Research into our audiences needs, wants and opinions

1. Audience Research
By Beth Cox

2. Documentary Questionnaire
I developed a questionnaire about documentaries so I could
get an insight into what our target audience watches and
wants to see in a documentary. I asked 5 males and 5
females within the age group of 15-25, mainly around the
age 17/18, and then 5 males and 5 females within the age
group of 45-55. They each answered the questionnaire with
their opinions.

3. Q. Do you watch documentaries?
Age 17-25:
I asked 5 males and 5 females
whether they watched
documentaries or not and 5/5
females said they did but 4/5
males said they did, 1 male didn’t
watch documentaries at all.
Age 45-55:
I asked 5 males and 5 females
whether they watched
documentaries or not. 5/5
females said they did and 5/5
males said they did, suggesting
this particular age group have an
interest in documentaries.

4. Q. How regularly do you watch
documentaries?
Age 17-25:
In this age category, females were found to watch
documentaries more often than males. Females said on
average they watched documentaries every month, where as
males said on average every couple of months, showing
documentaries interest more females than males.
Age 45-55:
In this age category, both males and females watched
documentaries more often than people aged 17-25. On
average, males and females watched documentaries every 2-3
weeks, which is more regular than the category 17-25.

5. Q. What channel/s are the
documentaries you watch usually on?
Age 17-25:
The main channels people said in this age group were Channel 4,
Channel 5 and BBC 1. 7 people said Channel 4 and these people
who said channel 4 tended to list Channel 5 as well. All the
females said Channel 4, and most of the men said Channel 4 as
well as Channel 5. BBC was the channel that was least written
down, which was 3 times.
Age 45-55:
Every male and female said Channel 4, along side Channel 5 and
BBC1/BBC2 which was mentioned less than Channel 4. This
category, however, listed channels the age category 17-25 didn’t,
such as the Discovery Channel, meaning people aged 45-55 are
watching documentaries which aren’t on the main channels.

6. Q. What time do you usually watch
television?
Age 17-25:
As one male said at the start of the
questionnaire he didn’t watch documentaries,
only 4 males remain in this survey. As you can
see, all of the people (both males and
females) in this category usually watch
television between 7pm-11pm, suggesting
this is the best time to air our documentary.
Age 45-55:
From this data, 0 males said they watched
television in the morning, and 1 female did.
Between 1pm and 6pm, 2 males said they
watched afternoon television, where as 1 female
did. Between 7pm and 11pm was the most
popular time for this age category with 3 males
saying they watched night time television and 3
females. Suggesting we air ours between 7pm
and 11pm to suit our target audience.

7. Q. Out of these 5 topics, which topic
would most likely interest you?
Age 17-25:
This data shows that people between the ages of
17-25 are most interested in the topic of
technology. This could be due to technology
playing a big part in young peoples lives currently.
Males were more into the criminal topic, where
as the females picked health and wildlife. Both
genders were interested in history but not as
much as technology as you can see from the
representation of the data.
Age 45-55:
This data shows that people between the ages of
45-55 aren’t as interested in the topic of
technology as much as the other age group are,
their data is more spread out in terms of the
interest into the different topics. However,
technology is the topic they were mostly
interested in, both males and females, giving an
indication that our topic of social media will
interest them as their is a common link.

8. Q. What do you think the main
purpose/s of documentaries are?
Age 17-25:
Here, the data tells us what people aged 17-25
think documentaries purpose/s are. Some people
picked more than one purpose. In this age
category, they thought that persuasion was the
least common purpose of a documentary. They
over all thought that the main purposes were to
educate and entertain, which is what we aim our
documentaries purpose to be, but to also inform.
Age 45-55:
Here, the data tells us that people of an older age
think the main purpose of documentaries is to
educate people. They think that profit isn’t as
much of a main purpose as the younger people
do, or entertainment isn’t a main purpose. They
seem to think education is the main one, and this
is due to their age and maybe due to them having
children, so they are influenced by them being
involved in education currently.

9. Q. Do you like documentaries that
come to a conclusion at the end?
Age 17-25:
There was a difference in the response to
this answer. People did prefer the
documentary to not come to a conclusion at
the end. Peoples reasons for this were
mainly so they can form their own opinion,
and so the documentary doesn’t lead them
down a specific route to form an opinion.
Age 17-25:
There was a bigger difference in this age
group, more people didn’t like
documentaries coming to a conclusion. But
some people did, such as more males than
females liked them to form a conclusion at
the end. The people who said that they liked
it coming to a conclusion said it would try
and stop people having unpopular opinions
on matters.

