cyber culture

I have chosen several websites to do my Ebonics research activities, well, the reason is I would like to make some comparisons and figure out why some websites contain more Ebonis or AAVE and some has more standard English written in it. The website I have chosen is Eonline (www.eonline.com) which is pop culture website , New York Times newspaper (www.nytimes.com) and hip hop culture (www.hiphopculture.tv) . all three of them has one thing in common which is they do have some AAVE on the website but the quantity is varied. If there is a numeric rate from 1 to 3 (contains the most AAVE), then hip hop culture is a ethnic website, needless to say it has a lot AAVE and people featured in this website are Africa-Americans; eonline is a pop culture website which contains a medium number AAVE, most of them are written in standard English, the interesting is most of AAVE is used in an article reporting some Africa-American celebrities such as Peekaboo, Rihanna or some articles that is mainly target for youth market. New York Times newspaper website has the least volume of AAVE usage unless there is something to do with Africa-American culture or Presidential Candidate Obama and debates or articles about race issues. After comparing these web sites, it makes me wonder why do some web sites contain a high volume of AAVE usages. And I have come up with some conclusions. First, the target market or audience is a prime reason: AAVE is a postmodern neologism (Nakamura Lisa) and as people become more interactive with others via technology, more and more people prone to chat in or type in abbreviated English such as “yo, wht up” some constants or verbs is missing (although it is not fully comply with AAVE grammar but it is definetly not standard English) instead of Standard English, as cyber users proliferate, more and more people will adopt these cyber English or terminology in order to chat with others. However, the website such as eonline is not merely a blog or chatting room, they publish entertainments which has a target market of multiculture audiences, but their reporters have to write their reports in a standard form of English because all the written statements have to comply with written English rules, although it published online where is considered as a part of cyber culture but eonline has another identities, in order to functions in accordiance with its various identities either in reality realm or cyberspace, formal written English is best option to be written online. Second, it has to do with the context a website or blog published, if a topic is concerned with Africa-American culture or anything relates with it, the article prone to have more AAVE written in that article such as hip hop culture website in which is talking all about Africa-American cultures, hence, it has the most volume of AAVE. At the last, it also has to do with the purpose of a website. (as we have discussed in class) If the website is merely created for socialized among youth, there will have more AAVE such as myspace which is mainly a socialized blog or website (chatting room, gossip, blog, interface is mainly for socialization) people wouldn’t expect any academic articles or context on it. Whereas, nytimes.com has more creative interface and links to assist users to access to other protocoral such as traveling, hotel, vacation places, reservation on airline tickets etc. The audience, function and context of a website determine what language is written on a website.