What motivates audiences to watch popular television drama? Illustrated by the study of audiences of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones.

This study explored what mass audience's motivations were for watching popular television dramas. It did this by discussing how themes, aesthetics, filming style, characterisation, audience participation and social media effected audience's engagement. The study investigated the opinions of forty-three participants to ascertain what topics they most engaged with and which enticed them to watch two popular television dramas i.e. 'Breaking Bad' and 'Game of Thrones'. This study will use a qualitative method in the form of one to one interviews and a quantitative method using online survey. This provided an insight to be gained from the participants on what aspects of popular television dramas engaged them the most. The results from these two components were analysed using a phenomenological method, this was the Giorgi method. This study allowed the researcher to discover what elements of popular television dramas audiences engaged with in particular in relation to themes, aesthetics, filming style, characterisation, audience participation and social media. The study provided evidence that there were elements which audiences engaged with more than others and also that the sharing and discussing of these popular television dramas was important. It also revealed that social media played an increasing role in deciding which popular television drama they chose to watch.ba_dapunpub2769_ethesesunpu