Mrs. Raji KEY CONCEPTS OF GENRE Taken from ‘More Than Meets the Eye’ Graeme Burton 3 rd edition 2002 p

Mrs. Raji RECOGNITION and ATTRACTION The story makers depend on recognition for instant communication with the audience. If it is familiar then the audience know the kind of person or scene that they are dealing with. Alternatively the story makers can trade in recognition in order to tease the audience, by doing something, which they do not expect. This is often the case in sequels. So the attraction of genre material is the mixture of familiarity and the unexpected.

Mrs. Raji ANTICIPATION, EXPECTATION and PREDICTION All media material gives some kind of pleasure to the reader of view. This is why the audience buys the product. There is a kind of pleasure gained from being able to anticipate what will happen next, e.g. Mystery Thriller Genre (Murder She Wrote) There is a kind of pleasure gained from expectation of what should happen next, e.g. Action films

Mrs. Raji REPETITION and REINFORCEMENT The building blocks of genre, its elements, as well as the messages that genres communicate, all depend on being repeated, so that they continue to be known and understood by the audience. The more the stories use the same or similar elements, the more the audience accepts that this is what the genre is all about. They become ‘natural’.

Mrs. Raji FORMULA When we recognise and make sense of genre material we take all elements together. This combination of elements special to a genre represents o kind of formula.

Mrs. Raji GENRE, INDUSTRY and AUDIENCE Genres are good for industries because they are generally good for profits. They are good for profits because, the audience pays for them consistently. The audience is attracted to genre material and pays for it because it takes pleasure amps satisfaction from the material.