Surveillance -
This is about the consumer wanting to satisfy their curiosity from a media product, examples of this are the newspaper, online articles and the news. It is a media product which main purpose is to educate the audience and teach them about the topics they may be interested in.
An example of this on BBC 3 iPlayer is the TV programme "Spacey Dooley Investigates Whale Hunters" which is a documentary on the harsh truth that is whale hunting. This programme educates us of the negative affects of whale hunting and why these people do hunt whales, which satisfies our pursuit of knowledge therefore falling into the surveillance category.
Personal Identity -
This is when the media creates a character or product that the audience can relate to and reflects similar values and beliefs to the consumers own personal values and beliefs, this also can be when characters or products mimic some of the audiences own characteristics; for example it helps the audience discover and understand what I means to be a man or a woman.
An example of this on BBC 3 iPlayer is the TV programme "Young Offenders" which is about two teenagers and the problems they face at school, which for teenager audiences watching may be able to relate to this therefore satisfying the need of personal identity.
Personal Relationships -
This category is all about how the media acknowledges our tragic truth in life, that at times we all get a bit lonely, therefore this media focuses on creating a personal relationship between the characters on screen and the audience watching at home. Using the media to form a relationship with others even if it is a character on a TV show, just to create some companionship for the consumer.
An example of this on BB3 3 iPlayer is the TV programme "Looking for Alaska" in which we follow characters through there journey at a unique literature college and see them grow as people and relationships form between them on screen, which then sparks gratification for our own desire of personal relationship.
Escapism / Diversion -
To a degree this features in all media, it is about creating a separate reality for the consumer to go too when they do not want to be in their own reality, using the media as a way to escape and as a diversion of the real world so they don't have to focus on their problems. In simple terms it is the need to escape every day life and relax using a media product, video games are a great example of this.
An example of this on BB3 iPlayer is the TV programme "Don't Scream" where contestants compete to win money by entering a haunted house and if you manage to last 24 hours without screaming you win the money. This allows audiences to escape the reality of their world and enter a horror filled house and even play along with the contestants to see if they would be able to win the money, which helps audiences escape their reality therefore falling into the escapism / diversion category.
Analysis of Primary Audience Research -
We created a survey using Microsoft Forms asking questions which are relevant to deciding on the ideas for our TV Drama, we then sent out the survey to Year 12 and 13 in our school as this means the survey would reach the age range of 16-18 which is within the demographic of the target audience in our client brief and had 133 responses from this survey.
The questions we asked:
- How old you?
- What gender to identify with?
- Choose one option that describes your ethnic group or background?
- Choose your sexual orientation?
- What are your career plans after school?
- Which statements best describe you?
- What was the last TV Drama you watched?
- What is your favourite TV Drama?
- What are your top three TV Dramas of all time?
- What engaged you most about your favourite TV Drama?
- Why do you watch TV Dramas?
- What are your top 3 non Drama TV shows of all time?
- Select all of the BBC3 dramas you have enjoyed and watched from the last below?
- Which platform would be your first choice to find a good drama?
- What themes/issues would you like to see TV dramas deal with?
- Other themes/issues you would like to see dealt with in a TV Drama?
From the first 5 questions asked we could identify the age, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality of the person responding and also their social grade, as finding out what their career plans after schools hints at what profession they will enter and therefore their social grade. The sixth question of "Which statements best describe you?" allow us to understand what personality type they are and which type of drama they may enjoy watching, e.g surveillance, personal identity etc.
Question 1:
The responses to this survey range from ages 16-18 with 1 response being from someone over the age of 20. This demographic of age is good as it fits into the target audience age range set by our client in the brief.
Question 2:
From this data we can work out that 41% of there surveyed audience is male, 53% is female and 6% would prefer not to say or do not identify with male or female.
Question 3:
From this question we can work out that the majority, 87% of the surveyed audience is from the ethnic group of "White ( British )" therefore the range of ethnicity that answered my survey is not as diverse as could be, however the the average percentage of white British ethnicity in the entire of England is 81.9% so this does represent the national average.
Question 4:
From this question we can access the the sexuality of people surveyed, with the majority, 74%, of people identifying as heterosexual; 9% identifying as bisexual and 4% unsure or would prefer not to disclose their sexuality.
Question 5:
From this question we can work out what social grades the people who completed the survey are with people going straight into university most likely being social grade B or A, people going straight into a job most likely being within the social grade C1 and people entering into an apprenticeship being in social grade C2.
Question 8:
This was a good question to ask as it will effect my idea generation as there are 3 distinct favourite genres from the audience surveyed: Drama, Comedy and Crime/mystery. Therefore I will base my ideas generation around these three genres.
Question 9:
"What are your top three favourite TV Dramas of all time?" This was an open ended question which allowed participants of the survey to write whatever TV Drama they wanted, I went threw all the results to find the most popular results and therefore was able to work out the audiences top 5 favourite dramas of all time.
What are you top three favourite TV Dramas of all time?
1: Peaky Blinders, 21 Responses
2: Sherlock, 17 Responses
3: Killing Eve, 12 Responses
4: Sex Education, 11 Responses
5: Breaking Bad, 10 Responses
The majority of these dramas fall into the crime, thriller genre apart from Sex Education which is a comedy, coming of age drama so to appeal to the audience of 16-18 year olds from the information found, my drama should be a crime thriller TV drama. The top 5 dramas may not seem to have anything in common but all include interesting characters which the audience invests in and can watch develop on TV as they watch the drama.
Question 10:
This question shows very clearly what the majority of the 16-18 year olds look for in a good TV Drama with the two distinct categories being interested in the characters and the narrative, with 42% of the audience voting for characters and 43% of the audience voting for an interesting narrative is what will draw them into a TV show.
Question 11:
This question we can work out what the aim of audiences is when they turn on their device and watch a TV drama, with the majority, 44%, using TV dramas to escape from reality, 14% using TV dramas to satisfy their personal identify, 14% using TV dramas too satisfy their need for surveillance, and 20% using TV dramas for another reason.
Question 13:
This was also and interesting question as it shows 3 distinct favourite shows that were broadcasted on BBC 3, the top 5 being:
1: Gavin and Stacey
2: Young Offenders
3: Killing Eve
4: Cuckoo
5: Fleabag
This once again shows that audiences between the age of 16-18 most enjoy comedy dramas with a light and dark sense of humour.
Question 15:
This question aids my thought process when trying to think of ideas for a TV drama as I now have a collective of information of what the audience BBC 3 dramas enjoy and prefer. This graph shows me what audiences would like to see in a TV drama with the top 5 results being:
1: Gangsta / Criminal Underworld
2: Mental Health Issues
3: Dystopian Future
4: Coming of Age
5: Love
From this primary research survey I can now begin brain storming ideas for a BBC 3 drama that is tailored to the audience using this research, therefore my BBC 3 drama will be successful and engage with the audience.
