This document discusses genre theory and defines genres as patterns or conventions that group similar texts together. Key points made include: - Genres are flexible and some texts contain elements of multiple genres. - Genres constitute shared conventions of content, structure, and style among texts. They help media produce and market to audiences consistently. - Genres allow audiences to predict elements in texts based on familiar paradigms or conventions. - Individual texts within a genre will contain repetition of conventions but also differences.

2. GENRE MEANING
The word genre means 'kind' or 'class'. And is
used as a way of grouping texts together.
Genre is not fixed and there are fuzzy distinctions
between different genres and several texts will
be hybrids that contain elements from one that
one genre.

3. GENRE THEORY
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.

4. GENRE THEORY
Genre may be considered as a practical device for
helping any mass medium to produce
consistently and efficiently and to relate its
production to the expectations of its customers.
Since it is also a practical device for enabling
individual media users to plan their choices, it
can be considered as a mechanism for ordering
the relations between the two main parties to
mass communication. (McQuail 1987, 200)

5. DEFINITION - ALMOST
…Genre can be defined as
patterns/styles/structures which transcend
individual art products, and which supervise
both their production by the artist and their
reading by audiences … ( Ryali 1975)

6. GENRE THEORY
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). (Stam 2000, 14).

7. GENRE THEORY
It is easy to underplay the differences within a
genre. Steve Neale declares that 'genres are
instances of repetition and difference' (Neale
1980, 48)
Tzvetan Todorov argued that 'any instance of a
genre will be necessarily different' (cited in
Gledhill 1985, 60)

8. GENRE – KEY CONCEPT
The Key Concept of Genre relates to the codes and
conventions shared by texts and the generic
features they share. A text is classified in a genre
through the identification of key elements which
occur in that text and in others of the same genre.
These elements may be referred to as
paradigms, (basically, ways of doing something)
and range from costume to music to plot points to
font (depending on the medium).

9. GENRE – KEY CONCEPT (CONT)
Audiences recognise these paradigms, and bring a
set of expectations to their reading of the text
accordingly: for example, the criminal will be
brought to justice at the end of the police thriller.
These paradigms may be grouped into those
relating to iconography (ie the main signs and
symbols that you see/hear), structure (the way a
text is put together and the shape it takes) and
theme (the issues and ideas it deals with).

10. FILM GENRE
Horror
Thriller
Comedy
Sci-fi

11. ADVERT GENRES
Harder to group but the following might be useful
Realistic
Series
Non-realistic
Surreal
Animation
Humorous
Talking Heads
Dramatic
Documentary
Parody

12. MUSIC VIDEO GENRE
Performance
Narrative Based
Concept based

13. BURTONS SIX ELEMENTS
Burton suggests that each text in a given genre
shares particular key elements to make up the
generic formula, these
include: Protagonists Stock Characters Plots
and Stock Situations Icons Background and
Décor Themes

14. GENRE COMPONENTS
You can also attempt to identify genre by referring
to the following
Setting, character
narrative, iconography, style, stars

15. CHARACTER
Each genre will have a set of stock characters
Sci Fi – aliens,

16. SETTING
- western: wide open vistas of the Western
plains/dessert; the small-town
- gangster: dark, urban, back-street settings
- soap opera: indoor, upper-middle class setting
- spy-thriller: exotic, often urban international
setting
- science-fiction: futuristic worlds
- game shows: large studios with lavish prizes
displayed

17. NARRATIVE

18. ICONOGRAPHY

19. STYLE

20. STARS