Media Concepts- Genre
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What is Media Genre?
Genre is a term which can be applied to a variety of forms of media, ranging from music
and film, to magazines and books.
Genres split up different media into different categories, based on characteristics which
they share, for example narratives, settings, storylines, characters and themes.
In particular genres can be referred to films, and films can be classified as being a
particular genre, i.e. horror.
Genres are defined by conventions which can change over time, with new ones
becoming invented as well as old ones being modified or upgraded.
Examples of different Media Genres
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Action (Disaster)- ‘Die Hard’
Adventure- ‘Apollo 13’
Comedy- ‘Ace Ventura Pet Detective’
Crime- ‘L.A.’ Confidential’
Fantasy- ‘Toy Story’
Gangster- ‘The Godfather’
Horror- ‘Halloween’
Romance- ‘Casablanca’
Science Fiction- ‘The Sixth Sense’
Social Drama- ‘Schindler’s List’
Thriller- ‘No Way Out’
The list of films down
the left have been split
up into different
genres.
In total there are 11
different genres, each
with a different film
associated to it, and all
of these genres have
different conventions,
along with ranging
storylines, narratives,
settings etc…
Altman and Wright’s Theory of Genre
• Rick Altman- believed that function controls how the
audience reacts to a film. He believed that genres and thus
films held an ideological message and followed generic
patterns e.g. Romance conventionally equated to a happy
ending.
• Will Wright- believed in myths in media. Similar to Altman, He
believed that genre told a story about itself as conventions
and expectations allowed the audience to infer what will
happen in the narrative.
Steve Neale’s Theory of Genre
Steve Neale states that ‘genres are not systems, they are processes of
systemisation’.
He says that definitions of genre are always historically relative and are therefore
historically specific.
One popular focus when studying films is the evolution of conventions within a
genre, current genres are said to go through phases or cycles of popularity.
Believed that there was a system of expectation and that by using own
knowledge and applying conventions of the genre, the audience should be able
to infer the conclusion of film.
How do genres relate to our media work
both in and out of lessons?
For our A2 media coursework production, our production group focused our
products on one main genre, horror.
By focusing the development of the film trailer, magazine front cover and film
poster on the horror we used a wide range of horror conventions, these
included-Horror themed music throughout our film trailer
-A photo shoot located in a graveyard with the models covered in fake blood
and wearing tattered clothes
-A horror narrative and plot- following the development of a cancer disease and
zombies being introduced.
-The use of colours to signify blood, death and mortality, i.e. black and red
An example of an A2 horror genre media
product
This film poster was used to promote our
film, The Cure, which we created a trailer
for. The horror genre conventions are
relatively clear and include-The use of red text to connotates death,
blood and mortality
-The photograph which covers the page
of three characters covered in blood
-The iron gates positioned in front of the
characters
-The use of dark colours in the
background of the image, simulating
darkness and danger.
In Relation to ‘The Red Room’
In relation to our own production, psychological
horrors connote violence and death and usually feature
a female character as the main victim. We stuck to
conventions for ‘Red Room’ and ensured that the
action in the narrative was what the audience would
expect e.g. dark and lonely rooms and isolation.