Genre in the (post) Modern

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How has Genre has developed

Genre was created by Plato and Aristotle, where they divided literature into three sections; prose, poetry and drama. However in a contemporary society there’s literary hundreds of genres and that is a good way to show the development of genre.

hulk vs loki

This clip is good example to show how genre has developed in superhero movies, where marvel has broke the conventions of a superhero movies and has now added an element of comedy to give a variety to their audience. The idea of the hulk being a comic character in any shape or form would have been considered very different to his traditional image.

Genre has progressed a great deal throughout the years. It has moved from a stage where genre was very black and white, where a film or any text only contained one genre but genre has development so much that now there’s the existence of sub-genres and hybrids.

Genre was created to allow us to identify different text based on certain conventions. specific genres comes with different conventions which we can associate this different text with, for example a zombie movie the audience would expect blood, death and with a tone of seriousness etc. maybe something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ4xGaLzpvI

With this development we are now able to see films and text with more than one genre and zombie movies don’t have to follow their conventions and we get films like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfDUv3ZjH2k

As you can see with Shaun of the dead, zombie movies can carry more than one genres.

Genre HybridityGenre hybridity is writing that blends elements from two or more literary genres in an experimental format. This allows creative flexibility and also allows for an wider audience target.

These have been thoroughly used in reality tv as the boundaries between factuality and fiction have been blurred.

This has evolved over the years and has become more apparent in films nowadays. With the example of the movie Dark Shadows; here is a clip…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePV8WGngJRQ

This shows that genres are no longer distinctively categorized as this trailer is hybrid of horror and comedy .

What is reality TV..

Wiki- Reality television is a television programming that presents purportedly unscripted melodramatic or "humorous" situations, documents actual events

Annette Hill- A catch all category that includes a wide range of television programs about real people.

Programming that is unscripted and follows actual “real life” events as they unfold usually involving members of the public or groups of celebrities

Types of Reality TV

Infotainment Show

Ducosoap

Lifestyle Programme

Social Experiment

Reality Talent Show

Reality Game Show

Difference between Reality TV and Webcams

It is hard to say if the popularity of webcams and the sudden increase in so-called "reality television" programs are related events. Both are forms of entertainment which rely heavily on the voyeuristic tendencies inherent in human nature, but there are great differences between "reality television" and a webcam.

“Reality television” is not a form of new entertainment, it has existed since the advent of the medium. Even game shows, documentaries, and newscasts could arguably fit into this poorly defined category. reality television, which is highly dependent on behind-the-scenes control of the content of the show. More to the point, it is vital to the illusion of "reality" in these programs that the production stay behind-the-scenes. Most, if not all, modern "reality television" shows do not merely report on reality, they create a "reality" which they then edit. There is nothing improvisational about reality television. The attraction to reality television lies not in its ability to reflect accurately the world we live in, but its ability to make celebrities out of everyday people.

As with any trend online, communities arose to accommodate the followers of the new meme. And, much like blogs and webjournals, there is little differentiation between the producers and the audiences of webcam content. People who watch webcams as fans have access to the knowledge of how to create a webcam themselves, and often do.

Webcams may be less controlled than "reality" television but the production value of the medium does not effect the psychology. People have webcams to make themselves feel important. The image displayed and viewed by the public need not be graphic in form. Blogs and webjournals, too, give individuals a sense of importance because others are paying attention to what they write.

This does not explain why people watch webcams. Watching a person on a webcam in order to imagine one's self on a webcam does not make sense. For one, campeople rarely acquire a large public following, power, prestige, or riches. No famous actress has ever started her career as a well known camgirl. This is not the case with the "stars" of reality television programs. Often the cast member has a chance to not only win any prizes offered as part of the show, but to use his appearance on the show to acquire further fame after the show has ended.

http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1597/02dissertation.pdf?sequence=2

http://pandora.simons-rock.edu/~pprimate/writing/thesis/uploading.html

http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles2(2)/webcams.pdf

Editing techniquesEditors have the interesting task of turning 24-hour footage for instance, into 1 hour of highlights where they can create conflicts and resolutions as desired by producers.

