This document discusses genre in media. It defines genre as a type or category of media that shares similar characteristics. Genres are identified by their codes and conventions, such as characters, settings, narratives, and ideologies. Audiences enjoy genres because of their familiarity and ability to predict elements, while producers benefit from the commercial success of proven genres. However, genres avoid becoming boring by combining familiar and unexpected elements in each new text. The document also discusses genre hybrids that combine conventions of multiple genres.

1. Genre

2. What is a Genre?

3.  Genre is a French word meaning type – a
genre is, therefore, a type or category of
media text (Burton, 2000)
Media Studies we use it to categorise
 In
media products which share similar
characteristics e.g. similar music, narratives,
characters, mise en scene etc.
 What
different types or genres can you
name in the following media?
Film
Television
Music

4. How Do We Identify Genre?

5. are made up of typical patterns or
 Genres
elements.
 Thesecharacteristics/typical elements make
up the formula of a genre. They are called
the genre’s CODES AND CONVENTIONS.

6. Genre conventions can consist of
repeated:
•Characters
•Settings (time and place)
•Narratives/ story sequences
•Iconography (everything we can see and
hear e.g. props)
•Ideologies – the messages genres
convey(love conquers all/ good defeats evil)
•Media Language

7. The genre of
the film in the
poster below
should be
obvious.
However, what
features or
conventions
tell you this?

8. What conventions does the previous poster
share with the posters below?
What can we
learn from
this?

9. Genre Task:
 We have learnt that it is possible to
categorise texts into genres by analysing
their generic conventions .
 Can you list the common conventions for
these following genres
 Science Fiction
 Horror
 Super Hero
 Action

10.  Itis sometimes even
possible to identify the
genre of a text though
analysing the people
involved in its creation.
 For example, in the
1980s/90s if you saw a
movie poster featuring
Arnold Schwarzenegger
you could be reasonably
sure that it was an action
film.

11. Which film genres are the following people
closely associated with?
Robert Pattinson

12. Jim Carrey

13. Jennifer Aniston

14. Note that TV has genres that can be defined
by their codes and conventions too!

15. Reality TV conventions
 Strangers with conflicting personalities living
together
 Humiliating tasks
 A diary room
 Nominations/evictions
 Audience votes
 Hidden cameras
 Twists
 Conflict
 People trapped together

16. And music! What genre is signalled
below and what would you say are its
conventions?

17. Why Do We Like Genres?

18. Graham Burton (2000)
“Genres are created
through a process of
repetition and recognition
leading to anticipation and
expectation.”

19. Genre & Expectation
 Asgenres become
established audiences
begin to have certain
expectations
 Thereare certain
things the audience
anticipate being
present and actively
look forward to seeing.

20. Genre & Expectation
 These are all generic
conventions that
audiences would
expect a gangster film
to contain:
 car chases, guns,
villains, violence,
urban setting, mafia,
family, honour,
corruption, beautiful
women, revenge

21. Why do We Like Genre?
Genre texts are successful because
AUDIENCES like their…
Familiarity (like a warm blanket!) – we tend
to stick to what we like
They give us an informed choice – we know
what to expect and whether it is for us or not
We can predict some of the action and
enjoy seeing if we are right or not

22. Why do We Like Genre?
PRODUCERS of media texts like them as they..
 Give them a blueprint or toolbox to use
and experiment with – make developing
the film easy
 Theyhave a proven popularity - so they
can (almost always) guarantee some
success – help select which films to make
 Theycan target their audience more easily
- marketing campaigns etc…

23. In other words, genres help to minimise
risk.
For the AUDIENCE they minimise the
risk of us selecting something we won’t
like.
For the PRODUCERS they minimise the
risk of producing something that won’t
sell/ make a profit.

24. Why Aren’t Genres Boring?

25. Why Genres Aren’t Boring…
 Over time genres change. If you watch a Police
drama from the 70s or 80 you might notice that it is
quite different to police dramas on TV today.
 This is because all genre texts combine…
 “The familiar and the unexpected” (G.Burton 2000)
 They are the “same but different”
(Nick Lacey 1999)

26.  Repetition
of the conventions could lead to
boredom. To keep us interested producers offer us
what we know with a twist.
 This
doesn’t just happen over time, it happens
usually with each new text in a genre…
 Thiskeeps fans of a genre interested – they get
plenty of the expected conventions but also get
something a little new, something they haven’t
seen and which gives them a reason to watch
the new text.

27. Can you identify what the genre is in each
clip and what it is that is slightly different to
the norm?

30. Television genres work like
this too….
TV is a sub-genre of
 Reality
documentary.
 BigBrother began the craze in 2000.
As soon as it proved successful, the
formula was repeated over and over
in different programmes.
 Each is a slight variation on the Big
Brother formula. “The same but
different”.

31. How are any of the following examples
varying the formula?
 Celebrity Big Brother
 I’m a Celebrity, Get Me….
 The Farm
 Escape
 America’s next top Model
 Strictly Come Dancing
 Dumped
 The Apprentice
 Come Dine with Me
 Survivor
 Shipwrecked
 Hell’s Kitchen

32. Hybrids
 Often,a way of offering the audience
“the same but different” is by
combining conventions of more than
one genre.
texts are called hybrids and are
 These
becoming increasingly popular.

33. Hybrids
 Hybridscan be found
in most media types.
One example is The
Only Way is Essex.
 TOWIEhas the
conventions of a
documentary, reality
TV show and soap
opera

34. What genres can you detect in the
following film hybrids?

37. Why do you think media producers might
like to create hybrid genre texts?
• It widens the potential audience
• This widens the text’s popularity/
profit potential

38. Hybrids
 Whatgenres can
be found in
Attack the Block
 Attack the Block Trailer