Genre becomes important when we realise that it means much more than just categorisation. This is because our response to genres is deeply conditioned and creates the way we approach and respond to a text. The journalistic genre, for example, conditions us to expect to see a particular form of text: headlines, columns and blocks of writing. But this genre also conditions us to expect to be able to trust and believe in what we are reading in ways that might not always or necessarily be sensible. Such is the power of genre.
Genre also conditions us to see as entirely natural and realistic certain aspects of what we read and see. Think about the kinds of characters that survive and those that end up mutilated in a horror story or film, for example or think how much sympathy you have with who is murdered in a gangster story or movie - some characters have your sympathy, others make you feel they deserve all they get!
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