The Digital representation of an industrial cluster through its corporate website image: online discourse and genre analysis

The Texture ofInternet: Netlinguistics in Progress, edited by Santiago Posteguillo, María José Esteve, M. Lluisa Gea-Valor Tltis book fust published 2007 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing 15 Angerton Gardens, Newcastle, NE5 2JA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Acatalogue record for tltis book is available from the British Library Copyright ©2007 by Santiago Posteguillo, María José Esteve, M. Lluisa Gea-Valor and contríbutors AH rights for this book reserved. No part of tltis book may be reproduced, stored in aretrieval system, or transmitted, in any forro or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or oilierwise, without the prior permission ofilie copyright owner. ISBN 1-84718-173-2; ISBN 13: 9781847181732 spread and effectiveness. Hence, cybergenres connect with the globalising mood of contemporary societies and ground, with the help of an adequate online discourse and awareness of cornmunity implications, modern, up-to-date corporate website images characterised by aseries of recursive features to be found in each individual company website. Thus, the corporate (website) image offered by industrial clusters in general and by the Spanish ceramic industrial cluster in particular is enhanced by the use of genres that fit and fo11ow the logic of the times in terrns of evolution (cybergenres). These digital genres extend the potential of traditional ones in terms of meeting the expectations and reflecting the cornmunicative practices of discourse communities, allowing the creation of acoherent, effective and easily identifiable corporate website image. CHAPTERTHREE THE DIGITAL REPRESENTATION OF AN INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER THROUGH ITS CORPORATE WEBSITE IMAGE: ONLINEDISCOURSE AND GENRE ANAL YSIS The Digital Representation of an Industrial Cluster through its Corporate Website Irnage 47 NURIA EDO MARZÁ In the high-tech world, ifyou're not on the net, you're not in the know -The Economist o. Abstraet Genre analysts, especia11y in the area of academic ?is~ourse, h;:~ em hasised the idea of change in genres. Genres are. dynaIDlc .mstances. a ev~ve as society changes (Swales, 1990; Devitt, 1993 m Postegu~ll~, 20~. 31~ due to their role as communicative actions for know~edge. transffilSSlOn. ?~ of society, industrial clusters and their correspond1D:g dlsco~se co~un.ltleS also adapt their communicative practices and therr COgDltlO~ m.ec am~ms . l· Adingly the commurucatlve actlons (generic conventions) to this evo utlon. ccor, 1 ) h fd·mmunities (of which industrial clusters are an examp eave olscourse co fti d b t hnologies The olved to fit and benefit from the advances o ere ynew e~ .th :~aptation of these mechanisms of cognition to th~ dem~ds :upose~fbYsuc: times has thus necessarily implied the evolutlon an c ~nge mechanisms: genres. As aresult, the concept of genre has glven way to a relativel new concept, that of digital genre or cybergenr~. .. The Yincreasing use that industrial clusters and therr r~spectlve discourse . . ak f"new" digital genres obeys the potentlal they present for communltles m e o . ·bl tfind assembling in asingle genre (the website) aseries of features lfDpOS~l e. o in more traditional ones, and for containing sma11er cybrgenres Wlth diffe~~~t de ees of evolution compared with traditional genres .. Among the ~haractens ~c fe~es of cybergenres we fmd interactivity, a pre-emme~t role of lfD~ge, a~~~~ and video, quick and easy information access, worldwlde scope, rrnrne 1. Introduction Genres are organlzmg structures that shape and represent the communicative actions and practices of discourse cornmunities through their use. The importance of genre as a"shaper" and "communicator" of knowledge is latent in any discourse cornmunity interaction. Although genre and industrial clusters may at frrst sight seem to be two concepts with very little in common, the concepts of cornmunication and discourse cornmunity do not seem so far aparto In fact, cornmunication is fundamental in almost every aspect of life and it is the presence of genre in every single communicative situation that makes these concept pair relationships possible and easily understandable. Certain genres tend to occur recursively in certain communities becoming cognitive mechanisms that help to strengthen the net constituted by the cornmunity. Therefore, genre and industrial clusters -understood as instances of discourse communitiesgo hand in hand. As ageneral rule, the members of adiscourse cornmunity necessarily share aseries of features in common (see section 1). This is the key issue for the creation of the corporate (website) image of an industrial cluster. In spite of the intrinsically autonomous, competitive nature of the companies forming part of any industrial cluster, all the firrns in it share aseries of features which a110w them to be grouped under asingle entity or denomination. For instance, the goals pursued by an industrial cluster -understood again as adiscourse communityare common, in general, to a11 the companies of the cluster, as are the genres used for achieving such purposes. This allows the creation of a corporate (website) image valid for