This document discusses the concept of genre in media. It begins by defining genre as a type of media work governed by implicit rules shared by its creators and audience. Genre comes from the French word for "type" or "kind." Works are classified by genre by their creators, marketers, reviewers, and consumers. Genre studies examines common structural elements and patterns in collections of stories. Conventions distinguish genres, like settings and characters in westerns. Genres develop over time through a lifecycle as audiences and creators establish expectations. They allow audiences to understand new works and creators to rely on familiar tropes.

1. Genre
By Eden Taylor

2. what does genre
mean?

3. • Genre- is a term that
refers to a type of media
product or work of art
governed by implicit rules
that are shared by the
makers of the product and
the audience

4. So where does the term come
from?
• Genre- is simply a French
word for ‘type’ or ‘kind’

5. All media output is classified by:
• its makers
• Its marketers, reviewers and
official classifiers or censors
• Its consumers

6. • Genre studies is a structuralist
approach to literary criticism, film
criticism and other cultural criticism. It
looks at the structural elements that
combine in the telling of a story and
find patterns in collections of stories.
When these elements (or codes) begin
to carry inherent information, a genre
is emerging

7. Example:
• A simple example of this is a Western
movie where two men face each other on
a dusty and empty road; one dons a
black hat, the other white. Independent of
any external meaning, there is no way to
tell what the situation might mean, but
due to the long development of the
Western genre, it is clear to the audience
that it is a gunfight showdown between a
good guy and a bad guy.

8. So how do the work?

9. • Every genre has its own particular
rules and conventions which
distinguish it from others.
• To some extent these rules are about
content within the film.
• Particular types of characters and
events for example, will routinely occur
in particular genres and others will not.

10. For example:
• Domestic settings with everyday events
will be staple of soap opera, but are very
unlikely to figure substantially within
action films.
• Narrative conventions also play a part in
distinguishing one genre from another.
• Enigmas play an important part in
thrillers and sometimes police series but
are not usually so significant in situation
comedy.

11. The role of genre
• Genre is a concept that is usually associated
with classifying media texts into different
categories. One aspect that we need to
recognise is how it works on audience
expectations. As Taylor and Williams (1999)
argue:
“ the pleasure and enjoyment audiences derive
from the media often depend upon text broadly
fitting into certain generic groupings. Their
judgements as to how successful a text is are
formed by generic expectations based on their
experiences as media consumers”

12. Genre lifecycles
• The lifecycle of a genre: a certain number of
cultural products (films, music, books), share
common characteristics
• critics notice similarities and come up with a
name (see neologism)
• the name is accepted by the audience and a
genre is born
• producers start to make products to fit the
new genre classification
• parodies may arise
• Exception to these rules in case of a manifesto.

14. Why do genres exist?

15. The audience view

16. • creates an age restriction for its audience, this can
either be seen as a good point for the industry as they
deliberately place an age restriction on certain films to
protect such a young audience from seeing scenes that
are either aggressive, violent or simply to explicit for
young eyes. Or in the case of young viewers the age
restriction simply frustrates then to wait for a certain
film they are simply dying to see.
• - Genres are there to create some kind of
expectation for the audience, where by they already
have certain conventions and expectations that are
present in previous films of that particular genre that
they enjoy the most so are exited to see a new film in
that particular genre of interest.
• - Genres give that range of choice to an audience
and this interest is direction are a particular target
audience, such as a person who enjoys a good comedy
maybe put off by the sound of a horror when they have
already experienced that thrill. By giving a genre you
are kind of subtitling films into categories so that their
audience has no confusion about what they are about
to see.

17. • From creating certain genres there are also some
negative impacts that they seem to have on an audience,
the tendency to cut out whole genres seems to be an
increasing pattern through the population. If an audience
of a comedy simply didn’t like one horror film, they may
cut out the whole genre completely from there idea of
going to see another one even though there are
thousands of different films available to see out there;
audiences trends seem to stick to a particular genre that
they appear to be attracted to and don’t tend to
experiment and take that risk of seeing a completely
different film and become more narrow minded.
• - Young audiences though seem to be more flexible
in there viewings and just enjoy the overall experience of
going to the cinema or watching a film at home on
DVD/Blue Ray as an experience and the hot gossip of
their generation. Most young teenagers or young adults
are willing to see a wide range of genres to keep their
minds open to experience and new footage for
entertainment purposes

18. Relationship between audience
and the industry
• Genres are a kind of complicity between
producer and audience.
• The audience knows what they are getting
and will come to book a film with a set
expectation set by genre Part of the audience
pleasure is in knowing what the genre rules
are, knowing that the producer has to solve
problems within the genre framework and
wondering how it will be done.

