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Steven Yoon

Professor Wilson

Writing 2 (MW 11:00 AM)

1 February, 2017

Submission Draft

Los Angeles Lakers is a popular team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) that

receives recognition from critics and fans alike. Having won a total of 16 NBA Championship

rings, the Lakers are one of the most successful teams in NBA history with a net worth of 2

billion U.S. dollars. However, the recent decline in their performance caused countless basketball

fans and critics to question the future of Lakers basketball and discuss their abilities as a team.

Among numerous reasons behind their decline, one is the absence of a star player to fill the void

left by Kobe Bryants retirement. Although Bryants absence appears to affect the Lakers

performance, their potential as a young team is unhindered and is discussed through Twitter and

ESPN news.

Twitter and ESPN news are two different genres that utilize conventions to present

Lakers basketball. One of the key differences between these genres is their purpose. Twitter is

one of the most popular social network platforms in the world today because it is

multifunctional. Twitter not only allows communication among friends and family but also

functions as a powerful social networking tool for influential figures like businessmen and

politicians. Through Twitter, political organizations are able to mobilize users for specific issues

while businesses can share information with consumers. In addition, hashtags allow people to

research and share ideas efficiently. By searching for keywords or hashtags, people are able to
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find relevant information about the topic easily. Moreover, Twitter permits online users to

interact with friends and families across the world, follow people of interest, and share ideas

through tweets, which are short messages posted by users. In these tweets, people tend to use

informal languages and slangs to communicate their viewpoints because it has a word limit of

140 characters. Shortened languages and online terms are essential especially because 140

characters are usually not enough for one to articulate an argument and prove a point. In addition

to these techniques, emoticons and hashtags are used to attract amiable community and add to its

friendly tone. In one tweet, a user stated, Watching the Lakers play is a srs roller coaster. U will

get a few thrills here and there but a lot of downhill drops imo. In this tweet, informality is

apparent when the author mentions u, srs, and imo. Rather than trying to inform the

audience, the user attempts to connect with the audience as seen when he refers to u and

shortens serious and in my opinion. The informality not only creates a friendly community

but also leads the audience to feel relevant. People freely interact through Twitter because ones

voice present an attitude toward the subject and tweets generally expect a reaction from others.

In this particular tweet, it is apparent that the author is appealing to the readers emotion and

stirring up emotion of sympathy for other fans. This method functions as a powerful tool in

persuading people with an argument drawn out through an emotional response.

Meanwhile, ESPN news communicates with the audience using a professional and formal

language. Unlike Twitter, the main purpose of is to inform the audience. Rather than creating a

friendly community with familiar vocabularies, professional dictions and organized paragraphs

are necessary to display credibility to the audience. When describing the overall performance of

the Lakers in 2016, the ESPN Staff Writer, Holmes wrote, For now, the Lakers are riding the

momentum of a two-game winning streak, of winning three of their past five games. Theyre
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clearly more comfortable on the court together, which is the product of experience and

improving chemistry. The author appeals to the audience with a professional tone and the

formality persuades the audience. The professional language used to prove his argument suggests

the importance of the subject and phrases like most important emphasizes the information.

Additional information that stands out is highlighted or bolded to convey significance to the

audience. Also, unique features like ESPN top headlines, interviews from the players, and

statistics play a significant role in attracting the readers attention. Drastic headlines heighten

peoples interests, and actual interviews function as a source of entertainment and strengthens

credibility. Although sports in general is a source of entertainment, the authors convention

clearly explains that he does not intend to appeal to emotions; as one of the most successful

sports networks globally, ESPN news strongly appeals to ethos and provide information.

Numerous conventions including formal language, organized paragraphs, and actual statistics

successfully display ESPN news as a reliable source.

Another significant difference between Twitter and ESPN news is their audience.

Compared to short and simple tweets that capture the highlight moments, ESPN news articles

carefully analyzes the overall performance of the Lakers in a larger scale. This not only

illustrates credibility of the organization, but also attracts certain audience. Because the articles

are organized and written in depth, the audience is certainly limited. Sports enthusiasts,

professional athletes, and critics access the articles for detailed information and few people enjoy

reading long sports articles every morning. On the other hand, Twitter is much more accessible

than are ESPN articles because of couple reasons. First, Twitter is not just about basketball;

political debates, global problems, and countless number of topics are discussed on Twitter. A

user who has no interest in basketball may have be exposed to basketball news through others
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retweets and likes on their news feed. Moreover, one is able to access a players game stats

through trending tweets and hashtags, which is another unique feature of Twitter. Anyone can

express their opinions about the Lakers easily and this accessibility broadens the range of

audience. Although accessibility is extremely effective in spreading and providing information, it

can have some negative effects. Accessibility limits credibility because one does not have to be a

professional critic to express his or her opinion. When tweets are used to provide information,

the reliability is not guaranteed and are often biased. Compared to Twitter, ESPN news articles

display facts and statistics to support their argument, allowing them to have a deeper

understanding of the team.

Twitter and ESPN news are two different genres used to express peoples opinions. Even

though these genres share similar objectives in displaying Lakers basketball, they have different

purpose, audience and other conventions that make them distinct. While ESPN news articles

exist to analyze and inform using accurate data and formal language, Twitters main function is

to communicate with others and its accessibility allows it to appeal to the general public. Despite

the differences of their audience, Twitter and ESPN are two distinct genres that illustrate the Los

Angeles Lakers distinctly.