the cluster as awhole since the different companies forming part of it aim at maximising benefits as amajor cornmon goal and also share, in general terrns, the techniques used for such apurpose. These techniques include agood use of generic conventions and online discourse. As amatter of fact, one of the most effective ways of fostering industrial activity and positive results is by being widely known (the power of information in general and ICTs1 in particular is irnmense nowadays) and new digital genres allow the "here-and-now" effect that more traditional genres cannot so easily achieve. Following Berkenkotter and Huckin (1995: 3) "genres are inherently dynamic rhetorical structures that can be manipulated according to the conditions of use, and [...]genre knowledge is therefore best conceptualised as aform of situated cognition embedded in disciplinary activities". Industrial clusters can be considered disciplinary activities in which genre is embedded as ameans for cognition and communication. This fact may also contribute to understanding the increasing use that these clusters and their respective discourse communities make of new digital genres in an attempt to adapt to and profit from the possibilities offered by online discourse. Therefore, since genre is the way in which cognition is given (the means for transrnitting and communicating knowledge) and knowledge changes and evolves, genres also necessarily change and adapt to this evolution. Cybergenres are basically the result of the necessary evolution experimented by genres in response to the demands of discourse communities and an increasingly technological world. However, in spite of the multiple advantages this situation represents, achieving the expected results entails acorrect understanding of the net culture. In connection with technological advances, Ferrara et al. (1991) contend that technology alters genres, generating what they defined as blurred genres. This situation, which may be found mainly on the Net, is defined by Posteguillo (2003: 31) as the existence of "a substantial number of different blurred genres that overlap and which are in permanent change". In Yates and Orlikowski's (1992) views communications in anew medium, such as the World-Wide Web, will show both reproduction or adaptation of existing communicative genres and the emergence of new genres. Following these authors, many genres are being or have already been adapted to take advantage of the linking and interactivity features of the new medium, and industrial clusters are no exception. The dynarnic nature of genres is confmned by our daily routine in which cybergenres have successfully become part of most discourse communities and individuals' lives. Nowadays, it is increasingly common and advisable for companies to present themselves on the Net. By means of websites companies introduce themselves, advertise their products and services, show their catalogues, establish and maintain contact (interact) and have the possibility of becoming Fig. 3-1: Structure ofilie chapter. Iniustri.al clustezs DiscoulSe C '00' . ( .. oo" __ __ ogru nEvoluhan 10 ceramIC lzuUS tri.al cluster)-- comnuni ties-- thlou _1. +.,,¡., &" genre c J' vergenres or digital gemes 49 Corporate website __ ...¡ ..... irnage (ofthe cera.mic irdus tri.al cluster) Analysis of cmline dis course 2. Industrial c1usters and discourse cornrnunities T~e different. indus~al clusters existing nowadays in the business world can be sald to ~onstltute dlscourse cornmunities. However, discourse cornmunities may sometlmes seem blurred, overlapping and even indefmite. This is so because .wh~t ~or many people may constitute asingle, well-defmed unique ~omm~lty mltself.( ~ver~ll view), for other people may be agroup o; smaller rntegratmg comn:unltleS (mtegrating view) forrning all together amuch bi er ?ne co~prehendm~ the. rest. ~or instance, in the specific case of the cer~c rndustnal cornmuDlty, lf the mtegrating view is considered the cornmunity could. b.e understood to be the bigger, general "entity" re~ultin from the aSSOClatlon of smaller cornmunities. In this case, these smaller c~rnmunities ~oU!d be those made up of chernists, white-collar workers, blue-collar workers eSl~ers, members of the board, distributors and salespeople and the~ ~oupm~ to~ether would result in the cerarnic industrial co~unity This rntegratrng Vlew of the cluster could also be tackled from amore bu~inessThe Digital Re~resentation of an Industrial Cluster through Its Corporate Website Image kn~wn worl~wide. These possibilities, combined with the aforementioned notlO~s of dlscourse community, (cyber)genre and online discourse analysis con~tltute ~he key factors for th.e creation of an adequate digital representation oí an mdustnal cluster through ltS corporate website image. Industrial clusters whatever they. ar~, study an~ analyse these aspects when designing the~ corporate websl~e lIDages, WhlCh must be easily identifiable representative of the whol~ and falthful to the "politics" of the cluster. ' .In thlS chapt~r, the. different aspects mentioned in this introductory section wIll be progresslvely mtroduced and dealt with to complete the diagrarnrn ti (flow) representation indicated in figure l. The Spanish cerarnic indus~ia~ cluster has been the one chosen to illustrate this