Genres

What is a Genre?

Media products can be classified into categories or genre. 

Media genres appear within a medium such as the "horror" film or the television "situation comedy".

Each genre has a set of distinguishing features.

The features associated with a genre's style and content may be for:

• a particular setting
• character types
• technical codes

Audiences recognize these features and therefore expect certain things. For example, at the end of a romantic comedy film the two lead characters will realize they are in love. Audiences may even select a text on the basis of its genre.

Producers market texts according to genre because a niche audience has already been identified as taking pleasure in that type of text.