Research into codes and conventions

Genre is defined "as a style or category of art, music, or literature" however what actually makes a genre?

The short answer is simply codes and Conventions.

"Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic.

Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.

Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.

Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic.

What are conventions?

Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any media, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific."

Where did this quote come from

Genre has an effect on what codes and convections take place in the film or TV if we are doing film media. Take for example a horror movie certain convections may be that the entire cast of characters may be teenagers and that the main antagonist other wise known as main villain may be a man wearing a mask.

         But things were not always like this somewhere along the line a convection started out as a code, so the wildly popular idea of having the main characters be teenagers was once a code but received well enough that people kept using it and it finally become a convection to have this.

when a code is used enough it becomes a convection.