Designing+Genres

This summary only includes points brought up based on lecture!!!

A genre is a pattern, not a single document or event and it implies a steady flow of materials that can play a definite role in the activities of some community. The economics of genres are the economics of this flow and these activities.
 * Elements of a Genre:**
 * 1) Breadth - Genres can be defined more or less broadly. An advertising campaign for example, can be regarded as a small genre that inserts a range of elements into a recognizable shared frame.
 * 2) Genre, Audience & Activity - Each genre implies a particular sort of audience & activity. For every specific media, there is a specific audience, with specific needs.
 * 3) Producer/Consumer Relationship - Each genre implies a relationship btwn producer and consumer. It can be one to one, or one to many, or even mediated by institutionalized distribution channels. But all these aspects of the relationship are important because it shapes the genre and the activities within which it is used.
 * 4) Genre as grouped objects - A genre is not a single instance. By formations of routines and norms in creation and consumption of each genre, a set of expectations and precedents are formed.
 * 5) Genre Bending - These norms are not absolute. Ex. some people may read romance novels with the hope that the heroine blows off the guy in the end...interesting things happen when the rules of a genre are broken. Sometimes it can be too interesting for the audience to handle.
 * 6) Multiplicity of Genres - We use a variety of genres every day and even mix them together without great confusion.
 * 7) Genres are Historical - Over time, the form of a genre can change. There are both internal changes (craft, idiom) and external changes (economics, competition)
 * Economics of Genre**


 * Fixed cost of distribution** - infrastructural costs ex. advertising, vending machines, trucks - all things a genre can't survive without. Newspapers have a high fixed cost.
 * Marginal cost of distribution**- Once the fixed overhead costs are paid, what does it cost to actually sell someone a product?
 * These can be applied to both production and consumption* (i.e. there are fixed & marginal costs for consumption too)

Basically, there are constantly two pressures for information commodities: One is to distribute their product to the largest possible audience and the other is to specialize to particular communities. This depends in part on how tailored your genre is to a specific audience.
 * Specialization & Branding**

Duplication depends on the product you're attempting to copy. Software can be relatively easy to copy while print and audio records are more time consuming (and therefore are more valuable). If the value of a commodity decreases rapidly over time then distribution costs will probably be higher. On the other hand, if an information commodity like a stock price, loses its value quickly, then illicit copying and sharing will probably be less prevalent.
 * Time, Duplication & Value**

Reference Agre, P. (1998). Designing Genres for New Media: Social, Economic and Political Contexts http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/genre.html