topic. Chapter Three 48 1Information and Cornrnunication Technologies. oriented but equally valid and coherent perspective. This perspective would be to consider the ceramic cluster as made up of smaller communities which would correspond to the different fmns specialised in the different stages involved in the ceramic production process (sorne of them are adjacent industries but necessary in the process). These smaller communities would be the fmns in charge of extracting and supplying raw materials, the fmns of frits, glazes a~d colours, those of machinery production and premises maintenance, those m charge of tile production (tiles as afmished product) and the institutions or organisrns related to the cluster. In order to shed sorne light on this issue, a series of features whose accomplishment defmes, according to Swales (1990), a discourse community, are presented in the following paragraphs. Most probably, these paragraphs lead to the conclusion that both views of adiscourse community (the overall and integrating ones) are valid and may even be given simultaneously. However, in order to make the chapter easier to foHow, the industrial cluster of the ceramic industry (and its corresponding discourse community) is considered here from the overall view, that is to say, as awhole, without making any reference to smaller "integrating" communities. As commented at the beginning of this section, although discourse communities may sometimes be difficult to delimit, they are not something abstract or vaguely defmed. In the specific case of the Spanish ceramic industrial cluster, the main reason for being considered acommunity in spite of the different fmns forming part of it is, basically, that aH these fmns share common objectives. In order to enhance the accomplishment ofthese objectives, the cluster/community possesses aseries of participatory mechanisms articulated by the concept genre. Discourse communities are thus networks characterised by redundant and frequent relationships given through genre and by common values and norms resulting in competition leveraging, high quality information and tacit knowledge transrnission. At the same time, this is translated into a"competitive advantage" for fmns based on solidarity and common values but also characterised, in the specific case of the cerarnic industrial community, by an intrinsic riva1ry between fmns imposed by the very nature of any business-oriented community. Any discourse community we may think of presents aseries of features that characterise it as such. In Swales' (1990) views, the conceptualization of discourse communities can be summarised in the identification of six defining characteristics, which are necessary and sufficient to identify agroup of individuals as adiscourse community (as happens here with the ceramic industrial cluster): 1) "A discourse community has abroadly agreed set of common public goals" (Swales, 1990: 24-25). 50 Chapter Three The Digital Re~resentation of an Industrial Cluster through 51 ItS Corporate Website Image These. public goals.are, ~ the c~se of the ceramic industrial community, rath~r tacIt because, as many mdustnal, business-related activity, the objectives are, ~n .general: to bec~~e .leaders in the sector, extend markets, attract clients, maXIffiIse benefits, mmnlllse losses, effectively fight against competition and be at the f~refront of innovation, infrastructures and technology. Howeve;, the fact of sharmg co~?n, public goals like the aboye does not prevent individual f~s from ~l~o aIffimg at these goals. Competition is always latent in any busmess .aCtIVIty but, although the fmns forrning part of the ceramic industrial communIty fight for their success at an individual level, they are aware of the fact tha~ the su~cess of the cluster as awhole is always positive for the compallles fonnmg part of it. Thus, the discourse community (the "clusterfeature") makes the individual stronger. 2) "A discourse community has mechanisrns of intercommunication among its members" (Swales, 1990: 25). These mechanis~ ~ary de?ending on the community and in the specific case of the cerarmc mdustrIal community these are: intemational fairs (Cevisama, Cersaie ... ), joumals and periodicals (Tite and Brick International Ziegeli~dustrie ~nternatio~al, Técnica Cerámica, Ceramica Injormazine: IndustrIal Ceramlcs, Boletm de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica yVidrio etc.), conversations, e-mails, faxes, correspondence, etc. ' ~) "J:- disco~se community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provIde m~ormatlOn and feedback" (Swales, 1990: 26). . Acco~dmg to Swales (1990: 26) "membership implies uptake of the ~formatlOnal. 