Genre Theory In Relation To My Coursework

Genre theory in relation to my A2 production

Genre is a style or category of video, art, music, or literature. Genres have characteristic features that are known to and recognized by audiences. This same and recognized formula is reproduced again and again in order to appeal to the target audience, For example in an adventure book we see similar characters, situations and settings take place this would include such events as a chase, quest or fight; It helps the audience choose and categorize what they are about to view or read. We associate typical features with a particular genre and they all have similar conventions such as the style, setting, narrative, characters and themes. Genres provide readers and viewers with the element of prediction, expectation and anticipation. Audiences know what to expect and are comforted by that. A sense of expectation, pleasure and anticipation also comes from the repetition of key elements within the production, for example an audience expect a crime to be solved in a murder mystery genre and the inspector or police to prevail. This same element can be applied to local newspaper productions in that those often specific types of articles or genre can appear such as crime, sports, science and investigative articles.

Daniel Chandler is a British media theorist who proposed a number of detailed genre theories. Daniel Chandler believed that genre can be defined by convention and form. It teaches that what the audience sees within a piece of media decides on the genre. He believed that it was difficult to make clear cut distinctions between one genre and another and that they overlap. Mixed genres can occur frequently within media this includes productions such as comedy-thrillers or romantic comedies but on the whole productions often stick to specific conventions. During my production of a local paper i followed the teachings of Chandler as closely as possible and stick to specific conventions of genre. For example I Featured a story about outraged citizens protesting against a post office closure. In covering this story I adhered to the conventions of community journalism, this is a genre of journalism that covers locally oriented professional news. The content of articles in this genre revolves around core values that communities can relate to. In order to keep in line with the genre I continuously refereed to values that are held by local residents and recognized by the community. I kept within the genre and kept to the conventions as this will make articles more relatable to my target audience and help entice readers into my production.

Stephen Neale is a British analytic philosopher of language. He has written extensively about how meaning and interpretation is lined within a text or certain part of media. Stephen states that genres are instances of repetition and difference and each of these factors state what genre a media text falls into. Difference is believed to be absolutely essential in deciding what genre a production falls into. When producing an article within a certain genre I tried to make the difference between other genres and the genre my article belongs to clear and repeat common conventions found within the genre. I planned to write an article based on crime within my local community. To use Neale’s theory to stay within the crime genre i would have repeated characteristics common within the crime genre for example and make sure the key elements are significantly different from other genres. The key elements of crime genre include resolution to a mystery and question of morality.