Genre theory

Genre is a a tool that aids us in studying texts and audiences responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements. Daniel Chandler (2001) argued that the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for 'kind' or 'class'. The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of text. All genres have sub genres, meaning a genre within a genre.This means that they are divided up into more specific categories that allow us as an audience to identify them specifically by their familiar and recognisable characteristics (Barry Keith Grant, 1995)

Steve Neal - Dynamic genre

(1995) stresses that “genres are not ‘systems’ they are processes of systematization”, this means that they are dynamic and evolve over time.

Jason Mittel - Cultural categories

In 2001, he argued that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. Industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience's knowledge of society, other texts. Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.    

Rick Altman - Genre pleasure

In 1999, Altman argued that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’. These consist of:

• Emotional Pleasures: The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
• Visceral Pleasures: Visceral pleasures (‘visceral’ refers to internal organs) are ‘gut’ responses and are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’.
• Intellectual Puzzles: Certain film genres such as the thriller or the ‘whodunit’ offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.

Nicholas Abercrombie - Hybrid genres

Nicholas Abercrombie suggests that 'the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable'. The conventions of each genre shift, new genres and sub-genres emerge and others are 'discontinued' (though note that certain genres seem particularly long-lasting). Tzvetan Todorov argued that 'a new genre is always the transformation of one or several old genres

David Buckingham - Genre as change 

This is the idea that genres are not fixed, but are constantly changing, and evolving over time. In 1993, Buckingham argues that 'genre is not simply "given" by the culture. Instead, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.

Over the years genres develop and change as the wider society that produce them also changes, a process that is known as generic transformation. Christian Metz in his book Language and Cinema (1974) argued that genres go through a typical cycle of changes during their lifetime:

• Experimental Stage
• Classic Stage
• Parody Stage
• Deconstruction Stage

He believed that children and young people have identities that don't exist at all and are constantly changing. He looked at their interactions with electronic media and believes that the constant change of media is to do with their constant change in identities.
The media shows the bad sides of society and the world and therefore means that parents keep their children hidden from this reality. With children and young people spending a lot of time around the media, they are learning too much about the world and are constantly changing their identities, views and opinions based on what they observe.