Page 112 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

GLOBALISATION

of making choices of what to view, read or listen to, and as a means
of interpreting these texts. Early research went as far as suggesting
that for audiences, genres ‘demarcate appropriate thought, feeling
and behaviour and provide frames, codes and signs for constructing a
shared social reality’ (Ryan and Kellner, 1988: 77).
In film theory, genres are recognisable largely for recurring
iconography, repetition of codes and conventions, as well as familiar
plot lines. Iconography refers to those elements which make up the
visual aspects of a text – for instance, in Westerns a certain style of
clothing and familiar setting for the action such as a desert or a mid-
Western American town – with horses – is expected. Codes and
conventions can best be explained as the technical elements that
contribute to generic meaning. They include the song and dance
numbers in a musical, or the darkened point of viewshots and
menacing soundtrack in a horror film. While these features can readily
be uncovered in genre analysis, they are also subject to variation – an
extremely important feature of the generic text – and one that is most
revealing in the narrative.
Neale argues that ‘each newgenre film tends to extend [its]
repertoire, either by adding a newelement or by transgressing one of the
old ones’ (1990: 56), as is apparent in the film Scream. Although classified
as a horror film, Scream was by no means typical of the conventions, as its
use of comedy at the expense of the rule of genre demonstrated. Films
such as these confirm that genres can be progressive, dynamic and
subject to re-invention; but then fall back into formula (see Scream 3).
See also: Mode of address, Narrative

Further reading: Grant (1995)

GLOBALISATION

The components of globalisation are nothing new. Traffic across
borders has been vigorously pursued for centuries. Cultural exchange
and interdependence have occurred throughout history through
colonisation, trade and exploration. The acceleration of industry via
technological innovation describes the industrial age as much as the
information age. And the notion of a citizenry of multiple allegiances
subject to more than one sovereign power has long been the case in
some countries, especially former colonies.
The word ‘globalisation’ is better used to describe a recent
intensification of networks, alliances and interconnections in economics,

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