0pportunities:'. In ~ way, this is the result of having mtercommU~IcatIon mechamsms WhICh are mainly used to accomplish public goals but which can also be used for more private ones. In t~e Spanish cerarnic industrial community, for instance, the most proto~pIcal exam?le of aparticipatory mechanism is ASCER (Asociación ~span?la de. ~~bncantes .de Azulejos yPavimentos Cerámicos), akind of meetm~ ~omt ~or the dIfferent fmns in the clustei. In the same way, other co~panIes websItes can be resorted to in order to become aware of their philosophy, products, innovations, trends, techniques, procedures weaknesses etc. Conseq~en~ly,. informational ~pportunities. can be used either'to strengthe~ the commulllty stIes and benefit Its common mterests or to obtain information about member companies with more private objectives. .4) "A disc~urs~ community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres ID the commulllcatIve furtherance of its aims" (Swales, 1990: 26). ~I This i~ the reason why AS~E~'s website could be considered agood, simple way of 1lustratmg the corporate webslte Image of the ceramic industrial cluster. Departing from the fact that "genres are how things get done, when l~guage is used to accomplish them" (Martin, 1985: 250 in Swales, 1990: 2~) dlscourse expectations are created by the genres that traditionally have artlculated the operations of the discourse community (Swales, 1990: 26). Consequently, each kind of discourse community favours certain genres more than others because its goals are better accomplished through them and the community as such is better represented by them. .' . In the case of the ceramic industrial commumty new dlgital genres such as web pages fit perfectly well into the "philosophy" oft~e community. This is ~o because, apart from merely linguistic consideratlOns, they allow rapld communication, visual potential, amuch wider reach or scope and powerful advertising -factors which always benefit any business ac~vity. . 5) "In addition to owning genres, adiscourse commumty has acqurred sorne specific lexis" (Swales, 1990: 26-27). . . The use of higWy technical vocabulary is a charactens~c. fe~ture of an!, industrial field and ceramics is not an exception. The speclahsatlOn that thlS industrial field implies as aprofessional and higWy technolo~ical branch ~f knowledge is coherently expressed by its termino~o~. Communlty membersh.lp is highly determined by the efficient commurncatlOn exchange. be:wee~ ltS members (experts), and proper communication within acommurnty .rrnphes a correct knowledge and use of the terminology specific to that comm~mty . 6) "A discourse community has athreshold level of members with asUltable degree ofrelevant content and discoursal expertise" (Sv.: ales ,. 19?~: 27). "Discourse communities have changing memberships; mdivlduals enter as apprentices and leave by death or in other less involun~ ways. How~ver, the survival of the community depends on areasonable ratio between novl~es ~nd experts" (Swales, 1990: 27). Usually, amember.belonging to ~ communlty like the one under analysis has adegree of expertlse on the subJect (procedures, materials, transformation, fmal product, etc.) that the layman.does not possess. With these considerations, the observation and analysls of genre can be considered one of the first and main steps for correctly understanding and analysing adiscourse community and hence for desigr¡ing an adequate corpor~te website image. This necessarily implies agood knowledge of commulllca~ve practices within the discourse community as well as agood kno~ledge of onlme discourse and its implications, as is explained in subsequent sectlOns. . However there is afact closely related to Swales' (1990) point number SlX that cannot be igr¡ored in any business activity, no matter which discourse community we are taiking about. It is something obvious that the ~embers. o~ a community, that is to say, experts and professionals playa cruclal role m 11. However abusiness would be nothing without clients. Clients do not necessariíyneed to belong to the discourse community but are fundamental for 53 52 Chapter Three The Digital Representation of an Industrial Cluster through its Corporate Website Image successfully achieving the set of common public goals communities/industrial cluster.s have (point 1 in Swales' features). In addition to this, the public, easilyaccesslble nature of digital genres makes it possible for prospective clients not belonging to. the. community to .use the participatory mechanisms employed by the commurnty mthe commurucative furtherance of its airos. Therefore, it is advisab~e for the corporate website image of the cluster to contemplate and harmom~e both perspectiv.es. This will be translated into accomplishing the expectatlOns not only of dlscourse community members -either understood as particular companies or individualsbut also of prospective customers. New digital genres allow this kind of considerations by presetting, for instance the possibility of choosing the user profile. ' 3. Genre, eognition and eornrnunieation Before delving any further into our topic, starting with adefrnition of genre can hel~ to clar~fy one ofthe "pillar concepts" ofthis chapter. Following Swales (1990, mBathia, 1993: 13), genre "is arecognizable communicative event characterized by aset of communicative purpose(s) identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs". Cognition and communication are always given through genre. Metaphorically speaking, genre on the one hand and cognition and communication on the other are the receptacle and the water. Genre is a receptacle used for carrying and containing water (cognition and communication). Water is constantly needed, in the same way as knowledge and communication are, but without areceptacle it is impossible to carry any water from Xto Y. This is the function of genre, it allows us to "carry water" (communication) and to "d.rink