Recommending a New System: An audience-based approach to film categorisation in the digital age (original) (raw)

Correspondence Analysis of Genre Preferences in UK Film Audiences

I analyze the genre preferences of UK film audiences, applying correspondence analysis to data produced for the BFI’s report Opening Our Eyes on the cultural contribution of film. Although there is a weak correlation between the interactively coded variable ‘gender-age’ and genre, I identify clear patterns of genre preferences that extend the original interpretation of this data showing how viewer’s preferences for different genres are associated with their gender and their age.

Mapping movie genre evolution (1994 – 2019) using the role of cultural and temporal shifts: a thematic analysis

F1000Research

Background: The gratification each person seeks through a movie is different. Sometimes a person would seek information through movies or use them for educational purposes, and some might watch movies to escape into a world of fantasy or humour. Keeping in mind the diverse and ever-changing needs of the audience, the primary objective of this study is to observe the evolution of movie genre and content preference in India, which is one of the largest and culturally intriguing movies producing nation across the globe. Methods: To attain the objective, the researchers have thematically analysed the top five revenue grossing movie genres over a span of 26 years (1994 to 2019) in Bollywood. More than 100 storylines have been analysed to develop genre trend graphs and the results indicate a sharp decline in the popularity of romantic and family dramas, whereas comedy and action movies have witnessed an overall growth with romantic comedies (romcoms), being the most stable amongst the top...

Uses Genres and Media Ensembles: A Conceptual Roadmap for Research of Convergent Audiences

Digital Peripheries: The Online Circulation of Audiovisual Content from the Small Market Perspective, 2020

This chapter tackles one of the main methodological and conceptual challenges to current audience research: fragmentation of viewers’ practices of reception. The use of digital and networked media and the consequent multiplication of screens, distribution channels and content sources have further complicated the notion of “watching television” and, along with that, academic and applied audience research. The chapter reintroduces Maria Bakardjieva’s concept of uses genres and connects it with the concept of media ensemble, suggesting that for research on the domestic consumption of films and TV series, the application of these concepts in qualitative (ethnographic) research and in audience surveys comes with strong advantages. Firstly, the concepts help to identify distinct types of consumption practices linked with specific technological objects, with specific audiovisual content and with typical everyday situations, and they enable us to analyze consumption explicitly within the contexts of the spatiotemporal and social organization of everyday life. Secondly, in cases of small- and peripheral-market audiences, the concepts enable us to identify specifics in audiences’ practices linked with the characteristics of these markets (e.g., with localized and non-localized content, with domestic and global production, etc.). And thirdly, the concepts explicitly acknowledge power both involved in and shaping the analyzed practices by emphasizing the “generative process of technology,” i.e., the transformative role of users’ practices in shaping technological and economic systems.

A silver bullet for Australian cinema? Genre movies and the audience debate

2012

There has been a renaissance in Australian genre cinema in recent years. Indeed, not since the 1980s have Australian genre movies across action, adventure, horror, and science-fiction among others, experienced such prominence within production, policy discourse, and industry debate. Genre movies, typically associated with commercial filmmaking and entertainment, have been identified as a strategy to improve the box-office performance of Australian feature films and to attract larger audiences.

The Diverse Conceptions of Genre: A Close Look at Die Hard (1998)

Jauss, Neale and Altman agree that audiences bring to film spectatorship their own generic expectations and cultural preoccupations. Examine how diverse film audiences might read the same film generically and what filmic, historical, social and political factors may inform this reading. An essay I wrote for 2nd year film.

Being part of an audience: patterns of contemporary film audience experience

2020

Although audiences are often defined as being multiple, diffuse, and fragmented, in terms of film audiences there are five distinct patterns of experience within that multiplicity. These are individualised, group, venue-specific, global, and digital, and people are flexible in moving between them. Drawing on Livingstone’s (1998) notion of audiences being interactive and relational, we show that these patterns are created through the ways people interact with and relate to film. This is seen in the way people choose which film to watch, when, where, and with whom. People create and seek out specific audience experiences by choosing to take up opportunities to watch film at cinemas, at home, and through mobile devices. To understand how and why people create and select specific film audience experiences, we undertook 200 semi-structured interviews that explored audience members’ own experiences. This identified five patterns of experience, which our large sample survey confirmed occur...

Using mixed-methods, a data model and a computational ontology in film audience research

Cultural Trends

  1. Using mixed-methods, a data model and a computational ontology in film audience research, Cultural Trends, 28:2-3, 118-131, ABSTRACT This paper discusses a methodology that seeks to address one of the challenges in working with a range of data in mixed-methods audience research, which is how to sort, order and categorise different data so that they can be systematically combined and interrogated. The methodology was developed as part of the "Beyond the Multiplex: audiences for specialised films in English regions" (BtM) project. This project required a mixed methods approach using surveys, interviews, focus groups and document analysis to explore the richness of audience experiences and trends in the context of regional film policy. This required a mixed methods approach using surveys, interviews, focus groups and document analysis. The project utilised a data model approach that uses the principles of a computational ontology in order to sort, order and categorise data for systematic interrogation. The paper discusses methods, data, coding, and the use of a data model to support data analysis. We argue that this approach enables the cross referencing of data that provides a rich, multilayered and relational understanding of film audiences but requires time and attention to data management and coding. Although, additionally it also forms the basis of an open access data resource for future research.

Exploring film genre preferences through taste cultures: A survey on contemporary film consumption amongst youth in Flanders (Belgium)

Communications, 2019

This article explores contemporary film genre preferences through an in-depth sociological analysis of taste cultures in film preferences amongst youth aged 16–18 in Flanders (the northern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). Building on a representative sample of 1015 respondents we statistically analyze the assumption that contemporary media audiences demonstrate mobility and that they are eager to shape their media consumption in accordance with their personal preferences. This article examines whether societal structures that have been found to reflect media preferences remain in place, or whether these structures have eroded with the (supposed) increase in individual choice – an argument often voiced in the context of convergence culture. An analysis of the variables gender, educational level and ethnicity illustrates that societal structures are still reflected through film genre preferences amongst Flemish youth.

Film: Genres and Genre Theory

International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015

Genre is a concept used in film studies and film theory to describe similarities between groups of films based on aesthetic or broader social, institutional, cultural, and psychological aspects. Film genre shares similarities in form and style, theme, and communicative function. A film genre is thus based on a set of conventions that influence both the production of individual works within that genre and audience expectations and experiences. Genres are used by industry in the production and marketing of films, by film analysts and critics in historic analysis of film, and as a framework for audiences in the selection and experience of films.