19. The film industry
view

20. • Use of genres has an impact on advertisement and
marketing to certain audiences of the genre. If
marketing and advertisement seem to hit off later on
in the year say for instance Halloween time, this
would be a good place to maybe release a horror
where as a comedy or family movie would be see to
be released earlier in the year during school holidays
when the young children are out of school.
• - The industry tend to stick to the typical
conventions of what works for each genre and
therefore most comedies look and feel the same and
convey the same story line and become predictable
just like stereotypical horrors include the victim and
the villain as well as the hero and everything
becomes ‘safe’ for the producers as they know what
has previously works so they use the conventions as
a kind of ‘template’ for film makers.
• -

21. • Some producers are a bit more adventurous and
subvert conventions. By doing so they keep the
genre ‘alive’ and fresh for their audience. Hybrids
are a good way of subverting conventions of a
typical genre of film where by the use of
hybridization is a mixture of different genres where
they reach out and attract a wider range of
audience that maybe interested in either genre or
even just the one genre may tempt them into
watching a different style. Hybrids appeal to such a
wider audience of people.
• A trailer aims to give the audience information
about the film itself, such as what the story line is
about in a rough over view, which the main stars
are and what genre and expectations the film is
going to give.

22. Repertoires of elements
• An important development in thinking about
entertainment genres has been to put them into
the context of audiences’ understanding and
activities.
• Genres are no longer seen as sets of fixed
elements, constantly repeated, but as working
with ‘repertoires of elements’ or fluid systems of
learnt conventions and expectations.
• These are shared by makers and audiences, who
are both active on both sides of meaning-making.
• The maker can rely on certain kinds of audience
familiarity to play with, and the audience looks
forward to playing within the stabilities.

23. Repertoires of elements
• These conventions, and expectations they can
invoke, include the areas of:
Narrative- how the stories in a genre usually begin
and conclude, what kinds of characters are at the
centre of the fiction ect
Audio-visual codes of signification - ( for which the
terms iconography or mise en scène are sometime
used), which would include settings, costumes,
lighting and even certain stars’ physical presence
A relationship to the rest of the real world- including
perceptions of how realistic the genre is seen to be,
and how it handles the ideological values of the are
it covers (war, romance, crime ect)

24. Classifications
• These classifications (horror or thriller?
‘R18’ or ‘PG’? ‘art’ or ‘schlock’?) have
material effects on the ways we
encounter, enjoy and understand
media.
• These boundaries and materials that
are within a specific genre created
these age restrictions, ratings and
experiences.

25. These are only just a few genres
• Thriller
• Horror
• Comedy
• Romanic comedy
• Action
• Adventure
• Sci-fi (fantasy)
• Family
• Documentary
• Chick-flick
• Animation
• Western
• Crime
• Musical
• Romance
• War
• Drama
• mystery

26. Conventions of a few
genres
Click in the hyperlinks to view the YouTube clips relating to the
particular genre.

27. Comedy
• Energetic
• Obvious humour and jokes
• Up beat music
• Bright/ colourful
• Some action/problem
• Punch lines/phrases
• Voice over
• Spoofs
• Characters well known for comedies
• Often used over again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgqBtquItHM

28. horror
• Victim and hero (stereotypically a female/venerable character)
• Special effects
• Costumes/make up
• Psychological tension
• Murders
• Weapons
• Darkness
• Slow shots … speeds up
• Action
• Sound effects (screaming )
• Remote places such as island, woods, no telephone
• Enigmas
• False sense of security
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFQebvkii90 saw trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg psycho trailer 1960

