a certain period of time for the minor users to withdraw from the
project and for the participants to indicate their preference for the use of a
pseudonym. In summary, while handling the ethical issues arising during the
analysis of digital genres, the researchers are advised to consider the issues
including consent, harm, data protection, anonymization, and credit (Hafner,
2018b), prior to utilizing the resources afforded by digital technologies.
The developments and challenges identified in the present report confirm
one significant dimension of the genre, which is that the genres are socially-

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

motivated and constructed communicative practices. Genres are continually

evolving and responding to the eternally changing human society. Therefore, it is
important that the genre scholars consider the evolutions in social realities, and
follow how these evolutions potentially impact the genre construction practices. In
consideration of this requirement, the present study aimed to address one
particular aspect of these evolutions: the latest progress and problems caused by
digital technologies. The necessity of investigating the impact exerted by the digital
technologies is also supported by Bateman et al. (2017), who approaches this issue
from the perspective of the interrelation among genre, materiality, and
multimodality, as evidenced by the following excerpt from their book:

“As communicative situations become more complex, perhaps drawing on new

technological capabilities and combinations of meaning-making strategies,
being able to pick apart the constitutive contributions of material and what is
done with that material will prove crucial.” (Bateman et al., 2017: 110)

The present report also has pedagogical implications for ESP instructors.
Since the achievement of communicative purposes increasingly relies on the
employment of not just linguistic resources but also digital and multimodal
resources, the instructors are required to provide the students with guidance on
how to manipulate the digital and multimodal resources in their construction of
digitally-mediated multimodal genres. A few researchers have already integrated
multimodality and digitality in the design of ESP courses (Hafner, 2014; Hafner & 156
Miller, 2019), and their practices have been proved to be useful in preparing the
students for real-life communication.
In conclusion, the developments caused by the digital technologies and
multimedia identified in the present report are required to be considered with
caution due to the fact that digital media are advancing continually and rapidly,
which implies that the influences exerted on the generic practices are also evolving
incessantly. Furthermore, the suggestions put forward in the discussion section
require re-evaluation when it comes to specific research questions. Moreover, it is
worthwhile to conduct empirical studies to evaluate the feasibility of these
suggestions, which would highlight addressing the unanswered questions related
to genre analysis in the digital era.

[Paper submitted 4 Sep 2019]

[Revised version received 8 Dec 2019]
[Revised version accepted for publication 20 Dec 2019]

References

Angouri, J., & Sanderson, T. (2016). ‘You’ll find lots of help here’: Unpacking the function of
an online Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) forum. Language & Communication, 46, 1-13.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2015.10.001

