Kate Harwood on youth audiences

Kate Harwood on Youth Audiences

As Kate Is being interviewed she is talking about what the youth audience wants from a TV drama. She explains that we don’t necessarily want something that casts only young actors, but a drama which conveys realism and a sense of personalisation towards the audience. For example she states that the younger audience enjoys the character Dot Cotton from Eastenders because we strive to have that ‘crazy grandma character in our lives’ and this is entertaining for a range of audiences, including youth audience.

Personally I agree with the comments she makes about the fact that we don’t watch as much TV Drama as perhaps an older audience does, because we have access to other Medias such as the internet and DVDs. However, a big number of channels use this to their advantage and possibly encourage the younger audience to use other Medias such as the internet, more than they would usually, to watch a programme via Iplayer for example. Particular stations that do this a lot are Channel 4/ E4 and BBC Three.
Another point to make is that she states the Skins audience is quite old. This was something that surprised me as a big majority of the Skins cast are of a young age and I assumed this would narrow the appeal to a younger audience. Perhaps the way to look at this information is that the older audience want to be reminded of their youth and enjoy the interpretations they have of young people today.

Although I know of many of my friends enjoying the programme, personally I don’t like the way that the characters are portrayed in the show. I feel that the whole storyline is fantasized with the characters taking drugs and having sex every five minutes that perhaps the producers are trying to convey this attitude as being true. There are many articles in the media about problems with youth such as; teen pregnancy, drugs, eating disorders and so on, but the way that they cover the issues in the programme I feel are very unrealistic and inappropriate.
Overall I feel that TV Dramas such as Eastenders and HollyOaks, have elements of realism within them which the Youth audience can relate to but programmes such as skins are very misinterpreted and represent today’s youth as being reckless and uncontrollable. Not all of us are so bad.