Genre = A style or category of a piece of art, literature, a song or film etc.

“The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers.”

Genre is based around SIMILARITIES and DIFFERENCES.

Genre should be predictable and follow along with the typical genre conventions but should also be innovative and unexpected.

Genre is important to the people who make it (INSTITUTION) and the people who consume it (AUDIENCE). Genre is a way of thinking about media production and media reception

Institutions = Early Hollywood (and still today) revolved around large corporations which could be identified by certain styles and genres.

“saddled with conventions and stereotypes, formulas and clichés and all of these limitations were codified in specific genres. This was the very foundation of the studio system and audiences love genre pictures”

 “genres are dependent upon profitability” – Scorcese, A personal Journey through American Cinema (1995)