An audience-based approach assumes that the meaning of a genre lies in the audiences’ application of their own knowledge of the conventions of genre-construction. Rather than assuming that a movie or program must be a certain type, this approach posits that a movie or program is a certain type depending on the particular conventions audiences apply to a text.

Given their background knowledge and attitudes, one audience may perceive a movie as an action/adventure film, while another audience may perceive it as a horror film. This approach emphasizes the processes of applying genre-knowledge conventions as central to constructing the meaning of a genre. It assumes that audiences acquire more sophisticated knowledge of these conventions through increased experience in viewing a genre. These conventions include audiences’ use of their genre know-how to:

• predict story outcomes based on applying knowledge of prototypical storylines — for example, predicting that at the end of a romantic comedy, differences plaguing a couple’s relationship will be resolved, or predicting that a detective will sort through conflicting clues to solve a murder.

• identify the symbolic meaning of images, techniques, or characters’ practices — for example, knowing that images of black or darkness in film noir or a gangster film represents evil; that suddenly breaking into song in the musical is a familiar, if not unrealistic technique; or that the sidekick figure is often attuned to the local environment or world in ways that assist the hero.

• infer the function or role of the setting or context to explain characters’ actions — for example, knowing that the eerie noise or music in a horror movie is signaling the potential for something dire will occur, or knowing that the “live-audience” setting for the talk show serves to enhance the talk-show host’s sense of performing for both a live and a television audience.

Audiences also enjoy complex variations of traditional genres which invite them to apply their know-how to interpret a film or program, particularly when they are faced with deviations from the prototypical genre. The degree to which audiences construct their own meaning of genre texts is evident in television program fan clubs whose members demonstrate their expertise and knowledge about the conventions of a program through on-line exchanges.

Moreover, the experience of genre texts is akin to a ritual-like experience associated with folklore and myth that functions in ways that reify audiences’ own cultural beliefs and attitudes (Schatz, 1995). Rather than simply focusing on the components of the Western, in adopting an audience-based perspective, students would examine the Western more as a cultural and social myth that served to define and perpetuate Hollywood representations of the American West. At the same time, novel variations of a genre challenge audiences’ presuppositions about prototypical genre development and roles. In the following four-minute clip, professor/director Bette Gordon argues that contemporary films attempt to do more than simply entertain — they also seek to challenge audiences to grapple with their own values.

An audience-based approach also attempts to examine how and why certain genres have an appeal for certain audiences in certain cultural periods. For example, in the early seventies, the outlaw-couple gangster films — Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, Thieves Like Us, and The Sugarland Express — held an appeal to a young audience disenchanted with what they termed “the establishment” (Grant, 1995).

Module 7: Word document

Different Perspectives on Genre Study

Audience-based Approaches to Film/Television Genre Study

Critical/Ideological Analysis of Genres

The History and Evolution of Genres

Devising Genre-analysis Activities

Different Genre Types

Action/Adventure

The Western

Gangster/Crime

Detective/Film Noir

Comedy

Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Horror/Monster

Suspense Thriller/Spy/Heist

Soap Opera

The Talk Show

Sports

Game Shows/
Reality TV

Animation

Comics

Graphic Novels

Teaching Activity

References

Teaching activities on genre developed by students in CI5472, Spring, 2004