Thisath's Media Coursework

In tables below, the rows in grey are factual genre shows, whereas the light blue rows are fictional . The TV Programme listing for ITV I searched for 5 factual programmes and 5 fictional programmes in ITVs schedule in the first/second week of June 2018. Of the 5 fictional shows, only 2, Emmerdale and Coronation Street are currently running. The others are shows they've broadcast historically.  It seems like late Spring/Summer isn't really the time period for big dramas. It makes sense though, as most TV shows like to schedule their heaviest hitting dramas on the 9 to 10 time slot (proven by looking at the time schedules), which are largely still hours of day light during the Summer.  The big shows in the 9 to 10 time slot usually air during the Autumn and Winter months (Broadchurch first aired in March, and Victoria aired in October). Victoria is actually an interesting show in terms of Genre, as it's a historical drama and is largely factual, but it a...

Channel 5 is one Britain's newer major Commercial channels in that it was launched in 1997. The channel is currently owned by Viacom, an American media conglomerate. They have the 5th highest audience share in the UK, and it has been that since their launch. Like ITV, Channel 5 has subsidiary channels that broadcast different content to their main. These are 5STAR, 5SPIKE, 5USA, and 5SELECT. On Channel's Programme Production  page, there's one piece of information that serves as an absolute deciding factor for me: they say, and I quote, "We particularly like factual shows – Specialist Factual, Documentaries and Factual Entertainment". They also point out, "We are not really in the market for Comedy or Drama at the moment but that will hopefully change moving forward". This is the main reason I chose ITV over Channel 5. I want to produce a fictional drama show, and as Channel 5 has made very clear, they are not interested in showing such programm...

My Action Plan for this project will be updated constantly as I go along. I aim to follow the rough guidelines given by the Task Checklist in our coursework which I will adapt to my needs as time goes by. Week beginning 11/06/2018 Tasks to complete: Introduction to brief, look at examples of factual and fictional programmes and generate initial ideas. Set up blog, create the introductory posts. Research into factual and fictional programmes and specific genres. Narrow down options in terms of what I will produce. Status at end of week: Tasks Completed Week beginning 18/06/2018 Tasks to complete: Research into Institutional Context of ITV & Channel 5. Research into main product by completing textual analysis of 3 similar programmes. Status at end of week: I completed the research into the Institutional contexts. I have started the entry to my textual analysis of one programme, Broadchurch, for which I watched an entire season of the show. Week Beginning 25/0...

In this post, I will be exploring one of two different broadcasters we have been given.   I have decided to use ITV as my broadcaster of choice, and in the following post on the Institutional context of Channel 5, I will explain why. ITV Our selection in regards to ITV is open to all of ITV's channels. This broadens the range of choice for channel to ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and ITVBe. On their website , ITV describes itself as " an integrated producer broadcaster, which creates, owns and distributes high-quality content on multiple platforms globally ".  They also claim to be Britain's largest family of commercial channels. All the channels have roughly different audiences and aims, broadcasting a wide variety of content, which their commissioning website roughly elaborates on. Below is a list of the channels and what they are each described as on their Commissioning page. ITV1 "is the home of high quality, popular television from the biggest en...

I think I'm definitely going to go with a fictional genre programme for my Coursework. I've chosen not to do a factual programme such as  a docu-drama, or Game-Show, which seem to be quite prominent genres of shows on ITV and Channel 5, as it might be difficult to meet the coursework guidelines that ask for the segment to contain a narrative structure with a key turning point point of significant conflic resolution. Potential genres I am looking at making are a Crime Drama programme, a Sci-fi Drama, or perhaps even a Soap Opera. These are genres that are shown widely on ITV and Channel 5, and are consistently targeted at the younger millennial audiences. Their narrative structures are also  generally less complicated to align to the aforementioned guidelines. For the Print media section of the project, I will leave the planning to be done for after I've conceptualised an idea for the TV programme, as the type of magazine that will be promoting the my TV sho...

Hi, I'm Thisath Ranawaka, a 17 year old Hills Road Sixth Form student. In this blog, I will be recording the progress of my 2018 media coursework. My coursework project is to make a cross-media production for a new Television programme in a factual or fiction genre, targeted at 18-35 year old millennials, for ITV or Channel 5. I will have to create an audio-visual sequence of the TV programme, and create associated print materials to promote the TV programme. As with most people my age TV shows have been a part of my life for a long time. Doctor Who is a show I've been following for over 5 years now, and I think the importance of the show to British TV as well as British Culture demonstrates the impact TV shows can have in our society. David Attenborough's programmes on nature and humanity left a great impression on me when I was younger and fostered a love and interest in the work that goes into creating these shows. Below, I've attached a few shows that I currentl...