REGENERATING DOCTOR WHO – TECHNOLOGY OVER TIME
How is it used, what is the impact on its revival and its audience?
Technology has developed very rapidly and quickly since the beginning of the 20th century, changing the modern day generation and even the generations then so dramatically that it completely changed warfare, causing four years of devastation, many conspiracies and knowledge of the expanding universe. However, in the past 50 years most of the development has taken place, the development of the computer, more use of electricity and ovens making everyday tasks easier. Cars and busses may now run on electricity, becoming ‘cleaner’ and more technologically advanced.
In the 1920s there was the largest amount of cinematic development, with the previous knowledge of knowing how to use a camera and make moving pictures in the Victorian era, they decided to try and add sound to the films. The first films that had sound to it was known as talkies, the first feature length one airing in 1927 and named ‘The Jazz Singer’. This was a significant development in the film industry as there was then the potential to have dialogue. With this the media as we know it snapped into existence, with one of the most memorable talkies actors Rudolph Valentino beginning to pull in fangirls in the thousands, of which crazed over him.
The development of music came with this movement, alongside liberation there was a period of time where you could enjoy yourself. This formed many different genres of music for a range of people to enjoy. Music has also caused some of the world’s biggest crazes, including Beatlemania (which happened at a similar time to dalekmania) and even modern day songs such as Axel F’s Crazy frog, Psy’s Gangnam Style and many others.
During the 1960’s there were many other developments including the NASA space program of Apollo 11 and the race to the moon. With this fascination with the space age there were many science fiction based products, from dome shaped televisions to the TV shows themselves. Some of the most crazed shows ever originated in the 60’s, including Star Trek, Thunderbirds and Doctor Who. With this came mass franchises of the shows, causing there to be productions of the creatures everywhere, including Christmas singles (I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek by The Go-Go’s).
YouTube /compare the official vids w other big vids but fans and msuiic ect/
YouTube was the second most used social networking site of which was used by the whovian fanbase. This is most likely to be to watch trailers (both fan made and professional) and to listen to other material such as the genre of music ‘trock’ (otherwise known as Time lord Rock). As there seems to be a particularly large Doctor Who fanbase globally there are many covers of songs, lyric videos, re-enactments and other videos being uploaded? People on YouTube also had the ability to upload entire episodes (or at least in parts) of which may reach people globally.
YouTube is very well known to many audiences, and is often involved in the academically and within schools as to make easier revision videos, some people even maintaining a living from these videos. YouTubers such as Charlie McDonnell (channel is charlieissocoollike) are well known for being a ‘nerd’ and portray education in an entertaining manor. These YouTubers are seen as admirable, especially if they are musical and can maintain an empathy/connection with them. Charlie McDonnell is a specific person of which aided in the first trock bands and often mentions doctor who regularly in his videos alongside educating his mainly teenage audiences on sciences, mainly physics based.
YouTube has over 1 Billion registered users visit it per month, and then many more of whom just watch videos. One of the features people like about this site is the fact that anything may be viewed by anyone with or without an account. This easy access means that it may be used anywhere with an internet connection, even having its own YouTube app of which takes up 40% of the viewings. However, when you search YouTube for videos featuring Doctor who 9,960,000 results come up, mostly of trailers and other ‘Top Ten’ videos showing that the main interactions with the whovian fanbase is more around critique and enjoyment of the music (both varying from trock and then the actual official soundtracks
Tumblr (doctorwho.tumblr.com)
Tumblr is categorized as two types of site, a blogging site and a social networking site. In this people can communicate with many other people using the ever-growing ‘hashtag’ #doctorwho. This hashtag is able to be tracked and people may contribute to their ‘fandom’, also finding people who similarly enjoy the show and may also see what they post. The Doctor Who fandoms is said to be one of the biggest ones to be present on the internet, with a variety of ages being able to reach a vast audience.
There is an official Doctor Who account on tumblr and they quite often interact with the fans by reblogging posts that they have created or answering questions yet also promoting Doctor Who. They are mostly representing the US fans, however it also takes into consideration that people are fans of Doctor Who from other countries. When I surveyed 100 people ages 16-18 many of them had used this as a means of finding my survey and participating in it.
Twitter (@bbcdoctorwho, @DWMtweets, @DoctorWho_BBCA)
Twitter is a form of public messages of which is restricted to 140 characters per message. This allows there to be more direct interaction with other celebrities and bigger, well-known companies. This shows that there is now the capability to speak out their own opinions and admirations to these companies. The Doctor Who twitter accounts feature the overall group then there are two other ones, one for the magazine and then another for the American audience. This means that there is the capability to communicate and involve in the audience everywhere, also able to inform the audience of when significant events may happen or when an episode may air.
It has been known for there to be interactions with things such as Q&A’s occurring. These Q&A’s generally consist of the audience using the specific hashtag created or directly mentioning their @ sign. This manages to involve the audience as it is asking them for questions and queries of which may be answered by the show’s producers and/or actors. This makes the audience feel involved as they can begin to find out more about their topic or about the feelings of the actor.
Instagram (@DoctorWho_BBCA)
Instagram is generally considered that of the more photographic based networking sites. Stereotypically used by people (such as ‘hipsters’) to take photos of themselves and also typically foods; however, many people use this site to display their art and photos of themselves with their celebrities. With this Doctor Who has not only a hashtag but also an account, meaning that they can post images of their promotions and also other fan made things.
This shows a good amount of interaction with its audience as it features images such as cosplays, fan art and their own images. This makes the audience feel involved with the show as they can get their work featured by the official site, meaning that they have further recognition from all of the people of which keep track of the account will also see this picture and generally get an amount of positive feedback, further raising confidence for the people of whom have been mentioned.
/see the draft of 8.12.14/
