What Role Do Genres Play In The Use Of Propaganda Films
Most,if not all of the things that surround human existence are classified into different categories to make identification easier. The same goes for films and other forms of art.Genre is a French word which means kind or type. It is used to classify some forms of art like music and film. Genre follows some set conventions that have emerged from certain films displaying similar characteristics as time went by, however, these genres are not always consistent with the set conventions that guide which ever genre is in question. No film can ever have all the characteristics by which the genre it belongs to is identified and no definition of a particular genre can describe a film perfectly. The use of Genres serve works for people in different ways.
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producers use genres to get the attention of target audiences. This way, the risk of losing audiences and potential audiences is avoided. For the audience, genre helps to differentiate between films and help the audience establish what their film preferences are. Genre also helps scholars who study film, it gives them them the knowledge of the historical, social and cultural attributes of genres. Genres are important because it sets one type of film apart from the other. Without genre, film producers would not be able to market their products. Genre is also a marketing strategy because it these boundaries separating one genre from another are there to draw target audience who are fans of a particular genre. Film Directors also create an identity for themselves using genre. You can already tell what genre a film is or have a close idea what the genre of a film might be once you know who directed it. Ond can also tell who might have directed a film before you get to know, if you are very conversant with the styles and techniques the director is known for using so this way,we can see how film directors use concentration on a certain genre to win a loyal audience for themselves. sometimes, it hard to fully be able to draw the line between genre conventions but we know a particular genre when we see it. one of the reasons why it is difficult to set genres apart completely is that some films or television programmes posses the conventions of more than one genre. In some cases, more than one genre is actually present because the director or filmmaker has intended it. genre conventions have changed as time went by and they are still ever changing as new things get removed or added and some characteristics are modified and in some cases, a new genre even emerges as a result of these changes. we have genre expectations or schemas, these are mental collections which we refer to from time to time in order to interpret something going on around us. they are a set of similar characteristics which we can connect to a particular concept or thing so there are genre schemas.
For example, a video on youtube titled laptop advert, the title has already prompted the viewer on what to expect, stirring our genre expectation or schema about the video we are about to see. THe video meets expectation by opening with a shot of an expensive laptop sitting on a table. The features of the laptop are being pointed out by text as the camera moves around the laptop then suddenly, a wolf jumps out from nowhere and crushes the laptop between its teeth startling the viewer and the video comes to an end. Here we find out that this was not really an advertisement but a parody whose effects come from stimulating our genre expectations and then disrupting them suddenly for humour or to shock us. The history of genre is not very specific, certain events have contributed a lot to the formation of certain genres. An example is the 9/11 attack. This event had a bit of influence on the crime genre as a whole. In series such as Without a trace and CSI , we can begin to notice the drift from how the early crime shows have always been and how they are today. Without a trace is a crime drama series that started to air from 2002 to 2009. It was set in New York where the attack took place and it ran for seven seasons. It could have been set anywhere else but seeing as the attack took place in New York and this as a post 9/11 series, one would say this influenced the directors decision about where the series would be shot. The show was mainly about the search for a missing person under a short period of time. It was also centered around the lives of the people in the FBI team whose job was to find these people. it showed how their experience in past cases aided them in solving new ones. This series had an edge over others in this genre because most times, at the end of an episode a real case of a missing person would be aired and once or twice, these missing persons got found as a result of this. The show hinted a lot at the unsafe world in which we now live in. People are not who they seem to be or present themselves to be. Close friends and neighbours cannot be trusted. The people on the four planes which were hijacked were unaware of the prescence of terrorists in the plane hence the theme of not trusting anybody that is ever present in the without a trace series. Historical events can also influence the context of a given televison series. An example is materials and labour, an iraqi series that gets its context from the war that was present at the time. In the series, people in Baghdad who had lost their homes or had their homes damaged because of the state of conflict were given the opportunities to have their homes rebuilt without them paying anything. This was a way of letting people know the state of affairs and what the people had to go through at the time. They intended to be very obvious about the message that was trying to be passed across. On one of the house that were built, a notice was placed on the front gate which read: “on April, 10, 2014, the Al Sharqiya network began to rebuild this home damaged by war”. some other television series do not use this method of making historical themes which are present in the genres very obvious as in Materials of labour some others are more subtly suggested. An example is Friends, an American comedy series about 6 friends and their journey in life. In the series, indirect reference to the 9/11 attack is made. This is illustrated by some of the characters wearing hats which have N.Y.P.D printed on it. Their apartments also had American flags as decorations and they had stickers which said “i love New York” again, the series was set in manhattan New York. Genre has a two way association with history in that history is sometimes present in certain genres and genres add to our knowledge of history and why certain things occurred. The Autopsy, British reality series showed real life autopsies on air. This said something about Britain during the sixteenth century, people were entertained by autopsies in those times. Doctors were given the right to dissect and dissection was also a form of punishment for law breakers. This gives some sort of insight to the norms of the british society in the sixteenth century. Genres have played a role in the use of propaganda.
