ABSTRACT
Genre evaluation is a powerful framing device for factual television. It is a means of understanding the changing world of factual television by defining, categorizing, and differentiating one type of programme or genre from another. We evaluate genres by using a variety of criteria, from practical, to personal, to commonly agreed value judgements. For example, production techniques can be used as a criterion for evaluating factual genres, from live or pre-recorded filming, to camera styles, or picture quality, to the use of presenters or ordinary people. Personal value judgements are often used as a criterion for evaluating if a factual programme is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, or if it relates to personal interests. This connects with commonly agreed quality criterion for informative and/or entertaining programmes, and other wider social values often concerned with abstract concepts such as knowledge, truth and morality. Other common social value judgements are framed according to a number of axes: public service versus commercial channels; home versus foreign programmes; public versus popular genres. These ways of categorizing and valuing factual programmes highlights the complex processes at work in understanding genre. The evaluation of factual genres underscores the importance of broadcasting conventions, private preferences and pre-existing public attitudes towards television production, content and reception.
