The following article employs a concept of genre which is strictly orientated towards the cognitive dimensions of human action and interaction. As far as tv is concerned, this orientation focuses our attention (1) on the (psychological) processes of concept formation (e.g. genre-concepts like ‘detective show’, ‘tv news’, ‘situation comedy’, etc.), on the establishment of appropriate schemata, frames and the like; (2) on the structure of such media-specific genre-concepts, and (3) on the uses made of those concepts in the domain of production (e.g. by producers, directors, actors etc.) on the one hand and in the domain of reception (e.g. by tv-viewers) on the other hand. Accordingly, the article presents a brief introduction to some of the main elements of a theory of cognition, of social interaction and communication of cognitive systems. This theoretical basis will then be employed in the construction of models of media systems, media use and genre schemata. The uses of genre-concepts will be analyzed with respect to production (public tv-broadcasting-corporations), mediation (e.g. tv guides and announcements and reception (tv viewers' genre-concepts).