Informal Media Folio Examples

In-group membership

Lexical innovation—teenager slang

Context: In a Guardian article, two teenagers explain to the interviewer where the lexeme “aura farming” came from and its semantic meaning. 

Definition: Aura farming relates to “cultivating your coolest self”. Aura relates to a person’s level of coolness whereas “farming” is video game slang for grinding for materials such as XP or levels becomes grinding for aura points.

“The main difference between aura farming in a game and in real life is that if you’re doing the latter, you’re running the risk you’ll be made fun of.” 

Purpose: The ability to create a new concept of a peer’s value based on a new scale of “aura” means younger age groups are more likely to conform and be able to apply this to their lives whereas other generations are excluded from aura farming given their lack of understanding.

Lexical innovation—teenager slang song

Ted Talk

Shared identity

In-group membership

Context: the rizzler song referenced in a Ted Talk with Adam Aleksic highlights the new slang terms invented by Gen Z and Gen Alpha young adolescents, with “skibidi” and “fanum tax” used as positively connotated adjectives which depicts the individual as superior and desirable.

The spread of these terms is likened to “a virus” by Mr Aleksic, where he elaborates that words are transmitted by “infecting” others along social networks.

Purpose: These trends on TikTok represent the new slang adopted by Australian teenagers which creates an in-group for Gen Z and Gen Alpha peers who understand and use these terms regularly.

This shared identity between different age groups based on slang relates back to accommodating peers as well as conveying an individual’s personality.

Positive politeness-racism

Matildas soccer player Sam Kerr called a police officer ”fucking stupid and white” during a night out where a cab driver refused to let Ms Kerr and her partner out of the cab.

This insult directed at a white officer led to a court case to determine whether the comment was racially motivated, attacking the police officer’s positive face needs of being valued and respected. The swearing “fucking” demonstrates Ms Kerr frustration described as “lashing out” after trying to convince the police officer about the incident.

Positive politeness-respected, competent

Formality-obfuscation, euphemism

In a cartoon found in The Age ahead of the election titled Election campaign eggs, the creator depicts former Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and PM Anthony Albanese as chocolate easter eggs, describing them as wrapped in glittering foil but “disappontingly hollow”.

This euphemistic adjective phrase comments on both party leaders agenda and the leaders themselves as intellectually challenged with a lack of logic and credibility behind the campaigns, challenging the leaders positive face needs to be seen as competent party leaders.

In-group/out-group

Building rapport around teenagers

Slang was described as “ageist” due to the evolving nature through multiple generations, as cited in an article.

It promotes an in-group for a specific generation who understand terms whereas it excludes older generations unfamiliar with these terms.

By describing slang as a form of discrimination due to age, the writer comments on how informal language features such as slang can become alienating for older generations despite building rapport with teenagers and their friends.

Lexical innovation

Unit 4 Identity—female

In Words to Watch in May 2025, a list of new slang terms and neologisms were posted, one of which was the blend “tradwife” which combines the adjective “traditional” and the noun “wife” to create a lexeme that describes a female who enjoys fulfilling stereotypical female roles such as being a caretaker.

This female identity of conforming to society’s expectations of women as caretakers and housewives may be damaging to some and considered an insult, but this term is being used to celebrate this role some females choose to take.

Reclaiming this role to be seen as okay and to be celebrated is a different take towards feminism

Lexical innovation

Swearing, building rapport

In The Guardian, an article describes an actress donning a “cunty” bob as a new hairstyle. The swear word “cunt” paired with the suffix “-y” creates the adjective “cunty” to describe the short pixie bob. By describing the hairstyle as “cunty”, we are reclaiming the word and minimising the harsh insulting way it is usually used.

Personal anecdote

Building rapport around VCE

Social taboo topic- child labour

In a revision class ahead of a VCE Accounting SAC, my teacher described us as “working in a sweatshop for bugger all pay”, likening our toil for exceptional grades to the metaphor of child labour. This was definitely a hyperbole, exaggerating our efforts in an attempt to build rapport with the students in my class around the difficult and tedious job of revision.

This socially taboo subject that contradicts fair pay rights and equality in general brought a stark but somewhat fitting comparison for VCE students working on something with the disappointing pay off of attending an assessment.

However, in light of the situation, the metaphor was used as a joke and ironic reflection of VCE students, reflecting the Australian national value of laid-back attitudes and honesty. It also builds rapport within students in the class, reducing social distance between our teacher and my peers.

Swearing

Building rapport

At the Australian of the Year Award tea party, Australian of the Year 2021 recipient Grace Tame wore a white t-shirt embezzelled with the capitalised phrase “Fuck Murdoch”.

This caused public outrage at Ms Tame’s bold statement criticising Rupert Murdoch using the swear word “fuck” to demonstrate hatred and distrust. One politician described the clothing choice as the result of being too “woke”, asserting that Ms Tames was not “worthy” of the Australian of the Year 2021 title. However, Ms Tames believed in promoting unpopular opinions at these public events regardless of public opinion.

Social taboo: periods

Equality

On an ABC Iview YouTube short, Australian comedian Alex Ward explains a FIFA study into the link between menstruation and ACL tears, a type of sporting injury common in soccer.

The host of the show described the study as “insane” to which Ms Ward replied “Not to a boardroom full of men at FIFA”.

Ms Ward comments on the primarily male-dominated FIFA board who makes decisions representing FIFA Womens teams despite having little knowledge on the female anatomy and bodily functions.

Whilst discussing the social taboo subject of periods, Ms Ward highlights the humour in the proposed cause and effect chain of soccer injuries for women on their period whilst raising awareness about the lack of gender representation in the FIFA boardroom.

Swearing

Building rapport

Comedian Anthony Locascio: Are there wogs in here or what?

Anthony Locascio begins his comedy routine named “Papou” with a direct address to his audience, made up of many non-European members of a similar Greek culture and heritage.

He acknowledges the similarity in “smells”, a reference to the strong aromas of Greek food and builds rapport with his Greek audience over a shared culture.

Locascio uses the otherwise derogatory and discriminatory slur “wog” used to describe Mediterranean people to connect with his Italian audience, reclaiming this dysphemistic profanity as an Italian migrant identity-marker.