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

2. Genre & Expectation
• As genres become established
audiences begin to have
certain expectations
• Every genre contains
generic conventions that
audiences would expect and
gain gratification from
• ‘Sin City’, ‘Fish Tank’ &
‘District 9’ rely upon differing
conventions relating to their
specific genre

3. Why do We Like Genre?
Genre texts are successful because AUDIENCES like their…
- Familiarity (like a warm blanket!)
- They give us an informed choice
PRODUCERS of media texts like
them as they..
- Give them a blueprint or toolbox to use and experiment with
- They have a proven popularity - so they can (almost always)
guarantee some success
- They can target their audience more easily - marketing campaigns
etc…

4. How Genres Change
All genre texts combine…
• “The familiar and the
unexpected” (G.Burton 2000)
• The “same but different”
(Nick Lacey 1999)

5. How Genres Change
• Repetition of the conventions could lead to
boredom. To keep us interested producers
offer us what we know with a twist
This can be …
- Hybridity
- New Techniques
- Modern Social Issues
- Different characters

6. GENRE
• Hybridity/Hybrid: The fusion or combination of
different genre styles
• Repetition and Difference: Most media texts
have a pattern of repetition and difference. They
have identifiable similarities, but also contain
new elements or similar elements used in new
ways.

7. Steve Neale
‘Genres are instances of repetition and
difference’. He adds that 'difference is
absolutely essential to the economy of genre’ :
mere repetition would not attract an audience.

8. What do genres mean for audiences?
Audiences...
- can select texts based on their genre.
-have expectations about a text based on its genre, allowing them to
draw pleasures from its conventions, such as repeated narratives.
However, pleasure can also be drawn from differences
- identify with repeated elements in generic texts and may shape
their own identity in response.

9. What do genres mean for producers?
Producers…
- market texts according to genre because an audience of fans of
that genre has already been established.
- standardise production practices according to genre conventions.
- subscribe to established conventions but also allow creativity within
a given format to keep the genre fresh/modern.

10. GENRE CONCLUSIONS
• Genres have a certain amount of predictability and repeated
elements, which make them distinctive and which help to
define them.
• All genres have a portfolio of key elements (conventions)
from which they are composed.
• Not all examples of a genre will have all the elements all the
time.
• It is these elements which make up the formula or a
repetition of elements of a given genre.
• Genres can be combined to create new forms or Hybrids