water" (cognition). This is the main purpose of genre and the main feature to be considered in the construction of genre: the communicative mission it is intended to fulfil. Co~unication .is frequent and necessary among the members of any c~mmuruty. Followmg Agre (1997) and in accordance with Swales' (1990) Vlews, although acommunity might have astronger or weaker sense of itselfas such, communities have acertain degree of collective cogr¡ition and this cogr¡ition needs to be communicated for the community to become stronger, evolve a?d dev~lop. In the specific case of the ceramic industrial community, through mteractlOn, the different companies forrning part ofit learn from others' expe~ence, establish common strategies, develop ashared, specific vocabulary (te~ology) and follow adistinctive and characteristic way of thinking and ac.tmg. All these actions are carried out and codified through genre so that it is WlthOUt adoubt akey issue to take into account throughout this chapter. Any 54 Chapter Three The Digital Representation of an Industrial Cluster through lts Corporate Website Irnage 55 discourse cornmunity must be perfectly aware of agreed generic conventions when creating acorporate website image since it needs to meet certain goals and expectations. Agreat deal of literature has been written on the topic of genre and many proposals for its definition and classification have been put forward. However, genres do have arather slippery nature which does not make them easy to delirnit and classify. Going back to the water metaphor, the true nature of genre is as tricky to defme as it is to stop water slipping through your fmgers. ~iller's (1994: 23) views on the topic provide atheoretically sound understandmg of genres according to which these must focus not so much on the sub.stance or ~e form of discourse but on the action they are intended to accomphsh. Genre lS always determined by those who are the prototypical owners ofthe knowledge it transrnits. These prototypical cognition owners, whose knowledge and cornmunicative routines shape genre and perpetuate it within acornmunity, are the members of such cornmunities. Through genre "we learn to understand better the situations in which we fmd ourselves and we leam how to participate in the actions of acornmunity" (Freedrnan and Medway, 1994: 2). As Miller states (1994) the number of existing genres in any society ~s indete~ina~e, as happens with cornmunities, and depends upon the complexlty and dlverslty of the society (and, Iwould add, upon the subjective view of reality we as human beings have). Another factor to be highlighted before going any further is the fact that genre must always be understood as social action. Genres are meaningful only when given in asocial context: "genre, in this way b~comes more t~an aformal entity; it becomes pragmatic, fully rhetorical, apomt of connectlOn between intention and effect, an aspect of social action" (Miller, 1994: 25). To sum up, the success of the digital corporate representation of an indus~al cluster depends on arecognisable set of cornmunicative purposes coherent Wlth those previously assigned to more traditional genres but taking advant~ge. of new possibilities and making agood use of online discourse. When desl~g the corporate website image of adiscourse cornmunity, the latter must recognlse itself in the cybergenre. Accordingly, the interplay between the concepts of genre and discourse cornmunity determines the creation of any corporate website image intended to accurately-reflect the reality of an industrial cluster. This interplay allows (Bathia, 1993) cognitive structuring (in the form of ge~~) to show the accumulated and conventionalised social knowledge charactenstIc of adiscourse cornmunity. It is this characteristic es sence that must be maintained in the ''jump'' from traditional to digital genres and thus one of the main features to determine an adequate, coherent corporate website image. 4. Digital genres or cybergenres The concept of genre has adapted to new technologies developing into new concepts suc~ as t~?s.e ~f digital genre or cybergenre. In Watters and Shepherd's words (1~97. 54) ~lgltal genres extend the concept of aliterary or rhetorical genre ?y mcorpo~atmg ~he notion~ of user interactions and processing". In the followmg subsectlOns this gradualmcorporation is described. 4.1. Keeping tbings clear: Internet-related concepts Before proceeding an~ further, the clarification of four recurrent concepts and ~e way of approachmg them throughout this chapter becomes essential: websIte, w~b page, homepage and corporate website image. AwebsIte ~an be defined .as acollection of one or more web pages sharing a c?rnmo~ d~mam oro subdomam name on the Internet. Aweb page is adocument dlsplaymg .mf~rmatlOn which can be accessed through aweb browser and which allows navlgatIon to other web pages via hypertext links. In this research we~sites. ha~e been considered as amacrocybergenre, a global ge.nr~ capable of housmg many other smaller genres inside, agenre of genres wlthin the ~et. Websites a~e made up of one or more web pages so, in a way, the conceptlOn of genres m a website context can be metaphorically il.lustrated by Russian Matryoshka dolls. These are wooden dolls of different Slzes so that each one nests inside aslightly