1. Genre
Genre is a way of categorising a particular media text according to its
content and style. Genres have particular characteristics also known as
paradigms, that the audience can identify and recognise these paradigms
which can lead to them having expectations as to how the media will
develop, e.g. in crime films the audience may expect the villain to be
brought to justice.
There are a variety of genres that can include;
horror, comedy, crime, romance, sci-fi, animation, thriller, historical and
many more. There can be hybrids of genres as well such as a 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, blood and
a villain or supernatural monster. There are usually one or more deaths
involved with the horror genre.

2. Genre Theorists
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 particular 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 experts of 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, low key lighting, with a hero and a villain/supernatural monster.