How have economic factors shaped Humans?
Knee jerk reaction
Economic factors have shaped Humans to a significant degree
Plan
- "every media product exists for the sole purpose of making money"
- "Humans is a unconventional sci-fi drama"
- Mid budget show
- Channel 4
- AMC
- Transnational co-production, with a transnational audience
- Specialised industry
- Channel 4: commercial/public
- Relatable setting
- Persona synth trailer
- Themes of feminism: controversial themes, issues, and problems
- Sam Vincent Jonathan Brackley: creators
- £12million s1
- Postmodern themes! Hyperreality
- Innovative advertising campaign
- Curran and Seaton - Power and profit
- Ideology: controversial
- Niche audience
- Diegetically situated marketing: augmented reality
- Appeals to a wider, yet fragmented audience
- Fandom
- Regulation: Sonia Livingstone and Perter Lunt
- Shown after watershed, with a BBFC 15, stops younger teenagers from watching
Example student answers
1
The only reason why every media product exists is to make money. Therefore, every media product must do what it can to be financially viable. Humans is a science fiction, alternate present TV show that was released by channel 4 in 2015. It conforms to this, being clearly influenced by the need to be profitable. This can be seen in a number of ways.
Firstly, it can be easily seen through the themes and ideologies that are encoded into it. Humans stays relevant to modern audiences by tackling pressing ideas such as robotics, sex work and slavery. These themes are current and relevant to modern audiences. This is shown off to its full extent when the older daughter watches an interview which is led by Krishnan Guru-Murthy - an actual journalist. The interview is about the synths and whether we should be concerned about them. This clearly demonstrates that Humans is trying to appeal to a modern audience by tackling relevant issues. Another way it does this is by setting the show in an alternative present. This is designed to make the audience feel that the world of the show is close to reality. It therefore makes it seem like a more pressing topic. This is done in order to draw in a larger audience than it might otherwise might have, and therefore it's able to be more profitable. By maximising profits, they are able to invest some of that money into the show, which will help it grow further. Humans was already a transnational production, with the backing of AMC (a powerful American conglomerate). This partnership allowed humans to be broadcast to a much larger audience, and make more money. This ties into Curran and Seaton’s theory of power and the media industries. They say that the media is controlled by a few large corporations, and that this limits their variety.
Another way that this show maximises its profits is with it's diegetic advertising campaign. The persona synthetics adverts are designed to place the audience in the world of the show. They do this by advertising the synthetics as if the audience could actually buy one. They don't mention the TV show or show any characters or settings from the show. This approach was not limited to the trailers, however, as they set up a website, social media accounts and even eBay listings for synths that further heighten the realism. This is a postmodernist approach. Jean Baudrillard’s theory of postmodernism essentially says that the simulated and augmented version of reality that we see in the media has replaced reality, and it's no longer possible to distinguish between them. This is all done in order to peak the interest of people who might not have really responded to a more typical advertising campaign.
The final way that Humans has been shaped by economic factors is in relation to its distribution. Distribution refers to the way in which media products are made available. Humans is made and distributed by channel 4, which is a very large and powerful company. They are well known for making unusual shows with adult themes. Humans fits this description very well, so it's clear that this was a typical production from that company. Therefore it's easy to argue that by building their reputation in this way, they've created a way to target their audience. If an audience member enjoys shows like Big Brother, Peep Show or The Inbetweeners then they are likely to continue watching the shows available on channel 4. They even have an app called All 4, which shows how this is compatible with digital convergence. This is designed to garner loyalty from consumers in order to maximise the amount of profit they can get from them.
In conclusion, Humans has been significantly shaped by economic factors. They have shaped what themes it tackles, making them relevant to modern audiences. They have shaped how it was marketed so that it could draw in a particular audience. They have even shaped how it's distributed so that the target audience has easiest access to it. Humans was made as a way of making money, like all media productions, so it's not at all surprising that economic factors have shaped it so heavily.
2
Every media product exists for the sole purpose of producing profit, and Humans is no different. The media industry is controlled by an increasingly small number of companies who are driven by profit and power, relating to Curran's and Seaton's theory of power, which argues that by concentrating media production into the hands of so few companies, there will be an increasing lack of variety, creativity and quality. However, the success of any piece of media relies strongly on its economic budget, as producers can freely create their products without the limitations on budget, leading to the end-production being of higher quality, increasing the chances of their work becoming economically successful. I shall be discussing the economic factors which have shaped the television program 'Humans' and explaining how these factors have either positively or negatively affected the series.
The series was announced in April 2014 as part of a partnership between Channel 4 and Xbox Entertainment Studios. However, after Microsoft closed Xbox Entertainment Studios, AMC came abroad as partners to Channel 4. Filming commenced in the Autumn of 2014, with the series premiering on the 14th of June in 2015, with a production budget of £12,000,000. The decision of partnering with the company AMC lead to Humans becoming more economically successful for several reasons. Firstly, Humans was a co-production between two different companies, which means that the risk was significantly lowered, as the production cost was split. Secondly, AMC is an American production company, which would make Humans a transnational-production, allowing for a transnational audience. This allowed for the show's viewership to significantly increase, which ultimately leads to more profit.
However, Humans came to a close in July 2018, due to the show losing audience attention. I personally believe that Humans budget was to blame, as the £12,000,000 budget would make the series a mid-budget show, meaning multiple limitations were put onto the producers. Firstly, the actors used for the characters of the show were not massively famous, actors such as Katherine Parkison (Laura Hawkins) or Collin Morgan (Leo Elster) do not attract celebrity fandoms. This relates to Richard Dyer's Star-theory, where celebrities are commodities manufactured by institutions and are used to relate to audiences and to sell the product. Secondly, Humans is a non-conventional science fiction series, which stereotypically should involve space exploration, advance science, and parallel universes. Humans takes place in London, an area audiences are already familiar with, leading to the lack of hermeneutic codes within the show. However, Steve Neale would argue that this would boost Humans successfulness, as he believes that producers rely on the audience's desire to see both repetition and difference of genre conventions, seeking out the familiar, while also seeking something vaguely new and different.
Humans is a non-conventional science fiction series, which limits the viewership as these genres appeal to a small percentage of individuals, making Humans a niche program. I believe that this was the main cause in the program's downfall and eventual cancellation, as the less audience attention and smaller fandom leads to less profit being generated. However, there were several reasons for the lack of audience attention. Humans was first broadcasted after the watershed, which would prevent younger audiences or early sleepers from watching the series. This relates to Sonia Livingstone's and Peter Lunt's theory of Regulation, 'regulation' referring to the rules and restrictions which every media industry has to abide, in order to protect vulnerable audiences from being exposed to harmful or offensive material, which strongly relates to Humans, as the series contains many adult themes from racism, sexism, rape and slavery.
In conclusion, I believe that the economic factors have significantly affected the outcome of the series Humans and that the show would become more successful if producers received more of a budget to produce the series.