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

AoIR. (2002). Ethical decision-making and internet research: Recommendations from the
aoir ethics working committee. Retrieved from https://aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf
Askehave, I., & Nielsen, A. E. (2005). Digital genres: A challenge to traditional genre
theory. Information Technology & People, 18(2), 120-141.
Baldry, A., & Thibault, J. P. (2006). Multimodal transcription and text analysis: A multimedia
toolkit and coursebook. London: Equinox.
Bateman, J. (2008). Multimodality and genre: A foundation for the systematic analysis of
multimodal documents. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bateman, J. (2014a). Developing a GeM (genre and multimodality) model. In S. Norris, & C.
D. Maier (Eds.), Interactions, images and texts: A reader in multimodality (pp. 25-36).
Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
Bateman, J. (2014b). Genre in the age of multimodality: Some conceptual refinements for
practical analysis. In E. P. Allori, J. Bateman, & V. K. Bhatia (Eds.), Evolution in genre:
Emergence, variation, multimodality (pp. 237-269). Bern: Peter Lang.
Bateman, J., & Wildfeuer, J. (2014). A multimodal discourse theory of visual narrative.
Journal of Pragmatics, 74, 180-208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.10.001
Bateman, J., Delin, J. L., & Henschel, R. (2007). Mapping the multimodal genres of
traditional and electronic newspapers. In T. D. Royce, & W. L. Bowcher (Eds.), New
directions in the analysis of multimodal discourse (pp. 147-172). Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bateman, J., Wildfeuer, J., & Hiippala, T. (2017). Multimodality: Foundations, research and
analysis: A problem-oriented introduction. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, Inc.
Bawarshi, A. S., & Reiff, M. J. (2010). Genre: An introduction to history, theory, research, and
pedagogy. West Lafayette, Ind.: Parlor Press; Fort Collins, Colo.: WAC Clearinghouse. 157
Benson, P. (2015). Commenting to learn: Evidence of language and intercultural learning
in comments on YouTube videos. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 88-105.
http://dx.doi.org/10125/44435
Benson, P. (2017). The discourse of YouTube: Multimodal text in a global context. London:
Routledge.
Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of written discourse. London: Continuum.
Bhatia, V. K. (2017). Critical genre analysis: Investigating interdiscursive performance in
professional practice. New York: Routledge.
Bruce, I. (2010). Evolving genres in online domains: The hybrid genre of the participatory
news article. In A. Mehler, S. Sharoff, & M. Santini (Eds.), Genre on the web:
Computational models and empirical studies (pp. 323-348). Dordrecht, Netherlands:
Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9178-9_15
Devitt, A. J. (2004). Writing genres. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
Evangelisti Allori, P., Bateman, J., & Bhatia, V. K. (2014). Evolution in genre: Emergence,
variation, multimodality. Bern: Peter Lang AG.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge, Mass.: Polity Press.
Giltrow, J., & Stein, D. (2009). Genre in the internet: Innovation, evolution, and genre
theory. In J. Giltrow, & D. Stein (Eds.), Genres in the internet: Issues in the theory of
genre (pp. 1-25). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hafner, C. A. (2014). Embedding digital literacies in English language teaching: Students’
digital video projects as multimodal ensembles. TESOL Quarterly, 48(4), 655-685.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.138

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

SICHEN ADA XIA

Hafner, C. A. (2015). Co-constructing identity in virtual world for children In R. H. Jones, A.

Chik, & C. A. Hafner (Eds.), Discourse and digital practices: Doing discourse analysis in
the digital age (pp. 97-111). London: Routledge.
Hafner, C. A. (2018a). Genre innovation and multimodal expression in scholarly
communication: Video methods articles in experimental biology. Iberica, 36, 15-42.
Hafner, C. A. (2018b). Digital discourses research and methods In A. Phakiti, P. De Costa, L.
Plonsky, & S. Starfield (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of applied linguistic research
methodology (pp. 375-390). London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-
1-137-59900-1_18
Hafner, C. A., & Miller, L. (2019). English in the disciplines: A multidimensional model for ESP
course design. London/New York: Routledge.
Heyd, T. (2008). Email hoaxes: Form, function, genre ecology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Heyd, T. (2016). Digital genres and processes of remediation. In A. Georgakopoulou, & T.
Spilioti (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and digital communication (pp.
87-102). Oxon: Routledge.
Hiippala, T. (2012). The locailisation of advertising print media as a multimodal process. In
W. L. Bowcher (Ed.), Multimodal texts from around the world: Linguistic and cultural
insights (pp. 97-122). London: Palgrave.
Hiippala, T. (2014). Multimodal genre analysis. In S. Norris, & C. D. Maier (Eds.),
Interactions, images and texts: A reader in multimodality (pp. 111-123). Berlin,
Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.
Hiippala, T. (2017). An overview of research within the genre and multimodality framework.
Discourse, Context & Media, 20, 276-284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.05.004
Jones, R. H. (2010). Cyberspace and physical space: Attention structures in computer- 158
mediated communication. In A. Jaworski, & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscape:
Text, space and globalization (pp. 151-167). London: Continuum.
Jones, R. H., Chik, A., & Hafner, C. A. (2015). Discourse analysis and digital practices. In R. H.
Jones, A. Chik, & C. A. Hafner (Eds.), Discourse and digital practice: Doing discourse
analysis in the digital age (pp. 1-17). Oxon: Routledge.
King, W. B. (2009). Building and analysing corpora of computer-mediated communication. In
P. Baker (Ed.), Contemporary corpus linguistics (pp. 301-320). London: Continuum.
King, W. B. (2015). Investigating digital sex talk practices: A reflection on corpus-assisted
discourse analysis. In R. H. Jones, A. Chik, & C. A. Hafner (Eds.), Discourse and digital
practice: Doing discourse analysis in the digital age (pp. 130-143). Oxon: Routledge.
Kong, K. C. C. (2013). A corpus-based study in comparing the multimodality of Chinese-
and English-language newpapers. Visual Communication, 12(2), 173-196.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357212471594
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd
ed.). London: Routledge.
Lam, P. (2013). Interdiscursivity, hypertextuality, multimodality: A corpus-based multimodal
move analysis of internet group buying deals. Journal of Pragmatics, 51, 13-39.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.02.006
Lemke, J. (2009). Multimodal genres and transmedia traversals: Social semiotics and the political
economy of the sign. Semiotica, 173(1-4), 283-297. https://doi.org/10.1515/SEMI.2009.012

