P3 Audience- Questionnaire Results.

In order to collect accurate data for the audience demographic for The Walking Dead, I conducted a questionnaire and handed it out to ten individuals in my daily life. The individuals were of a variety of ages. By conducting a questionnaire I can collect specific data on why a individual either does or doesn't watch the show, the information I have received will enable me to conclude what types of people the show is popular with. 

Below are my results:

I found that eight out of ten people watch TWD, this is a very high percentage and shows how popular the program actually is. Only two out of the ten participants have not watched TWD. 

I asked all of my participants if they had heard of the show, the three options listed in the bar graph are options which i provided for the participants to select from. They were asked to tick the applicable (meaning they could tick more than one). Nine out of the ten people I asked had heard of the show from other people who watch and enjoy TWD. Again, this highlights the program's popularity, so much so that it could be labeled a 'water cooler show', this is the idea that workers gather to talk about a popular show. Eight out of ten participants said that they had seen a lot of advertisements for the program, this shows that AMC and Fox have distributed the show successfully over both TV and print ads.

The Walking dead is classified as an 18, but I know that younger audiences are viewing the show, myself included. So taking this into account I decided to include a younger age demographic of 15-17 and out of the 8 individuals who watch the show two fell into this category. The actual targeted demographic for TWD is 18-49 so my results show an accurate portrayal as the two options,  18-35 and 36-50 were the most popular with 3 viewers for each. The two participants of my questionnaire that do not watch the show fell into the 15-17 age range, I asked four people of this age range as I felt like this was the most popular age for the show. However, my theory proved inconclusive. 

According to my results, The Walking Dead is more popular with female viewers. However, I do not agree with this accuracy on a whole, I think that the show is equally as popular with both genders and that it is just my biased questionnaire which has asked more female recipients than male.

In earlier research I found that Netflix was quickly becoming a highly popular method of entertainment, threatening to over take cable networks such as AMC. Which is why I found it surprising to see the not one of the viewer's taking part in my questionnaire used the media player to watch TWD. The majority vote showed that watching TWD on Fox TV channel was the most popular, perhaps because of its simplicity and also the hype generated by it being a 'Fox Exclusive'. Others watch the show online in order to watch episodes not yet released in the UK. Understandably, there were no votes for watching the show on DVD as prices are very costly and rising, it's much easier to watch the show on Fox and simply record missed or favourite episodes.    

Seven of the viewers already watching the show said that they would continue watching the show, this proves it's high entertainment factor that seems to only be rising through out the seasons. However, one viewer decided they would not watch any more of the popular show after only watching the pilot episode. The remaining two questionnaire results showed that these people were not interested in the show at all and wouldn't be starting to watch it. Overall, from the random people I selected to complete my questionnaire the majority do watch the show, this proves how successful the show is across a wide demographic of viewers.   

P3- Audience Demographic and Profile

Age
The audience demographic for The Walking Dead covers a vast range, recently the fourth and latest season has broken its record with more than 16 million viewers. The majority of these viewers were of the age range 18-49, the exact number was 10.4 million. Previously the third season's highest record of viewers was 12.4 million and within that 8.1 million were of the key 18-49 demographic. For the final episode of season 3, the Walking dead was the highest rated show on television and beat competitor shows such as, Game of Thrones, in the highest 18-49 demographic. This demographic is coveted among TV shows, as it is a 41 year range between viewers which means they are reaching to young and older audiences and keeping them all engaged. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that nobody below or above this age range watches the shows, as the records show there was at least 6.4 million viewers watching the fourth season that did not fit into the coveted demographic. 

Gender
Whilst the content of the show may suggest an entire male following, women are too loving the popular TV show. In fact The Walking Dead is the highest rating cable TV show among women between 18 and 49. With female lead characters like Michonne and Carol it isn't hard to understand why women are enjoying the hit show, these two characters are favourites for men and women. But the way they are breaking stereotypes that are normally portrayed as overly sexualised, weak women is highly successful as finally women are being shown to be strong and independent. 

P2- The Walking Dead Promo Trailer / STYLE

STYLE - The Walking Dead Season 1 Trailer

Structure- This trailer is structured as a story, it shows the beginning of how the protagonist, Rick Grimes, found himself in this zombie apocalyptic world and then leaves the rest of the plot unsaid with only build up of what Rick is going to do next. This effect builds tension for the audience and engages them so that they want to find out what happens next. Above is a screen shot image from the trailer, which shows Rick's motives and what his primary purpose is. His family who are missing, this visual of his wife and child suggest how important they may be for the rest of the TV show, it suggests that the audience needs to know what they look like. The contrast as well in how the family are all smiling happily makes the audience question what they may be feeling now and how could they leave Rick to wake up alone? What has happened to them? This element of the TV show would stereotypically attract women as they would be interested in the relationship side of this apocalyptic world. They would want to relate and picture themselves in the situations of these character's, how would their relationships be affected.

Colours- The colours used in the trailer are all very dark and gritty, this reinforces the content of the show and it's dark, horrific scenes which would appeal to a male audience. The very beginning of the trailer itself depicts a classic American car chase and the use of violence only foreshadows for the audience the much stronger action and horror elements to follow. Between the different clips shown in the trailer, there is text on the screen which reinforces the idea of the show, 'He Woke Alone... The World He Knew Gone'. 

