Genre refers to categorizing media texts according to their style and content. Genres have paradigms which are characteristics that audiences use to develop expectations about how a media text will develop. For example, audiences expect the man and woman to end up together in a romantic comedy film. There are many film genres like horror, comedy, sci-fi, thriller, romantic, and crime, with some being hybrids like rom-com. Media texts are given genres to attract target audiences who expect certain conventions based on the genre.

1. Lydia Bedding

2. Genre is a way of categorising media texts according to the style and content of
the media text. Genres have paradigms, these are certain characteristics that the
audience use, leading to the audience having expectations as to how the media
will develop. E.g. in a romantic comedy film the audience would expect a man
and woman to end up together at the end of the film.
There are many varieties of genre within film such as horror, comedy, sci-fi,
thriller, romantic, crime, historical and many more. There can be hybrids of
genres as well such as rom-com which also has specific conventions of this
hybrid genre.
Media texts are given a specific genre in order to attract a specific target audience
for example in a horror film the audience are likely to expect weak and stronger
characters, weapons, suspense and dramatic music etc. There are usually one of
more deaths with the horror genre.
WHAT IS GENRE?

3. Rick Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media language
(SEMANTIC elements) or certain ideologies and narratives (SYNATIC elements).
Daniel Chandler: Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that
they constitute particluar conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form
(including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as
belonging to them.
David Bordwell notes, ‘any theme may appear in any genre’ (Bordwell 1989) ‘one
could..argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from
other sorts of groupings in ways that all expects off ordinary film-goers would find
acceptable.
You can apply these codes and conventions from these different theorists to the horror
genre as horror films typically contain an isolated setting with dark/low lighting and a
villain/supernatural being.
GENRE THEORISTS.