CCT300: Critical Analysis of Media

1. CCT300: Critical Analysis of Media September 22: Analyzing genre

2. 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!

3. 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

5. 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

6. Breadth • Genre definitions can be narrowly or broadly construed • Generally, focused genres have more analytical value – examples?

7. 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

8. 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…)

9. 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.)

10. 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?

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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., MarjaneSatrapi’sPersepolis) • 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

16. 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

17. 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?)

18. 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

19. Comic History • Comics emerging from “kid lit” to return to more serious pictographic communication • Digital production leads to potential changes in form, but sttillinfluenced by ground – e.g., McCloud’s book Making Comics was created digitally, but still conforms to style used in analog Understanding Comics

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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.

24. 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)

25. 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