Genre theories

During the course of the year our class have been taught numerous media theorists, here are some descriptions of some of the theorists we learnt about in recent lessons:

John Hartley (1994) - This theorist tells us that he argues that genres are agents of ideological closure and limit potential of a given text. This means that music genres restrict the lengths that a text could go to through categorising it into a specific genre.

Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988) - These theorists explain that genres control the behaviour of producers of certain texts as well as the expectations of possible consumers. Explaining that the production of certain text can be changed through the use of genres and the way they are put into categories.

John Fiske (1987) -  This time the theorist says that 'generic conventions embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular'. In simpler terms this means the conventions express the issues with ideas raised in a particular time in which a genre is at a high point in popularity.

Rick Altman (1999) - This theorist gives an argument based on there being no such thing as a 'pure' genre in the present. He explains that all genres are progressive and will change over time. Also arguing that genres are only surviving now due to hybridisation of different genres or genres borrowing from one another and being more difficult to categorise so that they are individually unique.