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CCT300: Critical Analysis of MediaLecture 3: 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 today

Comic analysis questions?

+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

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/grad-school.html

+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

Japanese development of manga sub-genres – all sorts and kinds for toddlers to the elderly, from the vanilla to the risqué

+Genre, Audience and Activity

Genre implies community of practice and community of consumption, operating in tandem

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, Intervention, etc.

+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

ComiCon 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.

+Comic Analysis: Surviving the World

A photocomic done on blackboards, involving science, life lessons, etc.

Is a photocomic a comic? Yes, according to Dante Shepard: http://survivingtheworld.net/Lesson558.html

An interesting example of genre bending/definition!

+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