Genre and Narrative in Media Studies

Introduction to Media and Communications: Lecture 5

• Lecture 5 is about Genre and Narrative
• The lecture will cover:
  • What is Genre
  • Genre, Audience and Producer
  • Genre as a critical tool
  • Narrative

What is Genre?

• Genre is a French word which translates to "Type", "Group" or "Category"
• Genre as a term was introduced into film, literature and media studies
• Genre serves as a critical tool to analyze and classify media texts.
• The concept of genre suggests that certain types of media material, often story-types, such as style, narrative and structure, are recognised to make up a particular genre
• Elements of genre are commonly are known as Conventions
• Conventions are ideas that audiences share about particular genres
• These conventions help audiences recognize types of genres and to anticipate expected things to occur within a genre
• Many horror movies utilize similar music/sound like high pitched and gradually increasing pace or using dark filters to create a frightening feeling to engage the audience

Genre and Iconography

• An important element in identifying genre is the look or iconography of the text
• Iconography constitutes a pattern of visual imagery common to a genre
• Iconography includes signs associated with genres, like physical attributes, dress of actors, settings, and tools.
• Genres are no longer fixed, they are now a working 'Repertories of Elements' or fluid systems of Conventions and Expectations
• Conventions and Expectations include narrative, audio-visual codes, iconography and ideological themes

Genre, Audience and Producer

• Audiences are said to like the concept of genre because of it's reassuring and familiar promise of repetition and differences for satisfaction
• Genres help filmmakers know what the audience is hoping for, so the audience can react or interact with the movie as intended
• Genre signals the type of text for the audience
• Audiences become familiar with the codes and conventions of specific genres
• Media industries find standardized practices lucrative due to genres
• The emphasis on sameness, repetition and standardization does not work on audiences' enjoyment of different genres
• There is a range for satisfaction with genres ranging from anticipation, expectation and prediction
• Genre is a system of codes, conventions, visual styles and specific narrative expectations, enabling audiences to rapidly determine the narrative
• Producers like the concept of genre because they can exploit winning formulas and minimize risks

Genre Importance

• Genre helps institutions budget and plan finances accurately so Mainstream Media can profit
• For film producers, they must seek to balance the familiar, original, repetition and innovation, predictability and unpredictability
• Genre is important to industries and media critics
• Genres are good for the industry and audience alike
  • The industry makes profits
  • The audience enjoys them
• Action movies usually resolve with good beating evil

Key Elements of Genre

• The Key Elements are consistently repeated throughout Genres to define them
• The key elements include:
  • Protagonists
  • Stock Characters
  • Plots and Stock Situations
  • Iconography
  • Setting
  • Style
  • Themes
  • Audience Response

Key Elements Defined

• PROTAGONISTS: Recognisable lead/main characters, often male and loners
• STOCK CHARACTERS: Recognisable minor characters such as best friends or mentors
• PLOTS AND STOCK SITUATIONS: Narrative that includes plots and storylines that are predictable and recognisable
• ICONOGRAPHY: Recognisable aspects of a genre, for instance, physical attributes and the dress of the actors
• SETTING: Distinct location and time period
• STYLE: Use of costumes, lighting, camera movements, color, and visual tone
  • This includes temporal and spatial settings
• THEMES: Effective when based on binary oppositions, expressing values communicated to the audience
• AUDIENCE RESPONSE: “Mode of Address” with genres having particular ways of speaking to their audience

The Main Genres

• Main film genres include Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime/Gangster, Drama, Epics/Historical, Horror, Musicals, Science Fiction, War and Western
• Main TV genres include Serial Drama, Food TV Show, News Broadcasting, Music, Science, Nature, Cartoon, Business, Sport, Current Affairs, Medical, Teen Drama, Game Show, Variety Show and Talent Show
• Non-genre film categories include Animation, Kids, Cult Film, Documentary, Erotic, Silent, and Classical.

Genre as a Critical Tool

• Movie critics found genre important because media texts are the products of an industrial process, not individual creation
• Grouping texts makes studying then easier
• Genre recognizes industrial constraints on producers and trends in popular culture
• Genre theory acknowledges that a group of texts of the same genre can reveal a good deal, especially audience appeal
• Genre study benefits intertextual studies

Masculine Genres

• Masculine genres include the following themes:
  • Males prefer factual television, sports or action-based narratives, and science fiction with clear resolutions where villains are killed and the hero wins the girl
  • Sports on TV are dominated by men and tend to inculcate masculine values like competition, strength and discipline
  • War films promote violence as natural heroic behavior
  • Women in these films are depicted as mothers, chattel or whores
  • Soldiers are men of few words, with heroic deeds and stoic endurance
  • Military soldiers perform lethal tasks with no show of emotion
  • Detective stories give the masculine ego mastery and certainty

Masculine Stories

• Detective stories include the following themes:
  • Following clues to unravel plots and re-establish of order
  • Representations of men include strength, power, sexual attractiveness, physique, independence of thought and actions, and detachment
• Genre changes with time and its nature
• The differences may provide helpful clues about how society is changing
• More female action stars raise questions about changing gender roles

Hybrid Films

• Films are not "purely" in one category/genre
• Hybrid films mix two or more conventions while reinterpreting them
• Alien is an example of science-fiction and horror
• Spoofs arise when the conventions of a genre become established and parodied for humour like Scary Movie as a horror spoof
• Multiple genres in film allow higher audience interest and surprise

Limitations of Genres

• The concept of Genre has limitations when applied to media texts because of the variety and the need for contrast updating
• Many texts may look similar, but are too different to be put together
• Categories can be too generalised
• Distinctions between sub-genres within a genre are important
• Genre is helpful for film, television, and music, but less so for newspapers, magazines or radio

Narrative

• Narrative organizes material
• Narrative refers to the structure of the story
• Film narrative is an invisible process of storytelling
• It is defined as a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship in time and space
• Narrative analysis is an integral part alongside genre, representation, industry and institution, and audience

Basic Narrative Structure

• Narrative plays with the idea of equilibrium and disruption
• Narratives are constructed with conflict
• Hollywood scripts have Three Act structures, encompassing:
  • An Opening Disruption of Equilibrium/Setup
  • The development of Conflict in the Second Act
  • The Climax and Resolution in the Third Act
• A narrative arc is a way of understanding a story's plot
• Most stories include an Exposition, a Rising Action, a Climax, a Falling Action, and a Resolution

Three Act Structure

• Three act structures can also be described as:
  • Act One, set up
  • Act Two, confrontation
  • Act three, resolution

Hollywood Culture

• Hollywood has often has an inbuilt conservatism which requires a 'happy ending'
• Classic Hollywood narrative favors a ‘goal oriented structure'
• The lead character wins and achieves a triumph over adversity
• Genres function according to sets of rules and conventions that govern their capacity and range
• Patterns may acquire not only typical qualities but also archetypal force, inherent within ourselves
• Dominating are ways of seeing and representing the world
• Genres have patterns of fixity, and also have patterns of change