1. Factual Writing -
Fanzine
Charley Jackson

2. Primary Research

3. Breaking Bad
I did some primary research on the tv show: Breaking Bad. I wanted to find out
what people (who had watched the show or know about the show) thought about
the characters and the episodes. The way I carried this research out was through
the website surveymonkey.com, this website allowed me to create a survey so I
wrote down some questions that were relevant to the show and that I felt I would
get a nice range of responses from. I used the tools on the website to put it all
together. Survey Monkey is great for collecting data and also allowed me to be able
to share my survey on social media sites to aim to get more responses for a better
range of data.
When I had used survey monkey before I had chosen to make my surveys contain
around 10 to 20 questions, but with this one I felt 10 to 20 was a it much so I chose
make it shorter by creating 5 questions. Before looking at the responses I was
expecting to see quite a few similar responses but the survey has a range of
different answers which I think makes it more interesting. I have spread out the
questions and responses across the next few slides.

4. Breaking Bad
I added this question in to the survey because
I wanted to try and see if more males than
females (or vice versa) watch the show more
than the other. This question indicates that
more males watch than females watch the
show, while this may or may not be true; I
think that this question isn’t very accurate.
The reason why I think this is because there
are only 5 responses, I think that there would
need to be a much wider scale of people in
order to get a reliable result

5. Breaking Bad
I felt that this was a good question to add in
to my survey because it’s relevant and
because I thought it would be interesting to
see if there is a pattern in the responses. It
is clear from the responses this got that
there isn’t much of a pattern as most of the
responses are different.
It’s also clear that in this case, the character
‘Jesse’ is the most popular. There are 3/5
different responses which I think shows that
there are lots of good characters within the
show that have a different effect on each
individual.

6. Breaking Bad
This question was just added in because I
wanted to see how many people liked the
show enough to want to watch all five
seasons. The results from this question
show that; out of the people that
answered the survey that more people
did watch all five season than those that
didn’t.

7. Breaking Bad
I would say that this is my favourite question out of
the other questions in the survey, I think this
because I like the question itself and because I like
the responses that it got. I particularly like the fact
that participants went out of their way to explain
their favourite episodes or just the fact that they
even have a favourite one in the first place.
I think that these responses put the show in a
positive light, the reason why I think this is because
if only five people responded this way then I
wonder what the responses would have been like if
this survey had reached a bigger audience.

8. Breaking Bad
I think that this question could have been
different, while the responses are positive (which
is great) I think that I should have changed the
options for the question. What I mean by this is
rather than giving three options (it’s good, it’s
okay, it’s bad) and a ‘Other’ selection, I think it
would have been better if I had just added a text
box so that the participants can write their
opinion in their own words.
Overall, it’s clear that the participants of the
enjoy the show. One of the participants used the
‘other’ selection and said that ‘it’s amazing’.

9. Secondary Research

10. Breaking Bad https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2009/nov/21/bryan-cranston-breaking-bad
This article connects Bryan Cranston (which can be seen on the right of the image in
character as Walter White) to his previous, popular television roles. Bryan Cranston
played the character 'Hal' on the hit US tv show called Malcolm In The Middle where he
played the father to 5 boys and become known worldwide and mostly recognized as this
character. On Malcolm In The Middle, Cranston's character was the gentle, relaxed / laid-
back parent out of the two; this is why when he took the role of Walter White his
audience was surprised.
The character Walter White starts off in a similar fashion to the character Hal in as much
as he was a relaxed father until he develops lung cancer and decides to do anything to be
able provide for his family when he is no longer around; so he becomes a
methamphetamine dealer to make quick money but lots of it. Having cancer and being a
drug dealer causes more stress for Walter, including him lying to his family while
encountering bad people which could put him and his family in danger, all of the points
above are what causes the personality of this character to unravel; this showed the
audience a new side of Cranston due to the majority of his audience being used to him
playing a much gentler character.
This article goes on to talk about the connection between Bryan Cranston and the creator
Vince Gilligan. The creator wanted Cranston for the role after remembering his one
episode appearance on another tv show called 'The X Files' in 1998. Cranston explains to
the interviewer that "Vince was my champion to get this role," and he also says a little
piece about Gilligan and gave his explanation on Gilligan's personality "He's an unassuming
man from Virginia who's never done a drug in his life. He's not a crazy person. You
wouldn't give him a second look if he walked past you. You'd have no idea there's this
insane man on the inside. He's bizarrely talented but it's very well hidden."
Tags
• Gilligan
• Cranston
• Walter
• Middle

