Medium and Genre Exercise

This excersie works well with this slideshow: Medium and Genre Slideshow

Medium
Medium is a broad term that covers the various forms that a piece, whether creative, persuasive, or informational, can take. Television is a medium, as is film. Though the two are closely related, a number of differences such as length, audience, and production value keep them from falling under the same monicker. Similarly, while both books and magazines are forms of written media, the content they encompass and the type of writing they use to cover that content differ greatly.

Genre
Within each medium are a number of genres that further differentiate the various pieces done within them. Let's look at television, for example. Reality television, game shows, cartoons, sitcoms, soap operas: each of these is a recognizable genre within the medium of television. Each genre has its own conventions that most members of the genre will follow.

The Exercise
For the next ten minutes, pretend that you're pitching a TV show based on your research topic. Explain:

1.) What genre your show would be in.

2.) What conventions of that genre would be a good fit for your topic.

3.) The intention of your show and how the genre you chose would help you accomplish that intention.

Finally, if you have time, describe an episode of your show.