Genre is:
"A form of life, joining speakers and hearers, writers and readers, in particular relations of a familiar and intelligible sort. A place where you know what you are getting into and what range of relationships and objects will be realized there" -Charles Bazerman
Examples of digital genre:
-Celebrity tweets
-Fanfiction website for a novel
-Forum for a popular TV show
How does it work in digital writing?
Analyzing digital genre can teach us about why people use digital writing and what rhetorical techniques they use to engage other users. Doing so helps to identify motives for rhetorical techniques, as well as understand the effect they have on the respective audience.
Source:
Bazerman, Charles. "Genre and Identity: Citizenship in the Age of the Internet and the Age of Global Capitalism." Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre. 1-34. Web. 13 Oct. 2012.