Doctor Who: Industry and Audience blog tasks

The second half of our Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child case study focuses on the key concepts of Industry and Audience.

You'll find all the answers you need in the notes and clips below. You can then complete the blog tasks at the bottom of this blogpost.

Notes from the lessons

Audience

General audience notes:

• Mainstream – broad appeal as millions of people watch the BBC
• Long-running which shows it appeals to masses (12-40) and the reboot helped gain younger fans.
• 12 certificate so maybe young teens
• References to popular culture (pop culture) has meant an appeal to a wider age range.
• Demographics: A-E class as some complex plot points but also action and SFX that are easy to understand
• Gender- split down middle (although boys are more usually fans of science fiction, this has changed over time. Also introduction of romance and drama in narrative. From 1970-2010 the female audience grew by 22%.
• More diverse representation over recent years (gay characters, black central characters, strong female characters and of course the new female doctor) have all encouraged a wider audience.

Audience pleasures

We can apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory when analysing the audience pleasures offered by Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child. Remember, we must consider it from the perspective of a viewer in the 1960s who would have reacted in quite a different way to an audience in 2020. Remember, the four key categories for Uses and Gratifications theory:

INFORMATION/SURVEILLANCE: learning information that you did not already know. Doctor Who offers its audience an education about space travel, science and history.  

PERSONAL IDENTITY: personally relating to something - seeing your lifestyle on screen. Think about how different audiences may identify with Susan, her teachers or the Doctor.

DIVERSION/ENTERTAINMENT: escapism and being entertained away from your normal life. Science Fiction is a classic genre for escapism - what examples of this could be found in the episode?

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS: caring about characters and wanting to find out what happens to them. This is the first episode of four - which characters do you think the audience will want to follow on their journey? 

The 3 Vs

VISCERAL PLEASURE: Physical thrill of watching something e.g hairs on the back of your neck in a horror film, sport, big explosions. 

VICARIOUS PLEASURE: Experiencing something through the characters (e.g. time/space travel). 

VOYEURISTIC PLEASURE: Watching something you wouldn't normally get a chance to see (e.g. inside TARDIS).

Industries

Importance of Doctor Who to BBC

Doctor Who is one of the most iconic franchises that the BBC has.  It has been launched all over the world through BBC Worldwide and generates huge income for the BBC.

In 2014, a BBC Worldwide Report stated Sherlock and Doctor Who as the BBC’s biggest exports of the past year. The worldwide simulcast (simultaneous transmission) of “The Day of the Doctor” in 2013 saw this episode air at the same time in 98 countries on six continents.

 

BBC: Industry notes

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is a public service organisation and the oldest national broadcaster and the biggest in terms of employees [over 20,000]. It is different from other TV broadcasters in that funding comes from us all as BBC licence fee payers whereas other channels rely on advertising and sponsorship.  The BBC has 3 key purposes: To Inform, Educate & Entertain. This means:

• To provide information (that is supposed to be balanced)
• To support learning for people of all ages
• To produce creative output
• To have diverse content (such as with its representations)
• To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

BBC regulation

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has a board of governing members and is independent of government intervention.  This means that it can produce content free impartially.

Since 2017, The BBC is now regulated by OfCOM (the Office of Communications).  OfCOM oversees all media channels and produces a code of conduct that all media channels must follow or have their licence to make content removed and/or be fined heavily.  

This includes suitable programmes before the 9pm watershed and various other quality standards.

Audience and Industry: blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Doctor Who: Audience and Industry blog tasks' and answer the following questions:

Audience

1) Who is the target audience for Doctor Who? Has it changed since 1963?

2) What audience psychographic groups might particularly enjoy Doctor Who?

3) What audience pleasures are offered by An Unearthly Child? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity:

Personal Relationships:

Diversion (Escapism):

Surveillance (Information / Facts):

4) What additional Uses and Gratifications would this episode provide to a modern 2020 audience?

5) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to An Unearthly Child?


Industries

1) What was the television industry like in 1963? How many channels were there?

2) Why is Doctor Who such an important franchise for the BBC? 

3) How does Doctor Who meet the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain'?

4) How is the BBC funded?

5) Who regulates the BBC and what is the watershed?


Grade 8/9 extension tasks and reading

Read this New Statesman feature on Doctor Who as a global phenomenon. What does it suggest about Doctor Who fandom, British identity and the importance of the brand to the BBC?

Read this Guardian feature on the representations of race and ethnicity in Doctor Who over the last 55 years. How has the programme changed in its representations of race and how does this fit the BBC's remit to inform, educate and entertain? 

You will have some lesson time to work on this but will need to complete this for homework - due date set by your teacher and on Google Classroom.