Uma Raman
Uma Raman
About
“Amused Report Facebook Statuses” refer to a collection of statuses
that make opinionated remarks on mundane life or world
happenings—things they find amusing. This piece analyzes this
genre of statuses.
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Writers:
Late twenties/early thirties, studying or early in career,
communicating to people they know/like—expect readers to
have relevant background info
Readers:
Friends and family of the writer—know something about the
writer. They are also writers themselves
Content:
Amusing personal or world events
Telegraphy: a form of communicating text
without a physical exchange of an object with
text—click here to learn more
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Design:
Name-place-statement+[insert video, photo, like, or standard
emotion]
Structure:
Short and choppy, stark contrasts emphasized, reads like a
telegram, dialogue
Word choice:
Conversational, key phrases
Writers
Facebook: an internet forum on which users can
share ideas, photos, videos, or links, as well as
directly converse with other users.
500 million people like this
CAN’T READ THE BALLOONS ON THE
FACEBOOK STATUSES? CLICK THE
STATUS FOR AN ENLARGED IMAGE!!!
12,000 people like this
Readers
DESIGN: WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A FACEBOOK STATUS?
Tell us where
you are
Add a photo with
a caption
In a relationship?
Get married?
Change jobs?
Type what is on your mind or
paste a link
Were you with
other facebook
friends? Tag
them!
Ready
Set
Post!
What each icon lets you add from left
to write:
Time—location--photo
How does that make
you feel? An
emoticon will let us
know
Who do you
want to see your
message?
CONTENT OF THE GENRE: AMUSED REPORT FACEBOOK STATUSES
TRAVELS
DAILY HAPPENINGS
CURRENT EVENTS
GENERAL TREND: NOT SOMETHING YOU
LOL ABOUT BUT SOMETHING THAT IS
FUNNY
LITERARY ANALYSIS: STRUCTURE AND WORD CHOICE
1. Telegram effect: Facebook statuses
still share the direct and concise
communication of older forms of
telegraphy.
We see five main effects in Facebook statuses—not all five are always used at the same time, but most Amused
Report statuses use at least one of these things
Lack of emotional Punctuation
Avoidance of words when necessary
Only a few sentences
Short Sentences
Exclusion of Sentence Introductions
2. Past tense is so yesterday: most
posts avoid past tense. If past tense
is used, it is often prefaced with a
word that indicates a recent past event
(ie “just”). You can see this in the
examples displayed.
3.Word Choice: colloquial terms used,
and use of key phrases signal this
genre
EXAMPLES:
That moment…
The fact…
I love how…
I’m pretty sure…
Look for key examples in the statuses
posted here.
LITERARY ANALYSIS: STRUCTURE AND WORD CHOICE CONTINUED
4. Sharp contrasts in sentence dynamic:
Either anticlimactic buildups or
downplayed-then-sudden rises are used
to create a paradox in sentence dynamic
that emphasizes the oddness of what is
being discussed
Sudden dramatic
rise
5. Dialogue: an internal dialogue is
created using a question-answer
structure, and by adding sounds
included in speech (ie ugh, ow, oh)
Downplay for
rest of sentence
WHY THESE TACTICS: The purpose of an
“amused report” Facebook status is to transfer
the writer’s amusement to those reading the
post. The five tactics listed do this in the
following ways:
1. Telegram: sense of immediacy. The
shorter message, avoidance of using
words, and exclusion of certain sentence
formalities give a feeling of urgency to the
message, as if it is “hot off the press.”
2. Avoidance of past tense: sense of
immediacy
3. Key phrases: somehow it seems readers
are classically conditioned to prepare to be
amused upon reading certain key words.
Thus, the reader is already on their way to
internally chuckling before they have even
finished the sentence.
4. Sharp contrasts: our amusement sprouts
from the lack of logic in a given sentence.
The fact that something crazy is being
downplayed or vice versa is in of itself
illogical. Thus, the contrast augments our
interpretation of the ridiculousness of the
situation being explained.
5. Dialogue: Use of dialogue works in a
similar fashion as use of contrast in that
sentence structure augments the reader’s
attitude toward the content. However,
dialogue focuses less on creating a
paradox and more on emphasizing the
humor in a thought. First, a conversation
with one’s self is illogical and thus
comical. Second, the question-answer
structure often involves rhetorical
questions. To answer the rhetorical
question is also in of itself illogical, and
therefore, also has a comedic effect.
LITERARY ANALYSIS: EXTRA EXAMPLES
LITERARY ANALYSIS: EXTRA EXAMPLES
WHY IT MATTERS