LESSON

6
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Differen-
tiating M edia Through
essage GENRES
Codes are better understood when there a good grasp of
what the genres in media are and how they are classified
and interpreted using codes and conventions.

There is certain written text is a NEWS STORY and not a

FEATURE STORY because there are elements that finds in
news that do not see in feature writing. Or maybe, a
fantasy genre has a different way of telling a story than
a drama or a thriller.
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Differen-
tiating M edia Through
essage GENRES
Genre is a French word for “type” or “kind.” Genre has
been a major component in understanding literature,
theatre, film, television, and other art and media forms.

The grouping into recognizable categories of content of

these forms is what characterizes genre. Each of
categories is further marked by “particular set of
conventions, features, and norms (Neale as cited in
Creeber, 2003).”
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Differen-
tiating M edia Through
essage GENRES
Some experts on genre (Bhatia, 1993) define the terms as
the following:

1 Recognizable communicative event.

2 Characterized by a set of Communicative purposes.

Identified and Understood by the members of the

3 professional and academic community in which it
regularly occurs.
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Differen-
tiating M edia Through
essage GENRES
The “communicative event” referred to is the nature of your
media exposure such as reading a book or a newspaper,
watching a film or television show, or surfing the Internet. The
“communicative purpose” is the intention of the media messages
that you are exposed to a news reports informs you an event
utilizing the principles of news writing to do so; a film entertains
utilizes aspects of film making to get engaged in the narrative.
Being able to identify and understand messages simply means that
it does not matter who the audience is as long as he or she can
understand the messages the same way as other audiences would.
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McQuail (2005) In order to effectively understand how

media content or messages produce desired effects by
both authors and audience, there should first be a
familiarity with genre codes and conventions.
Codes consist of signs that have meaning and the meanings are
dictated by agreed rules of interpretation. Although codes
guide the way a message may be interpreted or understood, it
is not guaranteed that all people will understand the message in
the same way that others would. The message is still open to
miscommunication and misinterpretation because of certain
factors such as culture, personal bias, and level of knowledge.
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Culture affects the way codes are interpreted. For instance,

a salutation in one cultural group may be different in
another.

The most common area on which codes are expected to be

strictly manifested are in audio-visual media messages such as
films and television programs.
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Chandler (2014) “the most widely mentioned in the context

of media, communication and cultural studies.” Chandler’s
typology corresponds to three kinds of knowledge
required by interpreters of a text.

1 Knowledge of the World (Social Knowledge)

2 Knowledge of the Medium and the Genre (Textual Knowledge)

3 Knowledge of the Relationship between (1) and (2) (ModalityJudgements)
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TECHNICAL CODES
• When the equipment is used to tell the story in a media text which
consequently affects how can interpret the meaning of the text,
dealing with technical codes.

• Signs that are produced when camera techniques, framing,

lighting, and exposure, and juxtaposition are utilized.

• The type of film shot or the manner of capturing a scene or even

the way the scenes are spliced and put together through editing
suggests a particular meaning.
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TECHNICAL CODES Extreme Long Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Long Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Medium Long Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Full Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Medium Close Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Close up Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Extreme Close Up Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Establishing Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Point-of-View Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Over-the-Shoulder Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Reaction Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Insert Shot

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TECHNICAL CODES Reverse-Angle Shot

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VISUAL / SYMBOLIC CODES

• There are codes that are embedded in the technical codes
such as objects, setting, body language, clothing, and color.
These codes suggests or connote, rather than explicitly state
the meaning of a media message.

• The understanding of the message may depend on the

receiver of the message.
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VISUAL / SYMBOLIC CODES

What does the Red Rose symbolizes?

A Red Rose may convey

Romance or Love.
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VISUAL / SYMBOLIC CODES

What does the Clenched Fist symbolizes?

A Clenched Fist may

convey Anger.
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VISUAL / SYMBOLIC CODES

What does the Colors in a
Traffic light symbolizes?

Red = Stop
Yellow = Ready
Green = Go
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WRITTEN CODES
• The use of language style and textual layout also express
meaning.

• Captions, titles, slogans, taglines, and some other language

elements are utilized in a way that may suggest a particular
meaning.

• This more often dictated by editorial principles and policies

of a particular news agencies/organization.
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WRITTEN CODES Headline

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WRITTEN CODES Captions

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WRITTEN CODES Speech Bubbles

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Codes are signs and to interpret the meaning, you have to

be familiar with how these signs operate. Audio-visual,
television, film may be recognized based on recognizable
genres like horror, fantasy, drama, comedy.

The textual features help you to interpret accordingly using

features, when taken collectively, all these films define the
genre where they belong to.
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Textual Features and Properties to a Film Genre (Chandler, 2014)

Textual Feature Properties to a Film Genre

Similar plots, Predictable, Situations,
Narrative
Sequences, Episodes, and Resolutions.
Theme topics,
Social, Cultural, Psychological, Professional,
Subject matter,
Political, Sexual, and Moral.
and Values
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Textual Features and Properties to a Film Genre (Chandler, 2014)

Types of Characters, Roles, Personal qualities,

Characterization
Motivation, and Goal.
Setting Historical and Geographical.
Visual including décor, costume, ‘typecast’
Iconography performers, familiar patterns of dialogue,
music and sounds.
Stylistic or Fomal conventions of lightning,
Filmic
Sound recording, Use of color and Editing.
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“Formula” or Formulaic – are exposed to a certain message, often

look for something recognizable or familiar to be able to make sense
of what it means.
EXAMPLE:
• You read a storyline in a novel or comic book. You rely on the images or the
illustrations presented as a way of unlocking those that you find difficult to
understand.
• When you watched an episode of a telenovela that you do not regularly
follow, you still seem to know the story even if you have missed the certain episodes.
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Refers to the accepted way of doing things that has formed

into a habit because of repeated exposure and experience
of the messages.
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MESSAGES
- The information send to a receiver from a source.
AUDIENCES
- The group of consumers for whom the media messages was
constructed as well as anyone else who is exposed to the
message.
PRODUCERS
- People engaged in the process of creating and putting
together media content to make a finished media product.
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Tropes in Television
-Tropes are storytelling devices. They are also conventions seen in television genres.
-Tropes are the figures of speech that audiences recognize too easily because of their
occurrences in almost all programs under a particular genre.
- In film language, these are called motifs. According to tvtropes.org, tropes highlight
twists on the plot or narrative and provide texture to a story.
- “Trope” has the even more general meaning of a pattern in storytelling, not only with
the media works but also in related aspects such as the behind-the-scenes aspect of
creation and fan experience. The idea being that storytelling is not just writing, it is the
whole process of creating and telling/showing a story.
- TV Tropes
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References
Media and Information Literacy (MIL) - 6. Media and Information Languages (Part 1):
Genre, Codes and Conventions.
https://www.slideshare.net/arnielping/mil-media-and-information-languages-genre-codes-
and-conventions
Media and Information Literacy (MIL) - Media and Information Languages.
https://www.slideshare.net/markjhonoxillo/media-and-information-languages
Characteristics and Types of Feature.
https://www.slideshare.net/PiritaJuppi/characteristics-and-types-of-feature