Video Game High School (VGHS) is an “original series released on the YouTube channel RocketJump” (Think with Google, 2015) that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter and is “an action/comedy series about surviving high school, fitting in, and landing that perfect head shot” (Wong, n.d.). VGHS was a success on Kickstarter because it has a certain niche target audience of over the age of eleven due to its comedic and action elements, also the style of language used is appropriate for younger audiences. Especially with the use of acronyms used in the programme such as FPS and AFK. The nature of the web series is all about “students [studying] video games” (Tach, 2013), this is the dream of young gamers and this fantasy series is something they can live their dream through. Also, the characters in the series, such as Brian, are relatable because he is going through the “core components of real-life high school” (Tach, 2013) like the intended audience are. https://www.plaidhatgames.com/ga...

99% Invisible is a podcast all about “design, architecture and all the thought that goes into the things most people don’t even think about” (PRX Inc, n.d.). The show is available as a podcast on their website and it is broadcast on a “local public radio station in the US” (Sawyer, 2013), therefore it has a wide listenership due to it being on public radio. It was a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that had a goal of earning 42,000 dollars but it ended it “[raising] over 170,00 dollars” (Quirk, 2016) due to the “strategic and time-intensive marketing initiatives” (Quirk, 2016). These initiatives that were used for 99% Invisible included using “stretch goals” (Maly, 2012). These goals are where backers will receive items/benefits from pledging certain amounts of money. For example, one of the benefits was “custom designed 99% Invisible pocket sized notebooks” (PRX Inc, n.d.) if you pledged over $15. I listened to episode 279 entitled The Containment Plan. The programme is ...

This BBC Three documentary follows Rebecca Southworth, a filmmaker from Manchester, who "revisits her own painful history and meets others like her" (Lapping, n.d.) who have "spent time in care"(Lapping, n.d.).  The programme was commissioned by the BBC and was aired "on BBC Three from Thursday, April 6" (Abbit, 2017) this year. The subject matter of the piece fits BBC Three's remit perfectly because they want to "stimulate strong emotion and provoke reaction" (bbc.co.uk, n.d.) to their target audience of  "16-34 year olds" (bbc.co.uk, n.d.). Also, this programme appeals to its intended audience successfully by using colloquial and informal language while still "[speaking] to [the] audience with intelligence and on a level" (bbc.co.uk, n.d.). The documentary hits exactly what BBC Three are looking for when commissioning programmes because they are looking for factual programmes that look at "parts of society that...

Heavy Toll is a radio documentary produced by Tabatha Konstantine for the Charles Parker Award and won the gold prize. This short documentary piece was played on "BBC Radio 4 Extra on Sunday 10 June" (Cpatrust.org.uk, n.d.) and it follows a "very grim narrative" (Cpatrust.org.uk, n.d.) about two railway workers experiences with "deaths on the railway" (Cpatrust.org.uk, n.d.). The tone of the piece was very somber mainly due to its grim narrative but it was "a truly powerful story, beautifully and sensitively handled" (Cpatrust.org.uk, n.d.) which is appropriate for BBC Radio 4 Extra because they should commission programmes aimed for "listeners seeking intelligent programmes" (BBC, n.d.). Heavy Toll brings a simplistic style to the documentary due to keeping it purely of the interviewees. Also, by having mostly silence during the speech sections makes the programme feel chilling and suitable for the piece as it "really prove...

Eden: Paradise Lost - Channel 4 'Eden: Paradise Lost' was first broadcast as 'Eden' on Channel 4 in 2016. The programme followed the experience of a group of men and women from the UK as they "face the challenge of building a new life and creating a new society from scratch" (Channel4.com, 2015). Using an "embedded crew" (Channel4.com, 2015) the group have only the basics to survive and build a new society but after the only a few episodes being aired in 2016 it was "pulled from screens" (Swindon, 2017) and in 2017 it was rebranded as 'Eden: Paradise Lost' to "tell the story of how it all fell apart so dramatically" (Nicholson, 2017). When the participants emerged from Eden, they realised that it "had not been on television in months" (Nicholson, 2017) mainly due to the ratings falling "from 1.7 million to 800,000 over four episodes" (Swindon, 2017). So why did this programme fail? The five new e...

'Don't Log Off' on BBC Radio 4 is produced and presented by Alan Dein who "communicates with strangers all over the world" (Quirke, 2012) through Skype or Facebook "over five late nights" (Quirke, 2012). Originally this programme was called 'Don't Hang Up' in 2002 and involved "ringing up public phone boxes around the world at random and speaking to whoever picked up" (Maume, 2012). Due to the ever-changing world of media and communication, Dein changed the format of the programme slightly to fit these technological advances by "inviting] strangers to talk to him via Facebook and Skype" (Mahoney, 2012). There is a specific choice of content in this programme; the conversations are the main focus with Alan narrating certain parts to give a background to the callers. For example, Alan talks to a woman called Darja who has survived cancer and Alan explains that has been a regular caller and he wanted to know how she got ...

BBC Radio Five Live - Fighting Talk Every Saturday, for one hour at 11am, BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast a topical sports show hosted by Colin Murray and “features sports journalists and SJA members such as Will Buckley, Martin Kelner and John Rawling among its panelists ” (sportsjournalists.co.uk, 2011). The BBC describes the podcast as a “sparky sports debate (bbc.co.uk, 2003) with “key sporting questions of the day” (bbc.co.uk, 2003) I listened to ‘Fighting Talk’ on BBC iPlayer from Saturday 30 th September 2017. The topics talked about on the show are suitable for a mainly male target audience due to football and other sports talked about on the show being stereotypically male sports because “ men continue to dominate most sports ” (Rose, 2017). At the start of the programme, the presenter and guests talk about the death of Hugh Hefner. This appeals to the male audience because “Hugh Hefner created the men's adult entertainment magazine 'Playboy,'” (biogr...

'People Just Do Nothing' - BBC Three ‘People Just Do Nothing’ is a BBC Three programme based on a pirate radio station called ‘Kurupt FM’; it follows a group of lads who are trying to make it into the grime music scene. The target audience for this show is for “millennials mostly” (Newall, 2016) so young people aged around 18-25, mainly due to the tone of the piece being about the grime music scene which has a large following of younger listeners. Google Images The choice of content within this programme appeals directly to the target audience because it includes characters that are relatable because they are the stereotypical chav that everyone knows. All of the characters use colloquial language giving the audience something to relate to since they will use that language in their everyday lives and if they don’t it gives an inside look into another life, perhaps for escapism.  Due to BBC Three being only available "on digital platforms" (BBC, 2013), ...