larger one. Hence, one of these dolls can be opened to reveal another and so forth until the smallest one is reached. In the same way, ~e?sites can also be understood as prototypical, "mother,,3 cybergenres contammg other smaller cybergenres inside. The word homepage admits two possible senses. On the one hand it may make reference to a pe~sonal web~ite made up of one or more web p;ges and us~ally created to :onstItute a.fan slte, apersonal diary, aphoto album or simply avIrtual place to gl~e expreSSlOn to emotions, opinions or interests. On the other hand, a homepa~e lS the fust page of any website, that is to say, its front page, sta.rtpage or mam web p~ge. Homepages understood in such away offer ~Uldance_through the.webslte and present alternative names: home, default and mdex. Throughout thlS chapter, when no explicit reference is made to indicate the contrary, ~e s~cond sense has been the one adopted. A corpor~t~on lS .a large entity or firm which groups together other smaller firms or entItIes Wl~ cornmon .interests. The adjective "corporate" makes reference to the quahty of belongmg to acollection of individual entities with common features and hence grouped under awider, cornmon denomination (the 3 The name Matryoshka derives from "matryona", a Russian word for "mother". Fig. 3-2: Shepherd and Watters' (1998) c1assification ofcybergenres 4.2 Tbe evolution from traditional to digital genres Shepherd and Watters (1998) coined the term cybergenre to denote the new digital genres that appeared with the increasingly dominant position the Internet has acquired, especially in the last decade. These authors consider cybergenres to be integrated by two main kinds of "subcybergenres", extant and novel, which illustrate the evolution from traditional to digital genres (see figure 3-2). The Digital Re~resentatioo of an Industrial Cluster through 57 lts Corporate Website Image 1. ~xtant cyber~enres are those based on already existing genres to be found m o~er ~~dla (paper and video), with the particularity of having beeo casto mdigital formo When an already existing genre (traditiooal ge.nre) mlgrat~s to a ~omputer environment, it is, initially at least, falthfully repbcated. This means that content and form are preserved in a way that ~~~e extant replicated cybergenres do not take full advantage of the capablhtles of the new medium. Typical examples of this initial stage of evolution are digitalised documents such as PDF ones. At asubsequent s~ge, extant variant cybergenres are created, aprocess originated and driven by the technical capabilities offered by the new medium. The basic feature of these extant variant cybergenres is the addition of multimedia features and ~t~ractivity. The evolution from merely digitalised newspapers to digItal or electronic news is an example of this evolution from replicated to extant variant cybergenres, created to fit the new medium. 2. Novel cybergenres are fully dependent on the new medium and are created. o~ the basis of the technical capabilities of digital media. They may ongmate from extant genres through replication and variants giving way to novel emergent cybergenres, the third stage of evolution. Providing news through agents and personalised interfaces is an example of this kind of c~bergenres. In afmal degree of evolution (although not derived from prevlOus stages), novel spontaneous cybergenres are those which may not have any counterpart in other media, as occurs with home pages, hotlists andFAQ. This .chapter is focused on the study of amacrocybergenre, the aforemenhoned. website, within .which one may fmd smaller "integrating" cyberge~es w~lch ~ay present different degrees of evolution in Shepherd and Watt~rs .classlficaho.n .(1998). According to this dynamic classification, websltes mthe ceranuc mdustrial community (and the web pages it is made up oi) would constitute, as a w~ole, novel spontaneous cybergenres. They are fully dependent on the new medlum and are created on the basis of the technical capabilities it offers but have no counterpart as such in other media. In Yates and Orlikowski's (1992, 1?9~) views ~any tr~ditional genres have been adapted to take advantage of the hnking and mteractIvity of the digital medium but in the case ~f web~i~es, everything started from scratch because no counte~art can be found mtradltIonal media. However, web~ites are ~lso designed bearing in mind the expectations created by the ~enenc conventlOns ofthe community. Obviously, if analysed as a ,whole, webslte~ are not exact replicas of any genre traditionally associated W1t~ the cluster like catalogues or order forms, but these websites may contain or mclude, as in fact they do, instances of smaller cybergenres more easily JI~'s~" .. ljz~tI 1J~"" Chapter Three 2. Novel -< ( v .... ··, .. ·· E " Repllcatd • • 1. Extant t L Vañant U• • Tt Emergent cyb erg e nre s corporation). This conglomeration of individual companies under awider, common denomination is explained by the existence of common practices, objectives and rules, that is, by the existence of adiscourse community. As such these common features constitute and defme the corporate image of the clust~r (used here as anear synonym of discourse community and corporation). Consequently, this corporate image must be maintained as aconstant in digital representations beyond the particular interest of individual companies for the benefit of the collective goals and the easy identification of the corporation's policy of action. Thus, the corporate website image ~f an industrial .cl~ster makes reference to the common, representative tralts shared by dlgltally representing companies forming part of awider entity (the industrial cluster or community itself) that, therefore, identify and contribute to its goals. 