PB1B

SCIgen: pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen

                This website generates a very convincing yet completely made up research paper similar to one that computer science students would publish to get their degrees. The 'paper' is filled with fake citations, data, and charts that, during a cursory skim, look like legitimate. A typical research paper follows the scientific method, starting with an Abstract, introduction, and background information. Research papers are written in the past tense using a first person account, so the generator uses sentence that utilizes past tenses. Research papers also always reference to other research papers, using citations within the paragraph and the author's name.

pandyland.net/random

                Comic strips are usually multiple slides of a drawing and dialogue text printed on top. The random comic generator takes a random picture of 2 people with random expressions and links them together to simulate a comic. Without reading the words, the comic strip is characterized because of its visual and textual conventions.

memegenerator.net

                Memes always have a set of certain images with text printed on top in white impact bold font. Since memes are supposed to share a message on the internet, the meme generator also produces a link. One specific convention of a meme is a random picture. The pictures that the meme generator uses are all usually pictures that weren't intended to be popular, like a still scene from movie or someone's random yearbook picture.

Another genre generator: http://hackertyper.com/

                Hackertyper creates a random convincing looking computer program code by just mashing random keys on the keyboard. It is inspired by the depiction of "hacking" in movies where a character would pound keys with thier left and right fingers to produce some form of code, which eventually allows him/her to hack the system. The hackertyper displays green computer font text on a black background, similar to something that some terminals use. Computer codes usually have plenty of  {} and / and ; and = characters with indentation. Even pressing the left Alt key 3 times will give a message box that says "Access Granted" so it is easy to convince random people that you've hacked the computer.

                These generators are a good way to explore genre because each one produces different products that follow the same conventions. In each case, the individual outputs are not the same but they follow the same guidelines set by the person who designed the program. For the research paper generator, a list of scientific words are parsed to throw in. Scientist's names and links are also pulled from a list. The paper was compiled from a random selection of predetermined components. The attributes of the components are the conventions of the genre. The comic strip had multiple tiles that were stringed together and overlaid words. The meme generator allows the user to choose from a set of images that many other memes have utilized. Text is inputted and displayed in the same color and font as part of the convention of a meme. These generators cater to a specific audience and, with the exception of the meme generator, can fool an audience that is unfamiliar with the genre to believe it was real. This is because the products have the external appearance and textual conventions of the real thing, but the context is wrong. Genres can be distinguished without looking too deeply because of how certain cues can be identified without reading.