Page 50 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

FORMULAIC ANALYSIS

• The Simple Life follows celebrity debutantes Paris Hilton and Nicole
Richie as they work on a farm in Arkansas.
• Wife Swap features the exchange of two mothers into very different
households.

Identifying the premise of a genre, subgenre, or individual series can
reveal cultural issues, preoccupations, and myths. As an example, disas-
ter films such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Core (2003)
reflect concerns about the growing instability of the environment due to
global warming.
Another approach to the study of premise is to identify distinctive
patterns in the introductions of genres. The introduction of a program pro-
vides cues about what genre the program belongs to. The opening of a film
or a television or radio program acquaints the audience with the primary
characters, plot, and serves as a preview of the entire presentation.
Titles can also be revealing. To illustrate, the title Reality Show
establishes the expectation that what the viewer sees is a slice of real
life. However, this genre typically sets up artificial rules that affect the
behavior of the “cast” (such as eliminating one contestant from a group
each week). Moreover, the hours of video footage are edited down to
thirty- or sixty-minute segments to make the content more dramatic and
entertaining.
In addition, the titles of genric programming often encapsulate the
essential meaning of the presentation. For instance, the title of a sitcom
on Oxygen cable network—significantly targeting women—is Good
Girls Don’t. . . . In the 1970s, feminists argued that referring to females
as “girls” instead of women denies them the credit and responsibilities
of adulthood. Thus, this term subtly reinforces females’ subordinate role
in society. Consequently, the title of the premiere episode of the 2004
season, “My Roommate Is a Big, Fat Slut,” signals a backlash—or at least
a cultural retreat—from the 1970s, during which sitcoms like All in the
Family made fun of chauvinists like Archie Bunker, or 1980s programs
like Murphy Brown, in which the heroine epitomized feminist ideals.

Formulaic Structure

Popular genres generally operate within a readily identifiable structure. The
formulaic structure of a genre reinforces the worldview of the genre. For
example, the standard framework found in sitcoms is order/chaos/order:

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