This document discusses genre theory and how it relates to magazines. It defines genre as the classification of media texts into categories based on similar characteristics and features. Genres have identifiable codes and conventions that audiences expect. The document discusses how genres can be hybrids that borrow elements from other genres. It also examines different scholars' perspectives on genre and how genres provide expectations and pleasures for audiences while also mitigating economic risks for producers.

1. STARTER
• What do you understand about genre
already?

2. Session Aim
• To explore and apply genre theory to
magazines.

3. English and Maths
• Spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Discussion, research and presentation.
• Timed activities and timed response.

4. Today’s menu
• Starter
• Overview
• Research and present
• Recap
• Revision
• Timed essay
• Plenary

5. GENRE THEORY
A term used for the classification
of media texts into groups with
similar characteristics. Genres have
characteristics and features that
are expected by the audience
Iconography: particular signs that
we associate with genres - physical
attributes, costume, settings and
props

6. WHAT IS GENRE?
• Genre is the classification of any media text into a category or type:
e.g. news, horror, documentary, soap opera, docu-soap, science-
fiction or lifestyle etc.
• Genres tend to have identifiable codes and conventions which have
developed particular expectations, which may either be fulfilled or
denied / diverted by the producer.
• You should consider typicality and subversion, as well as sub-genres
or generic hybrids. The significance of genre to audiences, producers,
publishers and broadcasters should also be carefully considered.

7. Apply
• List the codes and conventions you have used in
your magazine to represent your chosen genre.
you used in your
• you used in your

8. Research
• Rick Altman
• Daniel Chandler
• Steve Neale
• David Buckingham
• John Fiske

9. DOES GENRE EXIST?
• Film Theorist Rick Altman argues that there is no such thing as “pure”
genre anymore. Genre is progressive, in that it will always change.
• He says that generic conventions are very much a thing of the past.
His theory suggests that audiences, in general have become tired of
the same formula and need more to keep them entertained and to
create appeal.
• He says that genre is surviving due to hybridisation – or genres
“borrowing” conventions from one another and thus being much
more difficult to categorise.

10. AN EXAMPLE OF HYBRID GENRE
Watch the trailer for Shaun of the Dead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k
Try to identify which genres are evident in the
trailer by listing the conventions from each genre.
List the conventions you have developed or
“borrowed” from other genres

11. • Daniel Chandler "Conventional definitions of genre are based on the
idea that they share particular convention of content e.g. themes or
setting.“
• Steve Neale "Genres are instances of repetition and difference; this is
what pleasure for the audience is derived from“
• John Hartley "The same text can belong to different genres in different
countries or times“
• David Buckingham "Genre is a constant process of negotiation and
change“
• John Fiske "Genre attempts to structure some order into a wide range of
texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the conveniences of
both producers and audiences“
• Kate Wales “Genre is …an intertextual concept”

12. Chandler and Genre Theory
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.

13. Neale and Genre Theory
• Steve Neale declares that 'genres are
instances of repetition and difference'
(Neale 1980, 48). He adds that 'difference
is absolutely essential to the economy of
genre': mere repetition would not attract
an audience.

14. Traditionally, genres (particularly literary genres)
tended to be regarded as fixed forms, but
contemporary theory emphasises that both their
forms and functions are dynamic. David
Buckingham argues that 'genre is not... simply
"given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant
process of negotiation and change' (Buckingham
1993).
Buckingham and Genre
Theory

15. GENRE THEORY – DANIEL
CHANDLER
NARRATIVE - similar plots and structures, predictable situations, sequences,
episode
CHARACTERS - similar types of characters (sometimes stereotypes), roles,
personal qualities, motivations, goals, behaviour.
THEMES - topics, subject matter (social, cultural, psychological,
professional, political, sexual, moral), ideologies and values.
SETTING - geographical and historical;
ICONOGRAPHY - echoes the narrative, characters, themes and setting, a
familiar stock of images or motifs, the connotations of which have become
fixed. Includes décor, costume and objects, certain 'typecast' performers
familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristic music and sounds,
FILMING TECHNIQUES - stylistic or formal conventions of camerawork,
lighting, sound-recording, use of colour, editing etc s, obstacles, conflicts and
resolutions.

16. GENRE THEORY – DANIEL
CHANDLER
• Using Daniel Chandler’s criteria, identify how the
following in your product help the audience to
understand its genre:
• Narrative
• Characters
• Setting

17. GENRE THEMES AND
IDEOLOGIES
• Values in a media product are not the same as codes and conventions. Values are the
ideological and cultural ideas embedded in a film. In a Western, the lone gunslinger
represents the power of good to destroy evil.
In gangster films greed and the lust for power or wealth undermine the possibly
attractive, but deeply flawed, central gangster character. Jealousy, revenge, loyalty and
deception are themes of many thrillers and crime movies.
In horror films the monsters and zombies can be interpreted as metaphors for serious
diseases, death or destiny. In the end the films give some hope that the audience’s
worst fears can be overcome.
• In Bond films the audience feel safe in knowing that Bond (or his British MI5 equivalent)
will save them from the political evils of the world – whatever they may be at the time
• In Pop videos, the audience will often see good being represented as pop icons are often
considered as role models for young children

18. GENRE THEMES AND
IDEOLOGIES
List the themes or ideologies that are
conventional to your product
Have you developed these in any way?
Have you “borrowed” themes from another
genre?