56 4.3 Main features of digital genres identifiable with genres traditionally associated with the ceramic cluster. Actually, it is aconstant in any industrial ceramics website to fmd, for instance, asection entitled "catalogue" or "products" which accomplishes the same function as the traditional paper catalogue -sizes, materials, models and pictures (images) are provided as in atraditional cataloguetaking advantage, however, of the possibilities offered by the new medium. These smaller cybergenres usually belong to the categories of extant variant cybergenres or novel emergent cybergenres but even extant replicated cybergenres may also be found in the form of, for instance, newspaper news or journal articles faithfully replicated in adigital formo Thus, websites are considered here as prototypical cybergenres which may contain other smaller cybrgenres with different degrees of evolution in Shepherd and Watters's (1998) classification and with different degrees of attachment to the expectations generated by traditional genres. 59 58 Chapter Three The Digital Re~resentation of an Industrial Cluster through Its Corporate Website Image Digital genres4take advantage of th h the new medium which b fi e ug~ number of possibilities offered by ,may ene 1t the publIc COrporat . f activity in general. Websites as prototyp' 1 1 eunage oany business , lCa examp es of cybergenres: •Are in.teractive and present adynamic behaviour. •Contam reproduced or re-structured (usually surnm . d scanned) informar h' h . anse or • H . Ion w IC IS thus, more easily assirnilated u::ee :,~¿ vIsual, intuit!ve nature with apredominant r~le of • g . makes them, ID general, appealing and eye-catchin Allow f lrinkaPId access to other topic-related web pages through ~~ use o s The linking natur f h N . text (h .. e o t e et IS not only present in .ypertext), unages can also be or contain links formin h lS cornmonly known as hypermedia. g w at •Allow the irnmediate spread of information. •Present a c.harac~eristic layout and visual rhetorics. •Allow the mcluslOn of audio and video. Given the fact that genre repertoire is both aproduct and ashaper of the cornmunicative practices of acornmunity (Orlikowski and Yates, 1994) it seems logical that new digital genres are created according to the demands and expectations of such cornmunity. In other words, it is coherent and necessary for new genres to fit, in away, into the type of cornmunication expected. Consequently, genre has clear and important implications in website designo Following Agre (1997), an advantage that new digital genres present is the possibility to pick acornmunity, explore how already existing or traditional genres fit into the activities and relationships of this cornmunity, and then consider how these new genres might surpass the possibilities of traditional ones. In this way, the cornmunicative practices of the cornmunity might be enhanced and improved, that is to say, cybergenres might "do more" for a cornmunity. Digital genres are usually designed to facilitate certain functions and to extend the options and possibilities offered by traditional genres enabling, for instance, much quicker searching, sorting or comparing. Watters and Shepherd (1998) also emphasised the role of genre in the evolution of user interface on the Internet, thus shifting the attention to the technical functionality of electronic documents. While genres in non-digital media are determined by content and form, cybergenres are determined by content and form but also by functionality. The fact that billions and billions of doc '. net based on interactivity and interc .uments are mterlinked forming a most powerful "information weapons~nnfec!Ion. makes the Internet one of the oour tunes. The user may .fr one page to another with asimple "click" I dd" Jump om frames -the parts in which the web .. ~;.. I!IOn, web pages can contain than smaller web pages fonnm'g a b~age IS su IVIdedwhich are nothing more .19ger one containing th Th ~llow, fo: mstance, four pieces of informatio' e. rest. ese frames It~ de~cnption, the general index of rodn(let ssay ~e I~age. ~f aproduct, vIsuahzed at once or to select/view jus/th ~~s an~ clIents .0pIDlOns) to be in. e m ormatlOn we rrught be interested 4.4 Typology of digital gen res In general terms, it is advisable for de si be aware of the user's expectations r d' gners to draw on accepted genre and free to reject old forros that do n t fitegar mghngenre. Although they should feel o 1 new tec ology th 1 that new genres are ofien mi . ' ey must aso be.aware 1999) h th sunderstood or resIsted (Crowston & Wilr . w en ey do not fit users' expectations h' Iams, mtroduction is considered too blunt. or wen thelf appearance or 4W· . .Ith the exception ofextant replicatedc ber enr' . digital fonu otber more traditional y g. es smce tbey faltbfully reproduce in a new