Is genre a useful way of analysing television? The norms and conventions that are found in texts that have expectations and audiences understanding are linked by theorists to genre. In this respect genre seeks to explain how audiences categorize what t

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Is genre a useful way of analysing television

This essay will examine genre being used as a way of analysing television. Genre is considered as a main issue before any producer constructs a television show, after deciding the genre, the entire show is formed and created around the genre. Therefore the theory is that if genre is used in direct relation to producing a television show then it would be a useful way of analysing. This essay will have the relative significant research and case studies will be analysed to support this theory and undermine the theory with the factors of culture, history, production, narrative and audience analysis of television. The research for this essay is developed from the research report on this topic, as well as many other sources being used in evidence to support the arguments made and then finally incorporating all the information to form a conclusion.

“The word genre originates from a French word meaning ‘type.’” (Nicholas Joe, Price John, Advanced studies in media 1998 p.8) Genres have distinctive features that can be acknowledged by the audience in which then it would be categorised or classed. Examples of genres include comedy, drama, romances, science fiction and news programming.

A genre can be recognized by its own characteristic plot structure, worldview, character, patterns in premise, style and conventions. Programming to a specific genre can be considered as a body of work because of these characteristic elements. Brian Rose explains “The term genre implies that these groups of formal or technical characteristics exist among works of the same kind, regardless of time or place of composition, author or subject matter” (Rose, Brian G, Directing for television, 1999, p.32).

As aforementioned, most TV programs belong to a particular genre, such as science fiction or comedy; a genre acts as an entry through which the viewers typically receive messages. Each genre portrays a constant worldview that forms the way we think about our world.

“The study of genre has been carried out in relation to television using approaches and terms deriving from the study of genre in film, literature and other cultural forms” (Bignell Jonathan, Television studies, 2004, p 124). This is appropriate since some of the most established television genres derive from types found in other media. For example, the soap genre began in radio broadcasting, where characters were formed by focusing on their relationships and this notion was targeted to mainly a female audience. The genre was called soap operas because companies selling detergents and soaps were sponsoring mainly these programs.

Drama is of course a form deriving from theatre, and in the early years of television broadcasting many fiction programmes were television adaptations of theatre plays. News and current affairs television share conceptions of news value and the institutional structures of reporters and editors with newspapers and news radio broadcasting. Entertainment genres such as sketch shows and situation comedy also have theatrical roots in music hall and variety, which were adapted for radio and later became established in television.

“Genre is based on the identification of the conventions and key features which distinguish one kind of work from another, such as the characteristics of westerns, musicals and thrillers in cinema.” (Creeber, Glen The television genre book, 2001, p12)

The norms and conventions that are found in texts that have expectations and audiences’ understanding are linked by theorists to genre. In this respect genre seeks to explain how audiences categorize what they see and hear on television according to features of the text itself and generic cues which audiences identify in programme titles.

To summarise there has been many derivatives of genres from other forms of media when examining television historically and genres have been created to target a specific audience, thus there is a major significance of genre in analysing television.

“Most theorists of genre argue that generic norms and conventions are recognised and shared not only by theorists themselves, but also by audiences, readers and viewers” (Neale Steve, Genre and Hollywood, 2000, p 54).

        Many theorists working on genre have argued about where genre categories had come from. These arguments discuss the factors of texts, production and audiences. Whether the texts in the narrative itself can be considered as naturally forming the genres, whether these categories are used by producers of programmes or if the categories are brought by audiences to the programmes they watch.

Furthermore there is disagreement about whether the task of the theorist is to identify genres so that programmes can be evaluated, or whether the task is to describe how actual audiences make use of genre in their understanding of programmes. From an evaluative point of view, “both television theorists and television fans might regard some programmes as transgressing the rules of genre and therefore evaluate these programmes as inferior” (Rose, p 103). For example, fans of Battlestar Galactica regard some episodes as the ‘real’ Battlestar Galactica and others as spoiled with irrelevant aspects such as soap opera or romance. By contrast, one might argue that programmes which contravene the boundaries of a genre are more important because the conventional rules of television genre are potentially engaging the audience’s attention and therefore have a significant dimension.

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This dispute can be derived from the historical perception that genre applies most easily to mass-market popular culture texts, so the programmes that are within the boundaries of a genre can be seen as mechanically designed in some form. However, texts often participate in several genres at the same time as well as the fact that all texts contribute to genre to some extent. Genre can be about working against the genre conventions as well as with them, it is not only a way of attaching programmes down to one specific genre, but by exploring other notions and mixing the ...

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