Film and Media Atlas

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The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Concepts

Genre

ZHAHN-ruh
Media Studies

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The recognized kinds into which media works sort themselves: the Western, the sitcom, the true-crime podcast, the first-person shooter. Genre is a contract between maker and audience, a marketing category and a critical tool at once, and each medium in this atlas evolved its own genre system.

Facts
Disputed
Formulated Year
1968 2
Genre criticism developed gradually. Andre Bazin discussed genre using Westerns as examples as early as the 1950s, but genre only became a significant, formalized part of film theory in the late 1960s. No single formulating date or figure is agreed.
Concept Domain
Media studies 1
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationFilm genre, History section
Quote, Film genre, History section
In the late 1960s the concept of genre became a significant part of film theory.
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