Genre: Audience - Altman + Neale Flashcards
What are gratifications?
The pleasures that audiences get from engaging with certain texts. Different genres create different gratifications
How do audiences use genre?
To help them select media products.
Some ppl become fans of a specific media products + want lots of diff types of this
What was Rick Altman’s (1999) theory about genre and audience?
Genre offers audiences a ‘set of pleasures’
What are the 3 types of pleasures that Altman suggests?
Emotional pleasure, visceral pleasure, and intellectual puzzles
What are emotional pleasures?
They’re significant when they generate a strong audience response
What are visceral pleasures?
‘Gut’ responses - defined by how the text’s construction makes a physical effect within audience
What are intellectual puzzles?
Where film genres require u to unravel a mystery/puzzle - Pleasure made from figuring out plot + the end/being surprised by unexpected
Give an example of gratification:
Sit-coms provide humorous entertainment, soap-operas allow identification with recognisable characters + storylines
What was Stephen Neale’s theory about genre + audiences?
Genre labels are familiar to audience + important to them - Audiences have a fav genre + will seek out texts which are a part of that
How do media industries use genre?
Having clear genre codes + conventions helps to simplify media production
What is the problem with genre?
It’s based on repetition, which can create reassurance, but also create boredom
The gratifications created by having expectations fulfilled can turn to boredom as genre becomes tired
What were Neale’s ideas about audience and pleasure?
- Pleasure comes from ‘repetition and difference’ = There’d be no pleasure without difference
- This means using existing conventions + changing them slightly to create difference
What are media producers always trying to balance?
Giving audiences comfort of familiarity whilst also making something new
