1. Introduction or: Why We Still Need Genre

Genres are perhaps the most innately transmedial of media constructs, formed as they are from all kinds of industrial, cultural, technological, textual and discursive phenomena. Yet very few have attempted to analyse explicitly how genre works in a transmedia context. This introduction sets out the book’s aims to do precisely that, to make a deliberately transmedial contribution to the study of genre in the age of media convergence. The chapter introduces the central premise of the book, that is, by examining how industrial, technological and participatory practices emerging from the likes of social media platforms, streaming services, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and other contemporary digital media; we can rethink our understanding of the changing role and relevance of genre across today’s multiplatform culture. The chapter then gives a brief history of genre studies, introduces the beginnings of our multiplatform approach to analysing genre and sets out the structure of the book.