19. 'Uses and gratifications‘ research has identified many potential
pleasures of genre, including the following:
•One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a
particular genre because of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what
is likely to be important (and what is not), derived from our knowledge
of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot.
•Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and
escapism - a feature which some theoretical commentaries seem to
lose sight of. Aristotle, of course, acknowledged the special emotional
responses which were linked to different genres. Deborah Knight notes
that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of the
inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation'
(Knight 1994).
•P55 OCR AS Media Studies
Genre and Audience

20. •Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from
'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980); there would be
no pleasure without difference. We may derive pleasure
from observing how the conventions of the genre are
manipulated (Abercrombie 1996). We may also enjoy the
stretching of a genre in new directions and the
consequent shifting of our expectations.
•Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our
experience of a genre with others within an 'interpretive
community' which can be characterised by its familiarity
with certain genres (Daniel Chandler).

21. Tom Ryall (1978) – Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in the shape of
patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of
production of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience.
John Fiske defines genres as ‘attempts to structure some order into the wide range of
texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers
and audiences.’
Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-
related functions: i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset
the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive
collateral against innovation and difference.

22. Neale (1980)- much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the
process of “difference in repetition” – i.e. recognition of familiar
elements and in the way those elements might be orchestrated in an
unfamiliar fashion or in the way that unfamiliar elements might be
introduced
Rick Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms of
media language (SEMANTIC elements) and codes (in the Western,
for example: guns, horses, landscape, characters or even stars, like
John Wayne or Clint Eastwood) or certain ideologies and narratives
(SYNTACTIC elements).

23. Can Genre be defined by audience? Is it a question of film
comprehension?
Neale (1990) – Genre is constituted by “specific systems of
expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to
the cinema and which interact with the films themselves during
the course of the viewing process.”

24. Jonathan Culler (1978) – generic conventions exist to
establish a contract between creator and reader so as to
make certain expectations operative, allowing compliance
and deviation from the accepted modes of intelligibility.
Acts of communication are rendered intelligible only
within the context of a shared conventional framework of
expression.
Ryall (1998) sees this framework provided by the generic
system; therefore, genre becomes a cognitive repository
of images, sounds, stories, characters, and expectations

25. 1. To the producers of films, genre is a template for what they make.
2. To the distributor/promoter, genre provides assumptions about who the
audience is and how to market the films for that specific audience.
3. To the audience, it is a label that identifies a liked or disliked formula and
provides certain rules of engagement for the spectator in terms of
anticipation of pleasure e.g. the anticipation of what will happen in the
attic scene of The Exorcist.
4. When genres become classic, they can exert tremendous influence:
production can be come quicker and more confident because film-makers
are following tested formulae and have a ready shorthand to work with,
and actors can be filtered into genres and can be seen to have assumed
‘star quality’ when their mannerisms, physical attributes, way of speaking
and acting fit a certain style of genre.

26. 5. In turn, viewers become ‘generic spectators’ and can be said to
develop generic memory which helps the in the anticipation of
events, even though the films themselves might play on certain
styles rather than follow closely a clichéd formula. E.g. the attic
scene from The Exorcist – we expect something to jump out on
the woman because all the generic conventions are in place,
but in the end, the director deflates the tension. We do not
consume films as individual entities, but in an intertextual way.
Film is a post-modern medium in this way, because movies
make sense in relation to other films, not to reality.
6. It is the way genre films deviate from the clichéd formulae that
leads to a more interesting experience for the viewer, but fore
this to work properly, the audience must be familiar with
generic conventions and style.

27. 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 or ordinary film-goers
would find acceptable'

28. PROBLEMS WITH GENRE CLASSIFICATION
Theorist and Critic Rick Altman (1999) came up with a list of points he found problematic
with genre classicfication .
a) Genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns.
b) Genres are defined by the film industry and recognised by the mass audience.
c) Genres have clear, stable identities and borders.
d) Individual films belong wholly and permanently to a single genre.
e) Genres are transhistorical.
f) Genres undergo predictable development.
g) Genres are located in particular topic, structure and corpus.
h) Genre films share certain fundamental characteristic.
i) Genres have either a ritual or ideological function

29. Timed Essay
• Analyse one of your coursework
productions in relation to Audience.