Class: Audience and Industry blog task

Audience

1) What were the viewing figures for Class and why do you think it did so badly?   Viewing figures for Class was 0.28 million, a share of 5.1% of total TV audience. It did badly due to a boring plot and bad timing.

2) What audience psychographic groups might particularly enjoy Class?
People who are interested in Sci-fi and drama

3) What audience pleasures are offered by Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart? 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:April as a student playing a musical instrument

Personal Relationships:Ram and April's relationship

Diversion (Escapism):Shadow realm setting links to sci-fi

Surveillance (Information / Facts): Discovery of April's father is back and she shared heart with corakinus

4) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart?

Visceral- Shadow realm is an unknown world, shadow kin aliens, the gory violence

Vicarious- Intrigued to establish whether April can defeat corakinus

Voyeuristic- Binary Opposition experience and their lives 

5) How did fans in the 'Whoniverse' (also known as 'Whovians') react to Class? Watch the fan reaction video (and read the YouTube comments) embedded above or check the comments in the extension articles below to help with this.


Industries

1) What was the objective of BBC3 when it was launched?
Was made for content for an young adult audience -16-34 years

2) Why did BBC3 go online-only in February 2016? 
Due to budget cut and younger generations use of the internet over traditional TV

3) How does Class - Co-owner of a Lonely Heart meet the BBC's mission statement to 'inform, educate and entertain'?
Class was to entertain as a sci-fi drama.Informs as it shows diversity and engagement.Educates with multi strand narrative

4) How did the distribution of Class contribute to the failure of the show with audiences?
Was axed after one season as no one was sure who the show was for and it lacked a big selling point.

5) What advertising and marketing was used to try and promote Class to an audience? Why do you think this wasn't very successful?
BBC 1 has late showings for class. Was only an iplayer release initially. 

Comparison: An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart

1) How are the technical conventions different between 1963 Doctor Who and 2016 Class (e.g. camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)?
Due to technological improvements Class has CGI and better lighting and sounds. Their are higher quality props and and more camera shot angles.

2) What similarities and differences are there between An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart in terms of the science-fiction genre?

In An Unearthly Child the TARDIS is bright and has weird eerie dietetic noise. Furthermore it time travels and is futuristic.

In class there are two dimensions called the shadow realm, charlie being an alien and not for earth and the cabinet of souls and the link between April and corakinus 

3) What similarities and differences are there between An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart in terms of how they meet the BBC's remit to inform, educate and entertain?

4) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?
In Dr Who - first, there was hardly any different types of people, nor different skin colours. In Dr Who, the majority of people were white. In Class, there was a wider range of ethnicity/colours/group of people etc. There are disabled people etc. In Dr Who, there was no different representations of people, just the average person.

5) What similarities and differences can you find in terms of the audience pleasures for An Unearthly Child and Co-owner of a Lonely Heart?

Entertainment and diversion - Dr Who takes you to another world - literally, as well as class - Corakinus' world, the swords etc.

Info and education - Educates you about science/aliens etc.

Social interaction - Knowing when a new episode is coming via social media etc.

Personal identity - some people can relate to April - having no father figure in their lives and more...