cct300: critical analysis of media
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CCT300: Critical Analysis of Media. September 22: Analyzing genre. Administration. Get on the course wiki if you haven’t already Last week’s in-class assignment on tetrads due today – and this week’s on genre Comic analysis questions? - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
CCT300: Critical Analysis of MediaSeptember 22: Analyzing genre
Administration
Get on the course wiki if you haven’t already
Last week’s in-class assignment on tetrads due today – and this week’s on genre
Comic analysis questions?
Participation in Chun-Yi’s research – focus groups in class time, participants can use participation as an in-class assignment
Banner contest!
Genre as Community (Agre)
History of article and author
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/genre.html
Rest of his work remains interesting – especially good hints for those who want to enter graduate school
Genre at the core
Similar people working on similar topics in a similar way
Distributed cognition and communities of practice
In postmodern world, genres can become quite specific and localized
Breadth
Genre definitions can be narrowly or broadly construed
Generally, focused genres have more analytical value – examples?
Breadth in Comics
“All sequential art” as broad definition, but not all that useful beyond a general definition of comics as medium
Many subgenres of comics that themselves can be dissected (e.g., subtypes of manga) – different subgenres are different literary, artistic and cultural spaces
Genre, Audience and Activity
Genre implies community of practice and community of consumption
Specific media meets specific audience needs (e.g., reading pulp fiction vs. literature - done for different purposes and in different contexts, even by same consumers…)
Comic Audience/Activity
Historical roots of comics - storytelling (e.g., hieroglyphics, temple art, stained glass)
Modern history - entertainment, largely child oriented (e.g., newspaper strips, superhero) but also with underground alternative strain
Emerging directions – a broader range of themes and structures (including more serious efforts) in a broader range of forms (e.g., web comics, graphic novels, etc.)
Producer/Consumer Relationship
Producer and audience relationship important in defining dynamics of genre
One-to-many (mass) vs. decentralized and interactive (public) relationships – dependent on media genre
Immediacy and impact of feedback loops – what roles do consumers play in relationship?
Consuming comics
Creators create worlds and characters
Details filled in by reader (Gestalt principles, specifically closure) lead to engagement
Immediate feedback usually absent, although web comics change that
Fan bases exist – e.g., Comic-Con
Genre as Grouped Objects
One instance does not a genre make - must be multiple incidents for a category to have semantic value (e.g., Family Guy is an instance of a sub-genre (e.g., animated TV sitcom, popular culture satire, etc.), not a genre itself…)
Leverages precedents and expectations - norms and routines formed
Comic Genres
McC - various subgenres in comics, with distinct idiomatic and structural forms
Increasing diversity in N. America – already strong diversity in Japanese context
Social expectations can frustrate new efforts (e.g., comics as “kid lit”, and concerns about radical stream constrained mainstream exploration politically and culturally)
Genre Bending
Rules and bounds of genre are not absolute
When rules are broken, interesting things happen – often new sub-genres emerge
When rules are broken, it might be too interesting for the audience to accept
Genre bending and economic concerns – innovation vs. risk
Comic Genre Bending
Alternative comic genres lead to new applications of craft beyond“men in tights”
Serious comics like Maus may become mainstream as form of literature, consequentially allowing space for other serious autobiographical works (e.g., Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis)
But – initial iteration of Maus was alternative press work, critically acclaimed in niche market but not at all accepted mainstream
Comic-Con influence on film – blending of fan bases
Multiplicity of Genres
We are intuitively familiar with many genres
We act with multiple genres simultaneously without great confusion – although it can frustrate analytical thinking at times
Instances fall into multiple genre categories simultaneously – e.g., Daily Show/Colbert Report wins Emmys in established genre, but can be seen as political/news satire, even (increasingly?) as serious public affairs programming
We can integrate genres to create new forms of expression
Comics and multiplicity
Comics share relations to similar media (e.g., graphic novels of historical events; movies made from graphic novel roots, relation between manga and anime, etc.)
Digital comics have potential to integrate/fuse with multimedia content – but also blur boundaries (examples?)
Genres are historical
Change in form evolves over time
Influences from inside craft (e.g., changes in craft, form, idiom) and outside (e.g., economics, regulation, other media)
Changes are generally evolutionary though
Comic History
Comics emerging from “kid lit” to return to more serious pictographic communication
Digital production leads to potential changes in form, but sttill influenced by ground – e.g., McCloud’s book Making Comics was created digitally, but still conforms to style used in analog Understanding Comics
Economics of Genre
Money makes the world go round - and certainly does impact how media are structured, how genres evolve
Costs involved in maintaining and sustaining producer/consumer community – without some return on investment or covering of costs, community may suffer
Fixed and Marginal Costs
Fixed = infrastructural costs, without which genre cannot exist
Marginal = costs incurred as audience grows
Can apply to both production and consumption
McC - costs in distribution chain changes with new technology – potential for more direct interactions with consumers, skipping middlemen
Webcomics – relatively cheap fixed costs, but can be expensive marginal if bandwidth charges are an issue
Specialization and Branding
Singular creative figures are rare, esp. in complex media
Collectively created media and relations to media branding – collectives can create a genre of production in their approach
McC - “comic houses” and brand identity - and changes that emerge with more independent creators
Time, Duplication and Value
Value of media product often changes over time - some more than others
Digital distribution creates own challenges in value of information
McC - historical value of comics, the value and problems of sharing, the notion of micropayments to support industry, economic basis of webcomics.
In-class assignment: Genre hierarchies
Pick a top-level genre (e.g., film, TV, etc.)
Break down as such:
1. 1.1 1.2 1.3.
1.3.1 (provide example of this category) 1.3.2 (provide example of this category) 1.3.3 (provide example of this category)
Next week
Understanding “Understanding Comics”
Please read through book by next week, at least as a quick first read
Also helpful to read through your chosen comic by then so you have some ground to read McC in the first place