29. Sci-fi
• Special effects
• Costume/make up
• Fairy tale fantasies
• Unrealistic
• Magic
• Fairy tale characters, animals (dragon, wizard,
robot, space)
• Problem to be solved
• Mythical creatures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czFqCdNRHqQ Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone - Official Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6hOlI9cg4o Star Wars Episode
1 The Phantom Menace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcZHjKJBnE Blade Runner
(1982)

30. Sci-fi children's fantasy
• Special effects
• Costume/make up
• Fairy tale fantasies
• Unrealistic
• Magic
• Fairy tale characters, animals (dragon, wizard, robot, space)
• Problem to be solved
• Mythical creatures
• Some animation maybe included
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqznGmAQAI&feature=related the never
ending story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-gJr7iU6kI the page master (1994)

31. Action
• Fast
• Furious
• Action
• Hero/Villain
• Loud drum beats/music
• Weapons
• Problem
• Perhaps a murder
• Stereotypically involves some plot or crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbg99ykA2bk Mission: Impossible Trailer
HQ (1996)

32. Subverting
conventions

33. Just another genre?
• Genre is often taken to imply cut-and-
dried simple boundaries: ‘just another’
horror or western.
• It is often mistaken that once you’ve
seen one you’ve seen then all where in
fact there is always repetition AND
different at play in genre products.

34. • Some films deliberately parody, stretch
or break the conventions.
• It is also important to realise that
genres do change or even merge over
time
• This gives the audience a new and
exiting experience and can also widen
the industries target audience by
including a sense of a mix of genres.
• This is known as Hybridization

35. Hybridization
and sub-genres

36. • The process by which different genres come together
to create a new and exiting mixture to form hybrids.
• There are hundreds of hybrids throughout genre and
therefor sub-genres are created, here are a few
examples for both:
• Romantic comedy
• Animated comedy
• Action adventure
• Thriller
• Action comedy
• Chick flicks
• there are thousands upon thousands of sub-genres
click here to see just how many within a specific genre
http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres2.html

37. Romantic comedy
• Loss of lover
• Romantic moments/scenes
• Cheesy meeting and chat up lines
• Happy ending
• Classic tale played on Romeo and Juliet
• Very obvious in most films
• Sad music
• False sense of dread
• Broken hearts
• Forbidden love
• Can show story line as its predictable
• Couple is involved
• Humorous scenes Embarrassing situations
• Punch lines/jokes
• Romantic gestures (roses, letters, tapes, presents, music )
• Voice over can be strict or comedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNmT_dLeSao 'P.S. I Love You'
Trailer (2007 )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCkFTyADJ0 Love
Actually Trailer

38. Chick flick
• There is a problem to be solved/situation
• Typical girl ‘power’ moments
• Upbeat music
• Stereotypical female forms such as blonde hair, make up,
fashion, shoes all subverted by two male FBI agents
playing these glamour girls
• Relates to typical teenage girl situations and can relate
back to their problems
• Comedy and humour in obvious forms and scene
• Costume and make up
• Typical made up young female adventure
• Comedy voice overs can appear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr_SY-1Z5vg White chicks movie trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bRZkXQAhE Wild Child

39. Thriller spoof
• Hero/villain
• Problem to be solved
• Scenes and moments of horror mixed with comedy humour
• Phrases/jokes/actions/phrases
• Weapons
• Death
• Tension
• Music switches between horror psycho to typical comedy upbeat music
• Takes stereotypical characters to extreme make up lengths
• over does and emphasises situations
• Obvious humour mixed in with dark humour
• Takes scenes from other films and comedy moments and subverts the
horror genre into a form of comedy playing with dark humour
• Titles or black outs can be used for tension and narrative purposes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yurKTKQr6E scary movie 1 trailer

40. Animated comedy (family)
• Juxtaposing dialogue to create conversations
• Obvious humour/jokes
• Action
• Fantasy
• Animation and cartoon
• Punch lines/phrases
• Introduces characters
• Plays on a spoof (Jackie Chan)
• Energetic
• Colourful/childish
• Made for children and families
• Upbeat music (in this case fight music Jackie Chan)
• Villain/hero
• comedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uJ7OExp60 Kung Fu Panda Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkqzFUhGPJg Up

