Genre in the Media

So, although I have been informed many times but fellow classmates and older Journalism students at Winchester that I do not need to blog about Media key concepts, sometimes I find it a good way of going over my notes and since I missed a lot due to being ill last week (not helping that I am still not 100% better yet), I realised it wouldn't go a miss. So, this weeks reading and lecture in key concepts was based upon Genre.
The theory of genre was developed in relation to films, yes that's right, such things as Horror, Comedy and Sci-Fi etc. Well, the word 'genre' is formed from the french words 'type' and 'kind' which basically all mean the same thing anyway, although being specific about the particular word you chose is good! Genre is a system for classification and it is a widely understood and used form of analysis. For example, when taking a little visit to Blockbusters, -which I seem to do weekly, spending a good half an hour walking around the shop at least 4 times and still not picking anything- you can look for the specific genre you want e.g. Horror, and look specifically down that isle for all the Horror films they have on offer.

'Art VS Genre' often equivilates to 'Elite VS Mass', and as proven these are often set in binary oppositions. This can be shown in the way a specific book can allow for a contract between the producer and the audience. If you expect a certain thing in a book/film, for example watching the newest Paranormal Activity film, if you are not scared and find it amusing rather than scary, as the audience you become annoyed with the producer when this 'contract' is broken.
Another way of describing this is specific film/tv genre's often portray this contract (more related to in our minds, rather than written down), such as Medical Drama's.
When watching a medical drama series, we as the audience expect to see such things;
- Hospital
- Injuries
- Doctors and Nurses
- Paitients

If we tuned in to watch ER, and it did not involve any of the following things, we as the audience would be both annoyed and confused as this 'contract' of expectation has not been made. This is described in the following quote by Neale.S;

"As far as genre is concerned, expectations exist both to be satisfied, and, also, to be redfined." Neale. S 1983


The word 'Intertextuality' refers to the referencing of one text within another. For example, The Simpsons does this constantly, using guest stars and references to films such as Harry Potter when Homer dresses his pet pig up as 'Harry Plopper', for people who know Harry Potter, they instantly understand this reference.


It can be said that genre is a signifying system, and most importantly, functional. When genre is functional, it means it limits the meanings potential.
 "Genre are typical forms of texts which link kinds of producer, consumer, topic, medium, manner and occasion." Hodge and Kress
This can relate to camera movements, editing, colour. 

Image from Flickr, Auggie Tolosa

A subject relating to this is bad language in childrens television programmes, for example a sign language presenter on one of the CBBC's television programmes, used a sign which actually meant an extremeley rude and offensive word, instead of the word he was meant to mean. Therefore this can be related to the way if the genre type is messed about, such as using bad language which everyone knows is NOT used in childrens programmes, this is a wrong use of genre.

For producers, genres can be used to allow for creative outlook and constraining. Quentin Tarantino does this on a regular basis, and uses a specific genre but changes it in a different way to make it new and exciting.
Following this point, for producers genre;
- Constructs an audience
- Manages expectations
- Allows for possibility of disrupting expectationFor example, nudity is fine in some things such as the documentary television programme Embaressing Bodies, however it would not be classed as fine in Eastenders.


For audiences genre;
- Frames of reference
- Allows for active process of constructing meaning
- Recognition requires 'Culture Capital' e.g. generic knowledge


New media forms often borrow from what has gone on before for example, Radio used theatre concert and music hall music, television used literary adaptations and soaps, and gaming used films and fairytale stories.

Summarising all of the above points, ultimately, meaning is produced by the combination of elements in particular ways. It doesn't require the presence of all possible choices, and individual texts may be recognisable generically. Consequently, genres do develop and change dynamically over time and they may now combine hybridity. Actually, sometimes they can become extinct and cease to have cultural currency in general.