The manipulation of footage in such manner is purposed to compress hours of raw footage that is mostly boring with nothing particularly interesting into the most interesting 1hour show. They can tell any story they like from those hours by simply putting different pieces of footage from different times together. 

This of course, is done according to what the producers want to show/portray therefore to get the wanted reaction back form the audience.

Robb Roetman is supervising editor for Reveille Studios, which produces Shear Genius

 “Reality shows can shoot anywhere from 40 hours of footage to 200 hours depending on the show. After I figure out which location, scene or event to search through, I can have anywhere from one to six hours of footage to go through to find that elusive golden moment. When I watch footage I try to look for a moment that makes me react or entertains me — makes me laugh, cry, sit on the edge of my seat, or teaches me something. When I find that moment I build a scene around it.” 

Sometimes an interview describes something that you don’t have footage to support. “If that’s the case I end up creating a moment that supports the interview,” Roetman says. “Head turns are great for this.”

The biggest rule for Roetman is that the end product has to move the viewer and the story forward. “It cannot be simply a montage or a series of shots depicting people going through a process like driving from point A to B.”

Poe’s law by Nathan Poe

“ Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake it for the genuine article.”

The idea of Poe’s law is that real events and parodies are so extreme now, that one can be mistaken for the other.

This makes it hard for the audience distinguish one from the other therefore accepting reality TV as “real” when is it most likely not.

 In my opinion, this does not give the audience the much control they claim to give them since they are basing their judgment on what is carefully selected and manipulated and isn’t necessarily true (i.e. big brother)

BBC 4 Charlie Brooker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBwepkVurCI

What is the role of the Audience and interaction

LOTS OF REALITY TV WORKS WITH INTERACTIVE ELEMENTS: THE AUDIENCE IS PERCEIVED TO BE IN CONTROL. CAN

YOU CRITIQUE THIS?

Audience theory

Consumers/Audiences

Passive consumers: the audience accept what the text contains.

Active consumers: the audience is able to read and interpret media texts for themselves.

Passive consumers: the audience accept what the text contains.

Active consumers: the audience is able to read and interpret media texts for themselves

Related to a number of academic theories about how products are consumed by the audience and how active or interactive the consumption is.

Is related to a number of academic theories about how products are consumed by the audience and how active or interactive the consumption is.

Consumers/Audiences

Passive consumers: the audience accept what the text contains.

Active consumers: the audience is able to read and interpret media texts for themselves.

HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL

The theory is based on the idea that the audience are passive consumers. This mean that they consume media products without question, accepting the dominant ideology.

The producer encodes a product with an intended message and that message is then directly received and fully accepted by the consumer.

Audience theory

x Factor

Image- XFACTOr: Beth Hardy, 30th September 2012 19:00. Mirror (Online) Available at:http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/the-final-12-x-factor-acts-1352296. Accessed: November 7th, Wednesday 2012

XFACTOR: The audience can vote, therefore we become the text producers. We believe that we are in control of who wins.

Example of how an audience is perceived

CASTAWAY (LION/BBC 2000) WOULD BE A GREAT EXAMPLE OF THIS SITUATION, SIMULATED FOR THE AUDIENCES’ ENTERTAINMENT. IT SAW STRUGGLES BETWEENONE CONTESTANT, RON, AND THE OTHERS…HE SUCCESSFULLY CLAIMED THAT THEY HAD HIM-HE THREW A CHAIR AT THE WALL AND ON TV THIS WAS CONSTRUCTED AS THROWING IT AT A PERSON.

WICKHAM P. (2007) UNDERSTANDING TELEVISION TEXT (PAPERBACK), LONDON, THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Conclusion Although mass media has progressed from where it started I believe there is still space for the mass media world to evolve. Technology is being created every day and it is just a matter of time before the new generation of media is created, technology we use now becomes a thing of the past and production companies find a new way to entertain us with new programs.

Any Questions?