11. Breaking Bad
Tags
• Netflix
• Legacy
• Article
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2009/nov/21/bryan-cranston-breaking-bad
The purpose of this article is to show that the popular US series may be 10 years old but is
still very popular overall and to a degree, has changed the way that viewers watch TV. At
the start of the article there is a statement about the show, it's initial success and the
creator which says 'Vince Gilligan struggled to get the show off the ground and sustain it –
until Netflix stepped in. Now the streaming giant is on top, and Breaking Bad’s legacy is
assured'. This shows that although the show wasn’t likely to take off and become a
success at first, with a little bit of help from Netflix the show was able to become a
popular success which has had such an impact on today's television that it is fair to say
that the show has built a 'legacy'.
The article then goes on to mention that when Breaking Bad was brought out in the UK it
found the peak point though Netflix. The article also mentions that when the first episode
was aired in 2008 other popular shows with a slightly similar concept such as 'The
Sopranos' (which was ending as Breaking Bad started) and 'Mad Max' (which had already
begun as Breaking Bad was starting) were all part of the 'golden age of TV' with Breaking
Bad at the top of this list.
It is clear from reading this article that TV has developed a lot since then with the use of
the steaming service 'Netflix' which seems to be dominating the 'TV landscape'. It is easy
to learn from this that Breaking Bad left a mark on the way that people watch shows, this
is because 'Netflix acquired the rights to the previously unseen seasons, and put them
online before streaming the final eight episodes in weekly chunks' meaning viewers were
able to 'binge' watch the series without having to catch the weekly slot, this put TV in a
position where it is available on demand.

12. Breaking Bad
Tags
• Family
• Behavior
• Part
http://www.amc.com/shows/better-call-saul/talk/2017/06/follow-the-rise-and-fall-of-
the-white-family-in-these-breaking-bad-
episodes?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=see-how-
walts-plan-to-save-his-family-ultimately-destroyed-it&utm_campaign=breaking-bad
This is a blog that is connected to the AMC website, AMC is an American TV network which
Breaking Bad was initially aired on. From one look at the blog, the audience can see that
the purpose of the blog is to show 'the rise and fall of the White family' with the use of
episode. The blog enables the audience to see the pattern of behavior between all of the
members of the White family which I think is good, this is because there are certain parts
within Breaking Bad where the characters emotions and behavior is harder to read.
I like this blog because rather than going through every fine detail, it goes straight to the
point. For example: rather than explaining the behaviors of the family all together, the
blogger chose to explain it in a way that people who may not have watched it could
understand. The blogger has explained the main parts of the story where there are the
most major changes, mostly between the relationship of characters Walter and Skye. I
also noticed that when the blogger explains a part, they have gone as far as to add the
specific episode which part is featured. I think that this is helpful towards those that
haven't watched it but are interested in finding out about the story/characters and maybe
even those that have watched it but want a gain a deeper view/understanding of the
main aspects of the show.
The blogger has taken a main event from nearly all of the five seasons. I did notice that
the blogger didn’t mention season four which I know from personal experience that there
is a lot of main events within this season so I am unsure as to why this hasn’t been added
in to the blog but on the whole I would say that the blog is definitely useful.

13. References
• Turner, L. (2009). Bryan Cranston: from Malcolm In The Middle to America's favourite meth dealer. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2009/nov/21/bryan-cranston-breaking-bad. Last accessed 5th
Feb 2018.
• McInnes, P. (2018). Breaking Bad: 10 years on, TV is still in Walter White's shadow. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jan/20/breaking-bad-10-years-on-tv-is-still-in-walter-
whites-shadow. Last accessed 5th Feb 2018.
• Shapiro, M. (2017). Follow the Rise and Fall of the White Family In These Breaking Bad Episodes. Available:
http://www.amc.com/shows/better-call-saul/talk/2017/06/follow-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-white-family-in-
these-breaking-bad-episodes?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_content=see-how-walts-
p. Last accessed 5th Feb 2018.