How does your chosen text attract a wide audience?

The text i have chosen to study is Lost, series one, episode 2 "the pilot". This text attracts a wide range of audience by using a variety of techniques. These are a ensemble cast, creating a hybrid genre (post modernism) and by using a narrative structure. 

         A ensembled cast is a cast that differ from each other in a variety of ways. This includes gender, age and culture. This means that that the audience will be able to relate with at least one of the characters and therefore they will be able to receive some uses and gratifications. A example of this is the scene where Michael and his son (walt) are talking about his lost dog on the beach, when his father says "I will buy you a new dog". Then Walt storms off and his father is left disheartened and confused. A person in a similar position (a single father) will be able to relate to this situation and then gain information(Pies) and also personal identity. 

          Another example of this is the character Charlie. In this episode, Charlie can be seen sat under a tree taking heroine. A person who also has a addiction to drugs will be able to relate to him and carry on waking the program to find out how he deals with his problem and then gain both personal identity and information. 

  

A narrative structure is also used in this episode. A narrative structure is the layout of the story. This particular structure was proposed by todorov. This states that the text starts with equilibrium, then the equilibrium is broken, then a quest is proposed, then the quest is taken and then equilibrium is restored. A example of this theory can be seen in this episode. The equilibrium is when they are searching on the beach, as this is as normal as they can get. The equilibrium is then disrupted when the two survivors start arguing and they propose the quest to go up the mountain to get a signal. Then they actually depart on the quest. However they is no restoration of the equilibrium as this is a long series and the equilibrium will be restored later. This narrative structure attracts a wide audience because it is a accepted and long used narrative structure, so the audience are familiar with it. This means they can connect and engage with it and therfore enjoy it more. 

       Lost is also a hybrid of many genres as it contains many different genre conventions. This makes it part of the post modernism theory. By merging two, or more, genres together it creates something new and interesting that hasn't been seen before. A example of many different conventions is the action genre convention: high use of special effects, which can be seen in Kate's plash back where the plane is being ripped apart an people are flying out. A fantasy genre convention is is: A quest is usually taken. THis can been seen in the scene on the beach when kate decides to go on a trek to the top of the mountain. As you can seen it has both genre conventions and it is therefore a hybrid of two genres. The benefit of being a hybrid is that it attracts fans from both genres and it therefore attracts a much wider audience.