Kate Harwood

Dear Kate Harwood,

                                I am emailing after watching your video about Youth TV Drama.

Firstly, I disagree with your comment of young people not watching as much TV drama as older people. Many youths spend much of their leisure time watching TV dramas, choosing to relate their own experiences to these dramas. A number of youths watch TV dramas and then link this to other types of media, such as following the actors on twitter or liking their pages on Facebook. Many youths have also been introduced to new media recently, so they are able to catch up on TV and can watch it when they wish too, examples of the new media are Sky+, 40D and BBC iplayer.

Youth audiences want an interesting, fast paced and realistic drama which they can relate too and talk to their peer groups about. They want a TV drama they can follow and emotionally attach themselves too whilst being able to look forward to watching the next episode or series. They also want an up to date TV drama which focuses on modern problems and issues.

TV dramas such as Eastenders really draw in the youth audience and many youths tweet or Facebook about this program, making them part of their lifestyle and consider these TV dramas as part of their weekly program, watching them each week. Many youths watch Eastenders because of the fast-paced storylines which change in every episode. The story lines in Eastenders are also over exaggerated, but fairly realistic and youths can easily form emotional bonds with particular characters.

TV dramas such as Misfits and Skins, although watched by many youths are also watched by an older audience. The way these programs represent youths sends out a mis-representation, forcing youths to feel ‘put out’ by these programmes and these stereotypes mean youth’s do not wish to watch a false representation of themselves.

Regards,

Poppy George