Genre Studies in Mass Media: A Handbook

Front Cover
M.E. Sharpe, May 18, 2015 - Political Science - 272 pages
The study of various types of programming is essential for critical analysis of the media and also offers revealing perspectives on society's cultural values, preoccupations, behavior, and myths. This handbook provides a systematic, in-depth approach to the study of media genres - including reality programs, game shows, situation comedies, soap operas, film noir, news programs, and more. The author addresses such questions as: Have there been shifts in the formula of particular genres over time? What do these shifts reveal about changes in culture? How and why do new genres - such as reality TV shows - appear? Are there differences in genres from one country to another? Combining theoretical approaches with concrete examples, the book reinforces one's understanding of the importance of genre to the creation, evolution, and consumption of media content. Each chapter in this reader-friendly book contains a detailed discussion of one of the theoretical approaches to genre studies, followed by Lines of Inquiry, which summarizes the major points of the discussion and suggests directions for analysis and further study. Each chapter also includes an example that illustrates how the particular theoretical approach can be applied in the analysis of genre. The author's careful linkage of different genres to the real world makes the book widely useful for those interested in genre study as well as media and culture, television studies, film studies, and media literacy.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Process
3
Other Functions of Genres
5
Comparative Media Overview
14
Audience Considerations
20
Lines of Inquiry
24
Formulaic Analysis
26
Evolution of Formula
29
Worldview
148
Formulaic Elements
152
Intergenre Approach
156
Lines of Inquiry
158
Ideological Approach
160
Production Elements
167
Production Elements
170
Editing
171

Popular Stage
30
Mature Stage
31
Formulaic Structure
33
Formulaic Plot
38
Stock Characters
47
Formulaic Setting
49
Trappings
50
Formulaic Twists
51
Franchise Formulas
54
Formulaic Approach
60
Historical Context
64
Tracing the History of a Genre
68
Formulaic Elements
75
Plot
76
Character
77
Intergenre Historical Analysis
80
Historical Context
82
Cultural Context
104
Cultural Preoccupations
105
Sex
106
Celebrities
107
Worldview
114
International Perspectives
119
Intergenre Analysis
122
Lines of Inquiry
123
Cultural Context of Celebrity Genre
126
Ideological Approach
134
Genres and Social Commentary
141
Parody
142
Allegories
144
Modes of Analysis
146
Color
172
Lighting
173
Shape
175
Movement
176
Angle
177
Music
178
Production Elements
179
Production Values and the Reality TV Genre
187
Industry Perspective
193
Conservative Sensibility
199
Derivative Programming
201
Industry Abuses
205
Revenue Streams
208
Prequels
209
Ancillary Products
210
Lines of Inquiry
213
Mythic Approach
215
Mythic Premise
218
Genre and the Transmission of Cultural Myth
222
Historical Period
223
Mystical Places
224
Idealized Times
225
Cultural Beliefs
226
Intergenre Analysis
227
Lines of Inquiry
228
Mythic Approach
229
The Andy Griffith Show as Cultural Myth
232
Notes
235
Index
247
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 12 - Formulas enable the audience to explore in fantasy the boundary between the permitted and the forbidden and to experience in a carefully controlled way the possibility of stepping across this boundary.
Page 13 - TV are never doing the minute-byminute work that they have to do in real life," said Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

Bibliographic information