these films are called propaganda films. They are usually in form of a documentary are aimed at wininng the viewer over to take a certain political side, to change the viewers opinions, behaviours and beliefs. More often than not, the information provided in propaganda films are wrong and mislead people. Propaganda is sending out a message that will to vast number of people with the intention for this message to influence people and win them over to the side of the person or people who have sent this message accross. Genre is a better medium to promote propaganda than any other because images seen on television or in motion are more convincing and more believable than reading information off a mere newspaper, poster or billboard. Even if there was doubt present in the minds of people, pyschologically, a part of them still wants to believe because the information looks real, it is in motion and is happeneing before their very …show more content…
eyes. Genre also plays a part in representing society and social reality.
“this aspect of genre analysis emphasizes that text by itself is not a complete object possessing meaning on its own; it is to be regarded as an ongoing process of negotiation in the context of issues like social roles, group purposes, professional and organisational preferences and prerequisites, and even cultural constraints.” Bhatia (1993) One is able to say from the above quote that Bhatia argues that genre does not exist of its own, elements of genre are present in society and genre in some way influences society. Gangster films do not get their conventions from nowhere, most of them are adaptations of real life conventions of the lifestyles in society.
characteristics of real life American society can be seen in the gangster film. The protagonist is very often a black male living in the rural areas of the states or better yet living in the hood. The representation of a reckless lifestyle is well portrayed by showing themes of drug abuse, crime, violence and in some cases illegal sexual activity. The protagonist, usually a gang member or gang leader dresses in a certain way and talks in a certain way that is characteristic of the. gangster lifestyle even in real life. The other gang members dress and talk the same. There is usually a rival gang and at the resolution of the plot, only one gang remains standing. The other gang members are either over-powered and would have to leave the area or they are killed in a shoot-out or some other more violent method. In some case, the plot revolves around the good and bad guys, i.e the gang members and the police. This is a genre but it is not just a genre, it is a social representation of reality which is also being used for entertainment but at the same time passing a
message. Genres say those things that the masses cannot effectively say and no matter how busy the leaders in power are, the message will one way or the other get to them. Although i have given loads of examples, my intention is to focus on discussing westerns as a genre and how it is associated with and represents the ‘cowboy’ era. Westerns are one of the earliest genres, it is one of th emost significant genres of American filmmaking. westerns came into existence in the1910s. The early westerns were usually about cowboys, outlaws, settlers and tribes of native Americans. After a while, the main theme of the genre became the unending conflicts between civilized order and lawless frontier.
producers use genres to get the attention of target audiences. This way, the risk of losing audiences and potential audiences is avoided. For the audience, genre helps to differentiate between films and help the audience establish what their film preferences are. Genre also helps scholars who study film, it gives them them the knowledge of the historical, social and cultural attributes of genres. Genres are important because it sets one type of film apart from the other. Without genre, film producers would not be able to market their products. Genre is also a marketing strategy because it these boundaries separating one genre from another are there to draw target audience who are fans of a particular genre. Film Directors also create an identity for themselves using genre. You can already tell what genre a film is or have a close idea what the genre of a film might be once you know who directed it. Ond can also tell who might have directed a film before you get to know, if you are very conversant with the styles and techniques the director is known for using so this way,we can see how film directors use concentration on a certain genre to win a loyal audience for themselves. sometimes, it hard to fully be able to draw the line between genre conventions but we know a particular genre when we see it. one of the reasons why it is difficult to set genres apart completely is that some films or television programmes posses the conventions of more than one genre. In some cases, more than one genre is actually present because the director or filmmaker has intended it. genre conventions have changed as time went by and they are still ever changing as new things get removed or added and some characteristics are modified and in some cases, a new genre even emerges as a result of these changes. we have genre expectations or schemas, these are mental collections which we refer to from time to time in order to interpret something going on around us. they are a set of similar characteristics which we can connect to a particular concept or thing so there are genre schemas.
