Doctor Who: Audience and Industry blog tasks

 Audience

1) Who is the target audience for Doctor Who? Do you think it has changed since 1963? 10-40+

2) What audience pleasures are offered by Doctor Who - 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: Teachers - almost parental role

Personal Relationships: Ian and Barbara - what will happen to them

Diversion (Escapism): TARDIS takes off

Surveillance (Information / Facts): science: space race ,space travel

3) What additional Uses and Gratifications would this episode provide to a modern 2020s audience?  Surveillance because it tells us about tv in the 1900s 

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

5) What kind of online fan culture does Doctor Who have? Give examples. A very loyal fan culture

Industries

1) What was the television industry like in 1963? How many channels were there? There were only 2 TV channels

2) How does An Unearthly Child reflect the level of technology in the TV industry in 1963? There was very limited technology 

3) Why is Doctor Who such an important franchise for the BBC? Because of how ionic the show is. Also it has been launched all over the world so they would have made a huge income from this.

4) What other programmes/spin-offs are part of the wider Doctor Who franchise? K9, Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood, Class

5) Why does the Doctor Who franchise have so much merchandise available? Give examples. Because many people were interested /in love with doctor who and they wanted to express it.