Television and Genre

Genre derives from the French word meaning ‘type’, and its study has been carried out in relation to television using approaches and terms deriving from the study of genre in film, literature and other cultural forms. This is appropriate since some of the most established television genres derive from types found in other media. For example, the genre of soap opera began in radio broadcasting, where continuing serials focusing on the emotional relationships of a group of characters were created to address the mainly female audience during the daytime. These radio programmes were called soap operas because they were sponsored by companies producing such domestic products as detergents and soaps. Drama is, of course, a form deriving from theatre, and in the early years of television broadcasting many fiction programmes were television adaptations of theatre plays. News and current affairs television share conceptions of news value and the institutional structures of reporters and editors with newspapers and news radio broadcasting. Entertainment genres, such as sketch shows and situation comedy, also have theatrical roots in music hall and variety, which were adapted for radio and later became established in television.