me<lium. genres not takmg advantage of the possibilities of tbe I 60 Chapter Three The Digital Representation of an Industrial Cluster through its Corporate Website Image 61 Crowston and Williams (1997) were among the fust to realise the importance of genre for analyzing cornmunication on the Internet also. They noted, that the Web was an excellent place to study the .develo~ment of genres, because of its easy access and its potential for exper~entahon, freedom of structuration, and interactions between many cornmumtles. They ~o~umented the range of genres in use on the Web by sampling and c1assifymg 1000 randornly selected web pages5•Distinction was based on purpose, rather than on physical formo They identified 48 different web genres (table 3-1). Archive item Filmography Problem set Article Genealogy Product information Book Government prograrn description Product reviews Box score Guide Publication list Chronicle Home page Ratings Colurnn Hot list Relrulation or rule Computer documentation Index Reoort Concert review Librarv aCQuisition list Scriot Demographic data List ofresearch proiects Server statistics Directory Meeting minutes Source code Discographv Memorial Submission instruction E-mail directorv listing Newsletter Table of contents Essav News wire article Testimonial Facultvinformation Order forro Univ. course listing FAQ Parnohlet Users' manual File directorv listing Political party platform Vitae Table 3-1: Web genres (N =48) or cybergenres identified by Crowston and Williams (1997); sample size: 1000. From these digital genres the ones most frequently used by the cerarnic industrial cornmunity are the ones indicated in table 3-2, although many other c1assifications and denominations are also possible. Order form Aform for recording information needed to order a producto E-mail directory Alist of e-mail addresses. FAQ Edited collection of questions and answers on atopic; ofien labelled as such. Users' manual Instructions on the use of aproducto Hot list Alist ofWeb sites not controlled by the author ofthe list, ofien organized by topic. Home page Apresentation of personal information, ofien with links toother information or ahotlist. Report Aformal statement of the results of an investigation or of any matter on which defmite information is required, made by sorne person or body instructed or required to do so (OED). Artiele Aliterary composition forming materially part of a joumal, magazine, encyclopaedia, or other collection, but treating aspecific topic distinctly and independently (OED). Ratings Numeric evaluations of products orservices. Regulation or rule Arule prescribed for the management of sorne matter, or for the regulating of conduct; agoverning precept or direction; astanding rule (OED). Table 3-2: Main genres used by the cerarnic industrial cornmunity according to Crowston and Williams' classification (1997). Product reviews Product information Description and evaluation of products to advise otential customers. Adescription of the features andlor benefits of ~ product, written by the manufacturer for potenhal customers. As may be observed in table 3-2, certain cybergenres characteristic of the cerarnic industrial cornmunity constitute an adaptation or evolution from traditional genres typically associated with the cluster: product information, reports, artieles, regulations or rules and order forms among others. Sorne others, however, are novel cybergenres such as FAQ, hot lists or home pages, not identifiable with traditional genres but which maintain the essence and foster the actions ofthe discourse cornmunity. 5 In this way, they also considered the web page (which can be a synonyrn ofwebsite) as amacrocybergenre containing other smaller ''web genres". 74 Chapter Three Ferrara, Kathleen, Brunner, Hans and Whittemore. "Interactive written discourse as an emergent register." In Written Communication, 8(1), 8-34, 1991. Ford, Andrew. Spinning the Web: How to Provide Information on the Internet. Intemational Thomson Computer Press, 1995. Fouchard, Gilles. Cómo vender más en su web. Barcelona: Gestión 2000, 2002. Freedman, Aviva and Medway. Genre and the new rhetoric. London: Taylor and Francis, 1994. Janal Daniel. Marketing en Internet: cómo lograr que la gente visite, compre y regresea su sitio web. Mexico DF: Prentice Hall, 2000. Miller, Carolyn. "Genre as social action." 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In Proceedings ofthe 30t hAnnual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS '98) edited by Sprague, 97-109, volume 2. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEEComputer Society, 1998. Avai1able on line: http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/leenlGenreDev/GenreDevelopment.htm. Shortis, Tim. The Language of ICT Information and Communication Technology. London: Routledge, 200 l. Swales, John. Genre analysis. English in academic and research settings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Yates, JoAnne and Orlikowski. "Genres of organizational cornmunication: A structurational approach to studying cornmunications and media." In Academy of Management Review, 17,2,299-326, 1992. Yates, JoAnne and Orlikowski. "Genre repertorie :Examining the Structuring of Cornmunicative Practices in Organizations." In Administrative Science Quarterly, 33, 541-574, 1994.