A slideshow of my RSA presentation.

1. Genre Competition
The Disruptive Work of Activist
Videos at Davis
Justin M. Jory
Salt Lake Community College

2. Theoretical Framework
• Freadman (2002) argues that “genre” is about interacting sets of texts
and illuminates the political transformations (of identities and actions)
that occur through interactions.
• Pare (2002) suggests that social identities can act as a locus for
examining political dimensions of genres.
• Lemke (2009) points to the semiotic resources genres deploy
(modalities, media, discourses) and offers the practice of traversing
resources to explore how they coordinate and rupture social identities.

3. On Students’ Activist Videos at Davis
By remediating social identities, student videos
competed with “official” messages composed and
distributed by Davis Administrators; in doing so, they
enacted a compelling example of socio-political
disruption.

4. Message 1
Message 2
“I am writing to you today as one who deeply
appreciates and defends robust and respectful dialogue
as a fundamental tenet of our great academic
institution . . . I sympathize with the profound
frustrations so many of you have expressed during the
past few days. These are truly difficult times. We join
you in your desire to advocate for increased state
support . . . We appreciate the substantive dialogue you
have begun here, and we want to offer you appropriate
opportunities to express your opinions.”
“The group was informed in writing this morning
that the encampment violated regulations . . . a
number of protestors refused our warning, offering
us no options but to ask the police to assist in their
removal. We have a responsibility to our entire
campus community . . . to ensure that all can live,
learn, and work in a safe and secure environment. We
were aware that some of those involved in the recent
demonstrations on campus were not members of the
UC Davis community and this required us to be even
more vigilant about the safety of our students.”

6. Concluding Thoughts
Argument: Disruptive potential of videos lies in semiotic
resources they employ to construct identities and in the
ways these resources interact with those employed by
official messages
Broader questions about genre competition: How can we
use competition to understand a kind of political
economy of genre?