Television- Humans with question/ Persona Synthetics/ Channel 4

Humans


How (and why!) have stereotypes in this media product been used both positively and negatively? 

Key scene- Laura meets Anita.

Humans is atypical Sci-Fi show, this show is about representation of our society (sex workers, Black people) you can replace these synths with actual people.

This is different from other sci-fi shows as there are no aliens or anything funky like that.

Genre conventions- 

• Synth Eyes are blue.
• Robotical aspects.
• Awkward movements. 
• Very simple speech.
• The idea of robots coming to the realisation of what they are.
• Steve Neale- Repetition and Difference- The audience wants to see the same thing but done differently.
• This is to make the audience reflect on our lives as we are quite robotic in the way we go about our lives.
• Post modernism. 

Persona Synthetics

The persona synthetics website allows the audience beyond the show, as there is a return slip which suggests through the use of proiaretic code that something is going to go wrong.

Immersion- totally involved with something and you have got to commit to it to show the audience that this show will be worth their time. 

Whole anti-technology movement in the Swedish, which is shown through the twitter feed.

Ownership and Economic Factors

• Channel 4 and AMC produced Humans
• aMC are an American media company, they main focus for a while was old classic American films, then in 2009 they would rebrand  and make their own TV shows such as Walking Dead, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.
• Channel 4 got aMC as their partners Microsoft shut down their xbox streaming service.

Channel 4

• Channel 4 aim to reflect the contemporary world to British Television audiences.
• Experimental and stylised content.
• First film Channel 4 shown was L'Age D'or, which was banned in the UK, at the time.
• One of the most important ways to do this is through their substantial and multi-award winning documentary output. 
• During the station's formative years, funding came from the ITV companies in return for their right to sell advertisements in their region on the fourth channel (Wikipedia)
• Nowadays, it is self funded through their use of on air advertising, the merchandise of their shows, programme sponsorships. 
• Little bit of license fee now but not as much as ITV.
• Associated channels- E4, More4, Film4, 4SEVEN, 4Music, ALL4
• More of a niche audience for each channel is targeted.
• E4- young student audience- opening ceremony with Ali G live swearing before watershed.
• 
  
• Scheduling- As a general rule, the more adult in nature the content is, the later it should be broadcast, with the 9pm watershed being the crucial point in time before which material unsuitable for children should not generally be broadcast. Leading up to and after the watershed, parents are expected to take increasing responsibility for their children's viewing. (www.Channel4.com) 
• Notable Releases- Humans, Hollyoaks, Big Brother, Celebs Go Dating, Googlebox, Made in Chelsea, The Inbetweeners, Misfits, Skins.
• Notable distributed- Friends, Frasier, Big Bang Theory etc.
• Makes use of the watershed, places show later at night.
• originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority(IBA),^[1] the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public corporation of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,^[2] which was established in 1990 and came into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time. (Wikipedia)

Potential Question- how have ownership and economic factors shaped the TV programs you have studied?

Target & Marketing Audience

The target audience for 'Humans'

• Age- 25
• Gender- Female
• Nationality- English
• Location- Sheffield 
• Sexuality
• Demographic
• Psychographic
• Socio-economic class
• Occupation
• Hobbies