Selection & Construction of Content, Modes of Address, Codes & Conventions

‘Doctor Who’ is much more colourful nowadays than it used to be. Obviously when it first started off it was in black and white but even when it went into colour in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, it still wasn’t as colourful as it is now. Also the fonts used are a lot more prominent and bold on screen and they stand out more, not just in the title sequence, but in recent episodes it has even given the year and the location away at the start of the episode in the form of bold text. Obviously in the title sequence the font is much larger and centered as that information is more important than the year and location information, which is small and at the side of the screen. In the title sequence you don’t just have the ‘Doctor Who’ logo, but also the name of the episode and the name of the writer after the ‘Doctor Who’ logo has been displayed, and the actresses and actors names before the ‘Doctor Who’ logo is displayed. Target audience comes into it too, as when ‘Doctor Who’ first started it was quite moody, dark and mysterious whereas nowadays it’s more cheerful and it has more comedy elements, and the colours and font being different in the program over the years were used to reflect this.

Comparison between two media products/programs: ‘Hollyoaks’ & ‘Doctor Who’

In a program such as ‘Doctor Who’, the language is mostly formal but it can be informal sometimes. In a program such as ‘Hollyoaks’ the language is mostly informal but can be formal sometimes. There is very little swearing in both programs (unless you count the late night spin off ‘Hollyoaks Later’). Slang isn’t used much in both programs, but it’s used more in ‘Hollyoaks’ than it is in ‘Doctor Who’.

Also target audience comes into it too. The target audience of ‘Hollyoaks’ is mostly teenagers. The target audience of ‘Doctor Who’ is mostly families, fans of the show, science-fiction, fantasy, drama, action and adventure fans. Also most of ‘Doctor Who’s’ audience are intellectual as the program itself is quite intelligent with the length of the words and sentences it uses and it’s fast paced nature, also it’s complicated and confusing plots, some of them everyone will understand, some of them no one will understand, and some of them only certain people will understand (mostly fans who have seen most episodes, even the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s ones). ‘Doctor Who’ is much more complicated and confusing nowadays than it used to be.