Genre and innovation: What is a new genre?

Carolyn R. Miller

North Carolina State University

1 September 2008

where I’m going …

• genres in the mass media

• new genres in the mass media

• models of genre change

• thinking more broadly about genre

• thinking more deeply about genre

List of Video GameGenres(partial)

Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky)

April 15, 2008 Tuesday

New video game releases BYLINE: McClatchy Newspapers SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS LENGTH: 236 words

The following games are among those slated for release this week, according to GameSpot.com. Dates are subject to change.

Monday:

Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis _ PC. Genre: adventure. Rating unavailable.

Major League Baseball 2K8 Fantasy All Stars _ DS. Genre: sports. Rated E.

AMF Bowling Pinbusters! _ DS. Genre: sports. Rated E.

Tuesday:

Europa Universalis: Rome _ PC. Genre: strategy. Rated E10+.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue _ PS3. Genre: driving. Rated E.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 _ PC. Genre: action. Rated M.

Jack Keane _ PC. Genre: adventure. Rating unavailable.

The Sims 2: Kitchen and Bath Interior Design Stuff _ PC. Genre: simulation. Rated T.

Final Fantasy XI: Va na'diel Collection 2008 _ PC. Genre: role-playing. Rating unavailable.

“Get Fuzzy”

31 March 2008

“Frazz”

* * *

A. O. Scott, 22 May 2008

“Microgenres”

“YouTube redefin[ed] … broadcast success from having giant audiences for blockbuster content to having a giant inventory of videos that each satisfy arcane, niche interests … Users create microgenres and niches by posting answering images: the shrieking-kid-with-toy genre, the cats-being-mean genre, the speed-painting genre.”

Virginia Heffernan, New York Times Magazine, 6 July 2008.

"Genre" in mass media, 20 years

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1988-891989-901990-911991-921992-931993-941994-951995-961996-971997-981998-991999-002000-012001-022002-032003-042004-052005-062006-072007-08

Newspaper Source, 1998–2008

Global Newsbank ,1998–2008

America's Newspapers, 1988–2008

Genre has consequences

• Margaret Jones, Love and Consequences, “a heart-wrenching memoir” (New York Times)

• Misha Defonseca, A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years, international bestseller in 18 languages

memoir or fiction?

"New genre" in mass media, 20 years

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1988-891989-901990-911991-921992-931993-941994-951995-961996-971997-981998-991999-002000-012001-022002-032003-042004-052005-062006-072007-08

Newspaper Source, 1998–2008

Global Newsbank, 1998–2008

America's Newspapers, 1988–2008

"New genre" in Lexis/Nexis databases, 20 years

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1988-891989-901990-911991-921992-931993-941994-951995-961996-971997-981998-991999-002000-012001-022002-032003-042004-052005-062006-072007-08

World print newsmedia

U.S. print newsmedia

TV/radio/blogs/web publications

"Emerging genre" in Lexis/Nexis databases, 20 years

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1988-891989-901990-911991-921992-931993-941994-951995-961996-971997-981998-991999-002000-012001-022002-032003-042004-052005-062006-072007-08

World & U.S. print newsmedia, TV/radio, blogs, webpubs

* * *

Global Broadcast Database - English

January 26, 2008 Saturday

SHOW: 1:05 AM CNBC

LENGTH: 700 words

… STOP RIGHT THERE. OKAY THIS IS ONE OF THE MAGIC MOMENTS. NOW YOU GOT, I PRINT MY FIRST 500 T-SHIRTS. I HAVE THEM IN A BOX. HOW DO YOU GET PEOPLE TO BUY THEM? >> PEOPLE ARE SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS AT T HE IDEA OF WHAT MY BRAND EVEN WAS. >> WHICH WAS? >> YOU KNOW, IT WAS A NEW GENRE. IT WAS THIS NEW GENRE, THIS EMERGING GENRE OF STREET WARE. >> WHAT A WHITE BOY? >> YES, FROM A WHITE BOY, WHATEVER. I'M A PRODUCT OF MY ENVIRONMENT. … DOCUMENT-TYPE: Television PUBLICATION-TYPE: Transcript

Copyright 2008 inewsnetwork Inc. All Rights Reserved

Global Broadcast Database - English

January 28, 2008 Monday

SHOW: 3:05 PM TECHTV

LENGTH: 458 words

… TONY HAWK'S DOWNHILL JAM BRINGS IT INTO A NEW GENRE, DOWNHILL RACING. TURN THE Wii MOTE ON ITS SIDE AND THREAT GOOD TO PERFORM AN OLLIE. YOU CAN PERFORM DIFFERENT FLIP AND GRAB TRICKS BY PRESSING THE ONE AND TWO BUTTONS ON THE CONTROL PAD. IF YOU CATCH AIR NEAR A RAIL, ROOF TOP OR OTHER GRINDABLE ONLY, TAP THE ONE BUTTON AND THE PAD IN ANY DIRECTION TO START A GRIND MOVE.… DOCUMENT-TYPE: Television PUBLICATION-TYPE: Transcript

Copyright 2008 inewsnetwork Inc. All Rights Reserved

http://www.cartoon.org/comics/

Yellowstone: Your Complete Guide to the Park (American Park Network, 2008).