For example, a video on youtube titled laptop advert, the title has already prompted the viewer on what to expect, stirring our genre expectation or schema about the video we are about to see. THe video meets expectation by opening with a shot of an expensive laptop sitting on a table. The features of the laptop are being pointed out by text as the camera moves around the laptop then suddenly, a wolf jumps out from nowhere and crushes the laptop between its teeth startling the viewer and the video comes to an end. Here we find out that this was not really an advertisement but a parody whose effects come from stimulating our genre expectations and then disrupting them suddenly for humour or to shock us. The history of genre is not very specific, certain events have contributed a lot to the formation of certain genres. An example is the 9/11 attack. This event had a bit of influence on the crime genre as a whole. In series such as Without a trace and CSI , we can begin to notice the drift from how the early crime shows have always been and how they are today. Without a trace is a crime drama series that started to air from 2002 to 2009. It was set in New York where the attack took place and it ran for seven seasons. It could have been set anywhere else but seeing as the attack took place in New York and this as a post 9/11 series, one would say this influenced the directors decision about where the series would be shot. The show was mainly about the search for a missing person under a short period of time. It was also centered around the lives of the people in the FBI team whose job was to find these people. it showed how their experience in past cases aided them in solving new ones. This series had an edge over others in this genre because most times, at the end of an episode a real case of a missing person would be aired and once or twice, these missing persons got found as a result of this. The show hinted a lot at the unsafe world in which we now live in. People are not who they seem to be or present themselves to be. Close friends and neighbours cannot be trusted. The people on the four planes which were hijacked were unaware of the prescence of terrorists in the plane hence the theme of not trusting anybody that is ever present in the without a trace series. Historical events can also influence the context of a given televison series. An example is materials and labour, an iraqi series that gets its context from the war that was present at the time. In the series, people in Baghdad who had lost their homes or had their homes damaged because of the state of conflict were given the opportunities to have their homes rebuilt without them paying anything. This was a way of letting people know the state of affairs and what the people had to go through at the time. They intended to be very obvious about the message that was trying to be passed across. On one of the house that were built, a notice was placed on the front gate which read: “on April, 10, 2014, the Al Sharqiya network began to rebuild this home damaged by war”. some other television series do not use this method of making historical themes which are present in the genres very obvious as in Materials of labour some others are more subtly suggested. An example is Friends, an American comedy series about 6 friends and their journey in life. In the series, indirect reference to the 9/11 attack is made. This is illustrated by some of the characters wearing hats which have N.Y.P.D printed on it. Their apartments also had American flags as decorations and they had stickers which said “i love New York” again, the series was set in manhattan New York. Genre has a two way association with history in that history is sometimes present in certain genres and genres add to our knowledge of history and why certain things occurred. The Autopsy, British reality series showed real life autopsies on air. This said something about Britain during the sixteenth century, people were entertained by autopsies in those times. Doctors were given the right to dissect and dissection was also a form of punishment for law breakers. This gives some sort of insight to the norms of the british society in the sixteenth century. Genres have played a role in the use of propaganda.
these films are called propaganda films. They are usually in form of a documentary are aimed at wininng the viewer over to take a certain political side, to change the viewers opinions, behaviours and beliefs. More often than not, the information provided in propaganda films are wrong and mislead people. Propaganda is sending out a message that will to vast number of people with the intention for this message to influence people and win them over to the side of the person or people who have sent this message accross. Genre is a better medium to promote propaganda than any other because images seen on television or in motion are more convincing and more believable than reading information off a mere newspaper, poster or billboard. Even if there was doubt present in the minds of people, pyschologically, a part of them still wants to believe because the information looks real, it is in motion and is happeneing before their very …show more content…
eyes. Genre also plays a part in representing society and social reality.
“this aspect of genre analysis emphasizes that text by itself is not a complete object possessing meaning on its own; it is to be regarded as an ongoing process of negotiation in the context of issues like social roles, group purposes, professional and organisational preferences and prerequisites, and even cultural constraints.” Bhatia (1993) One is able to say from the above quote that Bhatia argues that genre does not exist of its own, elements of genre are present in society and genre in some way influences society. Gangster films do not get their conventions from nowhere, most of them are adaptations of real life conventions of the lifestyles in society.
characteristics of real life American society can be seen in the gangster film. The protagonist is very often a black male living in the rural areas of the states or better yet living in the hood. The representation of a reckless lifestyle is well portrayed by showing themes of drug abuse, crime, violence and in some cases illegal sexual activity. The protagonist, usually a gang member or gang leader dresses in a certain way and talks in a certain way that is characteristic of the. gangster lifestyle even in real life. The other gang members dress and talk the same. There is usually a rival gang and at the resolution of the plot, only one gang remains standing. The other gang members are either over-powered and would have to leave the area or they are killed in a shoot-out or some other more violent method. In some case, the plot revolves around the good and bad guys, i.e the gang members and the police. This is a genre but it is not just a genre, it is a social representation of reality which is also being used for entertainment but at the same time passing a
message. Genres say those things that the masses cannot effectively say and no matter how busy the leaders in power are, the message will one way or the other get to them. Although i have given loads of examples, my intention is to focus on discussing westerns as a genre and how it is associated with and represents the ‘cowboy’ era. Westerns are one of the earliest genres, it is one of th emost significant genres of American filmmaking. westerns came into existence in the1910s. The early westerns were usually about cowboys, outlaws, settlers and tribes of native Americans. After a while, the main theme of the genre became the unending conflicts between civilized order and lawless frontier.