My first lesson of media in the 6th form was about genre and codes and conventions.

What is genre?

The term entered into the film study in the late 1960's as a way of theeorising about film. Genre is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and the use of old ones are discontinued. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The motion of repetion, convention and expectation are central in understanding genre theory. The genre production works to repeat and contain these elements.

Genre is identifyed by these elements:

• Repertoire of elements
• Iconography
• Ideological approach
• Narrative structure

Media industries are able to identify popular formates:

• Light
• Setting- tells what genre it is!

Codes and Conventions

The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 distinct groups:

• Technical- camera techniques, shots, camera techniques, framing, depth of field, lighting, exposure and juxtaposition.
• Symbolic - clothing, colours, objects, setting, body language, clothing and colour.
• Written and audio- music, headline, speech bubbles, language style.

These give the text meaning and determine the response of the viewer. They can be used as a basis for simple text analysis.

• Codes- theses are the systems of signs , put together ( usualy in a sequence) to create meaning
• Conventions- habits or long accepted ways of doing things through repeated experience. Each medium has its own forms and convantions.

Newspapers, radio, television,magazines and the internet have a different look, a different method of communicating, a different purpose, and different codes and conventions. Within a specific medium, you may also find distinct codes and conventions. Television is a perfect example. Television shows may by categorized according to genre. Some common television genres are: soap operas, talk shows, medical dramas and police dramas.