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

 GENRE ANALYSIS IN THE DIGITAL ERA: DEVELOPMENTS AND CHALLENGES

Martin, J. R., Christie, F., & Rothery, J. (1987). Social process in education: A reply to
Sawyer and Watson (and others). In I. Reid (Ed.), The place of genre in learning:
Current debates (pp. 58-82). Geelong, Australia: Deakin University.
Mehlenbacher, A. R. (2017). Crowdfunding science: Exigencies and strategies in an
emerging genre of science communication. Technical Communication Quarterly,
26(2), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2017.1287361
Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(2), 151-167.
Nekić, M. (2015). Tourists activities in multimodal texts: An analysis of Croatian and Scottish
tourism websites. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Norris, S. (2004). Multimodal discourse analysis: A conceptual framework. In P. LeVine, &
R. Scollon (Eds.), Discourse and technology: Multimodal discourse analysis (pp. 101-
115). Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Yates, J. (1994). Genre repertoire: The structuring of communicative
practices in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(4), 541-574.
Paul, D., Charney, D., & Kendall, A. (2001). Moving beyond the moment: Reception studies
in the rhetoric of science. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 15(3),
372-399. https://doi.org/10.1177/105065190101500305
Santini, M., Mehler, A., & Sharoff, S. (2010). Riding the rough waves of genre on the web:
Concepts and research questions. In A. Mehler, S. Sharoff, & M. Santini (Eds.), Genre
on the web: Computational models and empirical studies (pp. 3-30). Dordrecht,
Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9178-9_1
Sugimoto, C. R., & Thelwall, M. (2013). Scholars on soap boxes: Science communication and
dissemination in TED videos. Journal of the American Society for Information Science
& Technology, 64(4), 663-674. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22764 179
159
178
Sugimoto, C. R., Thelwall, M., Larivière, V., Tsou, A., Mongeon, P., & Macaluso, B. (2013).
Scientists popularizing science: Characteristics and impact of TED talk presenters.
PLoS ONE, 8(4), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062403
Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tardy, C. M. (2016). Beyond convention: Genre innovation in academic writing. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press.
Thomas, M. (2014). Evidence and circularity in multimodal discourse analysis. Visual
Communication, 13(2), 163-189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357213516725
Tsou, A., Thelwall, M., Mongeon, P., & Sugimoto, C. R. (2014). A community of curious souls:
An analysis of commenting behavior on TED talks videos. PLoS ONE, 9(4), 1-11.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0093609
van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Multimodality, genre and design. In R. H. Jones, & S. Norris (Eds.),
Discourse in action: Introducing mediated discourse analysis (pp. 73-93). Oxon: Routledge.
Veletsianos, G., Kimmons, R., Larsen, R., Dousay, T. A., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2018). Public
comment sentiment on educational videos: Understanding the effects of presenter
gender, video format, threading, and moderation on YouTube TED talk comments.
PLoS ONE, 13(5), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197331

SICHEN ADA XIA is a PhD candidate at the Department of English, City University
of Hong Kong. Her research interests include English for Specific Purposes, genre
analysis, multimodality, scientific popularization, and digital literacy. She has
published on these topics in journals such as Chinese ESP Journal and RELC Journal.

Vol. 8(1)(2020): 141-159

View publication stats