AQA GCSE Media Studies Student Book

37 Types of genres Looking at the chart opposite, you can see that there are several different ways of classifying media products. For example, video games are usually allocated to genres by the nature of the gameplay rather than by the content. Similarly, online and social media genres tend to be grouped by the function or purpose of the site rather than content. Newspapers were traditionally categorised by the size of the paper: broadsheet and tabloid. Even though these distinctions no longer apply, as most newspapers have switched to a tabloid format, we still tend to use the categories broadsheet, mid-market and tabloid as the distinctive genres of the press. Today, these terms refer to the target audience not the size of the paper. Broadsheets or ‘quality’ newspapers target the professional end of the market and the tabloid or popular press target the mass market. Film and television products are categorised by the content type, although even in these cases the boundaries between different genres are rarely clear-cut. Hybrids and subgenres A hybrid is something with mixed origins, so a hybrid genre is derived from two or more genres to create a new category. Here are some useful examples from film: Original genres Hybrid Product Science fiction Horror Sci-fi/Horror Prometheus Science fiction Western Sci-fi/Western Westworld Action and adventure fantasy Action/Fantasy Pirates of the Caribbean Hybrid genres are also found on television. Strictly Come Dancing contains elements of light entertainment, reality television and celebrity talent show. Television docudramas and, on radio, The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4) are self-evidently hybrids. In music video, One Direction’s ‘History’ combines a performance of the song with a visual representation of the song’s story. Hybrids combine elements of the broad categories to make something separate and distinct, while subgenres are specialist groupings within the ‘parent’ genre. The relationship between subgenres and a main genre can clearly be seen in the example of music radio. This category has numerous subgenres based on different types of music such as: • AOR (adult-oriented rock) • easy listening • grime • hip-hop • folk • heavy metal. Some of these subgenres are even further divided. Within the music radio subgenre ‘heavy metal’ we find, for example: • death metal • progressive metal • thrash metal • classic metal. Hybrid A genre that combines two or more pre-existing genres to create a new category. Docudrama A genre that combines fiction with real events. Real people and actual events are recreated in a docudrama. Key terms Can you identify any of the subgenres of the other music radio categories: AOR, easy listening, grime, hip-hop and folk? Quick question 1.9 1 Media Language