The simplicity of these phrases arises many questions for the audience, 'what exactly was the world he knew?' and 'what is this new world?'. Like previously mentioned, the colours are grim and the overall image almost has a dirty quality to it. This reinforces the ideas that the survivors are having to go back to basics by means of living and defending themselves. It draws in audience with the darker themes created.

Costumes- Costumes are shown in the trailer, the most obvious being the main character's Police uniform, the uniform like the rest of the trail is dark and gritty. Any bright colours in this genre of horror would be out of place and ruin the dynamic of the show.
Another set of 'costumes' shown are that of the zombies, all of their costumes are different but have the same theme of filthy, bloodied clothing and facial masks that make the characters look as if they are rotting. 

P5- Representation

Ethnicity:

The Walking Dead does feature characters of different ethnicities, as of season 4, three members of the main cast are of a different race. Michonne and Tyrese are both African-American main characters in the TV show and the comic book it is based off. They're both tough characters and fan favourites, though they did not come into the show in the first season but have since survived to the latest episodes. These characters are seen as heroic, brave members of the group and have no stereotypical traits. 

However, before Tyrese was introduced into the show there was another black male character stereotypically named 'T-Dog'. Whilst this character was kind, he was portrayed as a stereotypical 'ghetto' black man by his use of language and clothing, i.e. backwards cap. T'dog's character was present through out season 1-3 and gradually got less and less screen time over this period until he eventually sacrificed himself for another character. The article in which I found on different ethnicities in the show said that, 'T-Dog has no role in the show. He may as well be called Token Black Inclusion No.1'. 

Also in the article that I found on race in The Walking Dead, another female black character, Jacqui, was given a unexpected death when her character had not been given any real story development. It was to complaint that before Michonne arrived on the show, 'the only woman of color in the TV series was Jacqui, and the team was more than happy to leave her to die at the CDC when it exploded, while Dale stayed behind to guilt Andrea, a white woman, into leaving.  Everyone ran out of that building without giving Jacqui a second thought, and no one has thought about her since.' The fact that these two characters have been neglected and left for dead when they're story lines had no importance is surely a sign of discrimination and how much white characters are valued in the show in comparison. 

However, as I previously mentioned there are still four African-American currently alive as of season 4, two of these (Michonne and Tyrese) are main characters in both the show and comic book whilst the other male and female characters are starting a tentative relationship. 

Another ethnicity is featured with the character of Glenn, another fan favourite and reoccurring cast member. Glenn is an Asian-American man who was first seen as nothing but '[zombie] bait than an actual member of the team'. That is until Glenn met Maggie, a white woman and the pair have since gotten married. Whilst Glenn's beginnings in the show may not have been as equal as the other members of the team, he has since been given more valuable and riveting plot developments with his wife, the couple are popular and fans certainly root for the pair.

Source- http://www.racialicious.com/2012/10/12/25626/

Regional and National Identity:

^Source- http://razoofoundation.org/2013/03/3-things-walking-deads-daryl-dixon-teaches-about-social-media/ )

The Dixon brothers as pictured above are a stereotypical representation of 'rednecks', however, as the show has progressed we have witnessed the characters becoming humanized. Daryl (left) has even grown to become a fan favourite due to his background of negligence and abuse. This is why the 'redneck' stereotypes portrayed by these two brothers are not quite as offensive as they appear to be, they are shown to move on from their prejudiced views of racism when thrust into the post apocalyptic that unites all survivors. This stereotype is not so much an offensive one as the viewers see the brother's moving on and growing up, instead they are viewed in a much more positive light.

Gender:

In season 1, Carol was portrayed as a weak, scared woman at the hands of her abusive husband. This serious issue in the show was handled very well and after the death of her husband audiences finally were able to watch Carol's growth into an independent and strong woman able to fight to protect herself and others. 

The following piece of text has been taken from an interview with Melissa McBride, who plays Carol.

The representation of females in characters such as Carol gives female audience a role model with whom they can relate to in the show. It's important that character's such as Carol exist in order to break stereotypes of women being the weak, sexualised objects that men have to protect. Of course if Carol did fit these out dated gender stereotypes then TWD would lose it's female audience which has proved to be an equal percentage as he male audience. 

P3- The Walking Dead Classification

Above is the Walking Dead season 4 official trailer, I am going to 'rate' this trailer on all of the aspects and themes featured which would determine what classification the trailer would be set as. 

Bad Language

Horror

Dangerous Behaviour

Drugs

Violence and Threat

Sex & Nudity 

Weapons

Themes

Discrimination 

Weapons are present throughout most of the trailer, they are in plain sight and not being disguised. Guns are fired multiple times with the intention of killing as well as more brutal weapons like knives are shown in action. Horror is primarily shown with the theme of zombies and gore that is shown in the trailer, these depictions are graphic and brutal which is where the Violence and Threat is shown. As well as this horror This is shown with scenes of shooting, stabbing and impaling to cause death of 'zombie characters'. The threat primarily comes with the threat of the zombies going to attack the human characters. One zombie is shown pulling away from a dead body with blood and flesh dripping from it's mouth in a menacing manner. Horror is also shown with the images of the decomposing dead bodies of animals. These images are very graphic and feature gore, flesh and blood, they are disturbing to look at. Dangerous Behaviour is shown with the characters jumping out from a two story window and also jumping out of the top window of a car. This needs to be classes as dangerous behaviour as younger audience may try and copy the scenes. Sex & Nudity is shown briefly and implied with a scene of a man and woman in bed, but only there naked shoulders is shown, it is implied that they have been close and are still naked.