Genre Theory

What is it???

Graham Burton said “Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation.”

Genre and Expectations

As the genre is established the audience will have a certain expectation of media within that genre. They will expect to see conventions of that genre. Genres give the audience familiarity and allow them to make an informed choice. This can be applied to most media forms.

HOWEVER repetition of the same conventions will cause the audience to get bored.

Repetition and difference..

To keep a genre’s audience interested the producers will keep some conventional elements constant but also add some new elements or use similar elements in different ways. This will ensure that the audience will not get bored without straying too far from the conventions.

This leads to Hybridity...

This is when a media product is created with a combination of genres, the product then has aspects of the conventions of different genres rather that staying to the conventions of one genre.

Why do producers like genres...

Genres help to give the producers a guideline for what these media products should be like. The genres also have proven popularity with audiences so the producers can get more of a success rate as they have the decision. This also helps the marketing of a media product as they know what audiences like conventions to be conformed or broken thus making it easier to target your audience making the media product more successful.