41. Genres and Realism
• Texts do not have a straightforward relationship to the rest of
the real world. They may belong to certain genres which is not
experienced by audiences in the same way as, say the news
or current affairs.
• Audiences and especially fans degree of familiarity with
genres conventions will influence its ‘reality effect’ and what
they take for granted in order to get at its pleasures.
• The idea of images as reflecting reality is far too
straightforward and mirror-like, especially for fantasy forms
(horrors, comedies, sci-fi or animation). It suggests there is a
fairly simple thing called reality to be reflected in a one-to-one
undistorted glass.
• Yet comedy for example: seems to depend on the exaggeration
of stereotyping which are understood playfully by audiences,
not always as a reflection on the real.

42. Status, ‘art’ and genres
• In terms of the status ascribed to media
works, ‘art’ is often a seal of approval,
signifying a certain level of ‘quality’ and
‘seriousness’ and, commercially, the very
important power of copyright.
• This is often a considered process, from
the initial ‘pitching’ stages, which
determine budgets, through decisions as
to cast members, ect.

43. Evaluation

44. Reflections by Robert Stam
• While some genres are based on story
content (the war film), other are borrowed
from literature (comedy, melodrama) or
from other media (the musical). Some are
performer-based (the Astaire-Rogers
films) or budget-based (blockbusters),
while others are based on artistic status
(the art film), racial identity (Black
cinema), location (the Western) or sexual
orientation (Queer cinema). (Robert Stam
2000, 14).

45. Roland Barthes (1975)
• argued that it is in relation to other
texts within a genre rather than in
relation to lived experience that we
make sense of certain events within a
text. There are analogies here with
schema theory in psychology, which
proposes that we have mental 'scripts'
which help us to interpret familiar
events in everyday life.

46. Tzvetan Todorov The Origin of
Genres
• Aside from dealing with the question of 'what is fantastic literature,'
Tzvetan Todorov's The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary
Genre (1970) also has a very thorough exposé on the nature of genre and
genre theory in general. Todorov starts with a critique of Northrop Frye's
concept of genre as expounded in Anatomy of Criticism.
• According to Todorov, the first question in genre theory is:
• “Are we entitled to discuss a genre without having studied (or at least
read) all the works witch constitute it ?”
• He answers the question with yes:
• “Scientific method allows does not require us to observe every instance of
a phenomenon in order to describe it; scientific method proceeds rather by
deduction.”
• But he also warns that:
• “Whatever the number of phenomena (of literary works, in this case)
studied, we are never justified in extrapolating universal laws from them.”
• After which he goes on to quote Karl Popper and the famous black swan
example of inductive vs. deductive reasoning:
• “no matter how many instances of white swans we have observed, this
does not justify the conclusion that swans are white.”

47. Jacques Derrida The Law of
Genre
Excerpt from "The Law of Genre" by Jacques Derrida
Translated by Avital Ronell
• The genre has always in all genres been able to play the role
of order's principle: resemblance, analogy, identity and
difference, taxonomic classification, organization and
genealogical tree, order of reason, order of reasons, sense of
sense, truth of truth, natural light and sense of history. Now,
the test of An Account? brought to light the madness of genre.
Madness has given birth to and thrown light on the genre in
the most dazzling, most blinding sense of the word. And in the
writing of An Account?, in literature, satirically practicing all
genres, imbedding them but never allowing herself to be
saturated with a catalogue of genres, she, madness, has
started spinning Peterson's genre-disc like a demented sun.
And she does not only do so in literature, for in concealing the
boundaries that sunder mode and genre, she has also
inundated and divided the borders between literature and its
others

48. References
• http://www.filmsite.org/comedyfilms.html
• NICHOLAS ABERCROMBIE & BRIAN LONGHURST-
Dictionary of MEDIA STUDIES
• GILL BRANSTON and ROY STAFFORD the Media
Student’s Book (Fourth Edition)
• http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres2.html
• http://www.youtube.com/
• http://www.jahsonic.com/GenreTheory.html
• http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/issues/v7/v7n1.derr
ida.html
• MEDIA STUDIES: The Essential resource-
Philip Rayner, Peter Wall and Stephen Kruger