* * *

Global Broadcast Database - English

February 12, 2008 Tuesday

SHOW: 12:25 AM CNNTURK

LENGTH: 647 words

Dr. Phil: THAT WAS A COMPLETELY NEW GENRE OF TELEVISION. NOBODY HAD DONE THIS BEFORE. I AM NOT SAYING THAT BECAUSE I DO IT. JUST NOBODY HAD DONE IT. WHAT HAS HAPPENED OVER THE LAST - NOW, GOING ON 11 YEARS - 5 YEARS ON YOUR SHOW, AND 6 YEARS HERE, IS, I THINK BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU SAW AND STARTED WE HAVE OPENED UP A DIALOGUE ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH IN AMERICA THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE. … DOCUMENT-TYPE: Television PUBLICATION-TYPE: Transcript

Copyright 2008 inewsnetwork Inc. All Rights Reserved

Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, 19 May 2008

Secret Asian Man

Sample of New Genre Claims1989 1997 2007

“luxury laundry”

US (business)

“pet cinema”

Australia (film)

eco-holistic spa

Canada (business)

advertising cinema

US (tv)

serious electronica

Canada (music)

“financial thriller”

UK (book)

“anaesthetic novel”

UK (fiction)

“sportsman’s agent”

Australia (employee)

“bailout blog”

US (blog)

MTV movie

US (soundtrack)

“friendship-adventure”

US (computer game)

interconnected nature writing

UK (book)

saint snow domes

US (souvenir)

“downsizing thriller”

Canada (book)

animation–special effects

US (film)

from Lexis/Nexis US and world news databases

Naming new genres

• “Beirut mastermind Zach Condon traffics in a new genre that could be called poignant ballroom cabaret pop.” NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15279377

• Liz Losh, a rhetorician at the University of California at Irvine, notes that there’s now a genre of videos that combine cheating advice with a “do-it-yourself aesthetic.”http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3160/students-show-how-to-cheat-via-youtube?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Naming new genres• “With his signature calligraphic arms

and hip gyrations, Goh … created an entirely new genre and claimed it for his own.” Joanne Lee, Straits Times (Singapore), 29 Sept. 1997.

• The spa is billed as "a new genre of wellness spas, combining the elements of a traditional spa setting with the safety and superior clinical expertise of the medical profession.” Judy Gerstel, Toronto Star, 29

March 2007.

Naming new genres

“Gone are the days when music was pushed kicking and biting into a few boxes -- ie: rock 'n' roll, pop, country, crunk etc. Now music mags are dripping with pencil-shaped-pant-wearing music geeks conjuring up new ways to describe music genres faster than my imaginary country guy could plough a paddock.” Vicki Anderson, Christchurch (NZ) Press, 7 December 2007.

Naming new genres

The author discusses “how frustrating it was for him to come up with a good title, because this hot new genre does not have a better label than "nonfiction.” Anne

Trubek, Chronicle Review, 4 July 2008.

Naming new genres

“The written interpretation of this feeling, the stories, adventures and personalities involved with the place that generates this northness, is a genre, a class or category of artistic endeavour, but it has no name. It is largely unrecognized, not heard, the Cassandra of literature.” Joan Skelton, Toronto Globe & Mail, 8 January 2008.

Social bookmarks @ Diigo

• Collection of genre mentions in mass media from 2007, 2008

• http://www.diigo.com

• Groups = genre news; owner = Anna Turnage

Genre change: evolution

• Diachronic change: relatedness, continuity

• Synchronic variation: alternate forms

• Fitness: differential survival

Genre change: thermodynamics

• Susan Wells, Temple University

• formalist approach

• explains genre death but not birth or change?

Thinking more broadly …

• multiple domains of discourse

• multiple disciplines

• multiple national traditions

How communities “own” genres

• marketed genres: cultural need

cultural need: what survives, what sells

• administered genres: imposed exigence

imposed exigence: what suits those in power

• institutional genres: tradition

tradition: what serves complex relationships

• vernacular genres: cultural need

cultural need: what satisfies, pleases

Thinking more deeply …

• Social theory: typification, structuration, habitus

• Rhetorical theory: decorum, piety

about stability and recurrence

Decorum

• the “fittingness” of form to action to exigence• extrinsic: accommodation of discourse to

context • intrinsic: accommodation of substance, form,

and style to each other

New project …

• Online Academic Resource (OAR)

• Multidisciplinary

• International

• Dynamic

• Types of content: edited, managed, peer-reviewed, user-generated

Functionality

• searching• sorting• browsing• tagging• commenting• data visualization • user logins & profiles• tracking hits and users

Coverage

• Bibliography: categories, tags, comments

• Definitions

• Models of change

• Introductions to disciplinary approaches

• Glossary / index

• News, both academic and vernacular

Benefits

• enable “scholar-networking”

• provide comprehensive overview

• promote interaction and innovation

• connect scholarly and vernacular conversations

• catalyze pedagogical improvement

Thanks to …

• Anna Turnage, doctoral student in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media, NC State University, who collected the database information.

• Susan Miller-Cochran, Department of English, NC State University, who suggested Diigo.com.