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Welcome to my blog!

Hi. My name is Jack, I'm 17 years old, and I'm taking Media Studies at Hills Road. This is my coursework blog. I've been tasked with producing a cross-media piece, consisting of a 2.5-3 minute audio-visual sequence, and a double page magazine spread and front cover. The video piece must be from an ITV or Channel 5 show of my creation, either factual or fictional, with a target audience aged 18-35, and containing either 'a key turning point, a point of significant conflict, or a resolution', while the print elements will contain interviews and promotional materials relating to the show. I haven't yet decided which channel, genre, or direction my piece is going to take, but I'm excited at what lies ahead. I'll be keeping my blog up-to-date with all my progress, so feel free to stick around and have a look!
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A look at ITV

Having more-or-less decided that ITV is the channel I'm going for, I've decided to take a closer look at it. ITV owns the largest commercial family of televsion channels in the UK, comprised of ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, CITV, ITVBe, and (briefly) ITV Encore, before it closed. In addition, ITV plays host to a few on demand services - mostly the ITV Hub, but also the North American streaming service Britbox, in partnership with the BBC. ITV is a public service broadcaster, and as such has a list of values which they follow, shown below:

They're a member of several different groups of publishers - including the Albert Consortium, the Responsible Media Forum, and the Creative Diversity Network - which work together to use their vast media influence to actuate social change, in particular when it comes to diversity and environmentalism.

Each channel has a different target audience:
  • ITV1: General, varied, airs shows that have cross-generational appeal. Usually family viewing.
  • ITV2: More in the 16-34 range. As they put it, "a mischievous, fun-loving and brand-conscious 16-34 year old audience that is gender neutral".
  • ITV3: More of an upmarket audience, age 35+. Mostly dramas and established series.
  • ITV4: 25-44 year old men. Sports, action, more sports, more action.
  • CITV: A channel for children.
  • ITVBe: Aimed at 16-35 year old women, "in particular millennial mums". Airs trash reality shows almost exclusively.
As I'm (probably) making a drama, my show will likely be aimed at ITV1. While at first glance it looks like ITV3 could be a good fit, as it's not part of an established series and will (hopefully) carry a Broadchurch-esque high-budget headliner feel about it, I think it'd be more suited for ITV1's 'True Drama' collection.

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Welcome to my blog!

Hi. My name is Jack, I'm 17 years old, and I'm taking Media Studies at Hills Road. This is my coursework blog. I've been tasked with producing a cross-media piece, consisting of a 2.5-3 minute audio-visual sequence, and a double page magazine spread and front cover. The video piece must be from an ITV or Channel 5 show of my creation, either factual or fictional, with a target audience aged 18-35, and containing either 'a key turning point, a point of significant conflict, or a resolution', while the print elements will contain interviews and promotional materials relating to the show. I haven't yet decided which channel, genre, or direction my piece is going to take, but I'm excited at what lies ahead. I'll be keeping my blog up-to-date with all my progress, so feel free to stick around and have a look!
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TV Listings

Looking at the TV listings for ITV and Channel 5 exemplifies the differences between the channels. ITV airs a large range of shows for a wide array of audiences - from live sports to Loose Women , Emmerdale to Endeavour (a prequel to the famous Inspector Morse ). Football in the UK has a predominantly male following - an estimated 67% in fact - while Loose Women is aimed squarely at women, in particular stay-at-home mums or housewives, which is why it has it's daytime slot. On the fictional side, soaps such as Coronation Street share much of the same audience as Loose Women , with YouGov polling showing a "very strong" correlation between the audiences of the two shows. Dramas such as Innocent have a broader audience with cross-gender appeal, and their late-night post-watershed slots mean they can afford to be darker and perhaps more gripping than their dinnertime soap counterparts (this late-night slot is likely the one my show will be taking, as it usually hous...
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Magazine copy

I've started the process of writing my magazine copy, which I'm doing as I edit my audio-visual piece. I've decided to format it as a Guardian-esque Q&A-style interview, like so , as opposed to a more in-depth article piece like this . This is partly down to space constraints - there's quite a lot I want to fit in, covering all the topics I can't get across in three minutes of out-of-context extract. I'd like to discuss diversity and representation of different groups, and how it's changed over recent years on ITV; why the show has been such a hit; the move ever towards 'anytime, anywhere' streaming over traditional TV, particularly in millennial markets such as the one the show is targeting; as well as other, more filler-y things, like you get in a genuine interview. This would be a lot to fit in if it was fully fleshed out into article form, which is why I chose the Q&A style.
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