Introduction
Television is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting moving images in black and white, in color and in two or three dimensions and sound. Television was invented in the 1920s but the equipment was expensive and the pictures were poor. By the 1950s, these problems were fixed and TV became widespread.
Watching television is something that is very common among us. And this webquest is part of unit 4, on the topic “The World of TV.”, in which we are going to read more about the TV genres that we know.
Taking the word at its definition, genre is the “term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.”
The term dates back to ancient Greek literature. But, for writers, artists, and filmmakers, it’s usually the simplest, most practical way to categorize different styles of stories and content. We see genres while browsing through video stores or scrolling through Netflix, giving us a rough idea of what the stories are like or similar to.
In fact, it’s important to understand, that what we consider film genres today are, more often than not, hardly pure film genres, as they were in the early days of film. The majority of content produced in the last several decades are often genre hybrids, using the rules of genre theory to produce new, unique, and different stories.
Think about any TV series you know...Would you be able to place the genre in a particular TV genre?
For example... Is the Big Bang Theory a comedy or a thriller? Is "The Simpsons" and action comedy or an animation?
Let's find out how much you know!
So the main objective of this webquest, is that you will be able to find out more about TV series and their genre.
Task
You must:
- Name some TV genres.
- Give a short definition of each genre.
- Provide examples of each TV genre.
- Are you into those TV genres? Which is your favourite one?
Process
You have to create a project about one of the genres in groups. The rationale behind this activity is encourage you to write and work cooperatively.
CREATING YOUR OWN PROJECT!
Now that you know more about TV series and genres, let’s do the project!
Each group will have to do a project about one genre:
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Group 1: action
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Group 2: adventure
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Group 3: animation
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Group 4: comedy
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Group 5: drama
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Group 6: horror
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Group 7: science fiction
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Group 8: crime
All of you will have to follow the structure of the project
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Cover page.
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Introduction to your project.
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Body of your project:
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Give a brief explanation of the TV genre you have been given;
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Provide two examples of the genre and talk about them;
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Illustrate your project with TV covers;
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Personal questions:
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What's your favourite TV genre? Why?
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What's your favourite TV serie? Why?
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Have you ever streamed on that TV show? Why?
- Do you think people can be addicted to TV? What are the dangers of being addicted to TV?
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Conclusion. Final ideas about TV shows.
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Follow these links to find information to build your project:
https://crtc.gc.ca/canrec/eng/tvcat.htm
You can use some phrases to give your opinion and conclude your project:
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In my opinion...
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I think.../ I don't think...
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I love watching.../ I really adore watching...
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My favourite...
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To conclude/Finally, I think that...
Remember that you will have to show your project to the rest of the class, so that it could be really useful to create a PowerPoint and explain your project to your classmates.
GOOD LUCK!!
Evaluation
The evaluation will be based on the text production and presentation of the project work.
- Presentation of the project (tidiness; creativity; illustrations; etc.) : 25%
- Use of the resources (exploration of the resources; use of the information): 25 %
- Text production (contents clearly expressed; verbal tenses; summarizing of contents; etc.): 25 %
- Answer assignment personal questions (ideas clearly expressed; verbal tenses; TV vocabulary learnt in class; defence of your opinion; etc.): 25 %
If you need any help, remember that the teacher is always willing to help you in class or via e-mail.
Conclusion
In recent years, people watch TV for many hours a day not only through TV sets but also watching programs online and sometimes complete seasons of a show. That's producing people's addiction to TV with results of serious health and social problems on people's lives.
So it is advisable not to let the television take charge of our life. Many people work or change their schedules around movie times, sitcom series etc. If this is the current state of affairs in your life, take a moment to realize how much influence the television has on you as a person.