Genre: blog task

 Task 1: Genre factsheets

Complete the following tasks using the Media Factsheets available on the Media Shared drive. You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or can access them online using your Greenford Google login here.

Create a new blogpost in your Exam blog called 'Genre blog tasks' and complete the following:

Read Media Factsheet 03 - Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

1) What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

Genres are categories or types of media text. Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions.

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

Someone sitting behind a desk is not genre specific. However, add high key lighting, a modern mise en scene and a screen behind the character at the desk and the combination of media language choices creates an image we associate with a news broadcast.

3) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

Generic codes and conventions are the aspects of a text which the audience recognises as the shared characteristics of a genre.

4) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

a) They use their prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy a text. This helps when selecting a media text whether it is a lifestyle magazine, a film or a television programme.

b) They are able to compare a text through its shared characteristics with another. If you try to describe a TV

programme to someone who has not seen it, you are likely to define its genre and then clarify what other text it is similar to.

c) They also use their knowledge of genre to reject a text. For many of us there will be genres we actively dislike and therefore will avoid accessing texts we assume to hold those characteristics.

5) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

a) Production

Genres are paradigms or templates media producers can follow. If a media producer wants to produce a new sit-com, there are certain ’rules’ that must be followed. This actually makes life easier for writers and producers as they don’t have to invent things from scratch. They can also look to successful examples of the genre and attempt to replicate what was popular and, of course, avoid the mistakes made by texts which have disappointed the audience.

b) Attracting an Audience

Some genres have loyal fan-bases. People will try out a new sit- com simply because it’s a new sit-com and this can help media producers minimise the potential for failure.

c) Marketing Texts

Good examples of this are film trailers which usually attempt to clearly define the genre of the film and then show as many of the codes and conventions in the trailer. This acts to attract fans of the genre and set up the expectations of the film.

Task 2: Genre analysis case study

Carry out your own genre analysis using the model provided by media theorist Daniel Chandler. Choose a film or TV text and answer the following questions - brief answers/bullet point responses are fine:

BATMAN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SctUYlQ-LWE

General
1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?
As iit shows a direct change and adaptation throughout the years from something comedic like, to a more dark and ominous tone - presenting Batman in a more stern and frightening tone.
2) To what genre did you initially assign the text?
action
3) What is your experience of this genre?
I have seen multiple films such as the batman and similar superhero films.
4) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?

Action and noir(The Batman 2022)
5) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
Action and superhero
6) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?
Lots of fight and suspense , where the hero struggles yet succeeds in the end
7) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where - try imdb.com if unsure)?

8) Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text?
Action, thriller and psychological drama 
9) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
Some people may interpret the films as horrors on occasion due to its dark lighting and threatening figure batman can give through the films.
10) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
Romance as it does not suit nor is in the films enough to plaster it as a romance, only rarely showing relationships throughout.
11) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?
psychological drama
12) What familiar motifs or images are used?
Bats, the darkness 

Mode of address
1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?
Teens to young adults
2) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
There is critique of privilege as batman is a higher-class person yet helps those who are not, there is occasionally gender stereotypes of women not being strong like men are in the films

3) What interests does it assume you have?
Enjoyment of superheroes and action

Relationship to other texts
1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)? Intertextuality is when a media product references another media text of some kind.
The justice league, batman vs superman
2) In terms of genre, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
the joker, The amazing spider man 1 and 2
3) What key features are shared by these texts?
Take a more darker side of heroes, exploring them mentally and a more graphic and gothic outlook towards these characters.
4) What major differences do you notice between them?
That spiderman is more science fiction whereas batman leans towards action