10. Q. Do you find documentaries with a
narrator easier to understand and
follow?
Age 17-25:
The majority of people said that
they liked having a narrator to
listen to and follow, therefore
telling us we should as this is
what our target audience wants
in a documentary.
Age 45-55:
The majority of people said that
they liked having a narrator to
follow also in this age category,
bar 1 male. Therefore showing
both age groups prefer having a
narrator.

11. Q. Would you be interested in a
documentary about social media?
Age 17-25:
Every single person, all 9 participants I
asked, said they would be interested in
a documentary about social media.
Therefore people between 17-25 is a
perfect age to target our documentary
at as they are interested
Age 45-55:
Almost all the people I asked said they
would be interested in a social media
documentary bar 1 male, showing
people of this age group also have an
interest and therefore they’re the right
people to be aiming our documentary
at also.

12. Social Media Questionnaire
I’ve also developed a questionnaire about social media so I
could get an insight and look into what my target audience
knows about social media, how involved they are and their
experiences with it. I asked the same people who filled in
my questionnaire about documentaries, 5 males and 5
females within the age group of 15-25, mainly around the
age 17/18, and then 5 males and 5 females within the age
group of 45-55. They each answered the questionnaire with
their opinions.

13. Q. Do you use social media?
Age 17-25:
All 9 people between the age of
17-25 said they used some form
of social media, showing its a
current topic, involving our target
audience.
Age 45-55:
Also, all 10 people between the
age of 45-55 said they used some
form of social media, showing its
a current topic with people this
age as well.

14. Q. How many social media
accounts do you have?
Age 17-25:
In this category, there was a much higher number of social
media accounts owned by people than in the older aged
category. On average, males owned 7 social media accounts,
and females owned 10+. This shows how social media is a
huge part of young peoples lives.
Age 45-55:
However, in this category, people owned less social media
accounts. On average males owned 3 social media accounts
and females owned 4. But this does show that even people of
this age are involved with social media sites.

15. Q. What are your favourite social
networking sites to use?
Age 17-25:
In this age group, many social networking sites were used, some
of them I have never heard of before. But there seemed to be
common ones that almost everyone listed: Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat and Vine.
Age 45-55:
However, in this category, as people owned less social media
accounts, their was less variety in what social media accounts
they owned. All 10 people had a Facebook account and nearly
everyone owned a Twitter account and an Instagram account.
Other accounts we Wattpad, and MySpace. This tells us that
people of this age do have up to date social accounts but not as
many as the younger people.

16. Q. What do you use social media for?
Age 17-25:
The most common answer in this age category was ‘to see
what’s happening around the world with celebrities/famous
people’. This is good information to know as we were planning
on talking about obsessions with celebrities and why people
are so interested in them, in our documentary.
Age 45-55:
On the other hand, in this age category, quite a lot of people
said ‘I don’t use my account that often, I just have one’ which
tells us that people are conforming to a norm of having social
media and are being influenced by other people to own an
account.

17. Q. Do you think people are influenced
to have social media?
Age 17-25:
Everyone in this age category said
yes to people being influenced to
having social media. This shows
that social media is a big thing in
a young persons life.
Age 45-55:
Everyone in this age category said
yes as well. This therefore shows
that what ever age group people
are in, social media has a massive
impact and influences many
people.

18. Q. Do you think it’s an essential thing
for someone to have in life?
Age 15-25:
All 10 people said that social
media is an essential thing to
have in life, showing that young
people have been effected by
social media.
Age 45-55:
Not all 10 people said that social
media is an essential thing to
have in life in this age category.
These results showed the
opposite, older people don’t
believe it’s an essential, maybe
because they’ve lived without it.

19. Q. Would you be able to live without
social media?
Age 15-25:
All 10 people said that they
wouldn’t be able to live if social
media wasn’t around, showing
the mass impact social media has
had on these lives.
Age 45-55:
In this age category, not all 10
people said they wouldn’t be
able to live without social media.
Showing older people don’t reply
on it as much, however some
people answered no, showing it
still affects older people.

20. Q. Have you ever had any bad
experiences with social media?
Age 15-25:
All 5 males said they hadn’t had any
problem with social media, but this
could be due to embarrassment of
confessing. Where as 1 female said
they had, but this still isn’t a lot.
Age 45-55:
In this age category, all 10 people
(males and females) said they have had
no bad experiences with social media.
But maybe this is due to them not
using them as much as
teenagers/young people.

21. Q. Do you think social media benefits
people and society in this day and
age?
Age 15-25:
This answer is very mixed, showing
us that social media can be
beneficial but dangerous and bad in
other ways (bullying).
Age 45-55:
This is also a mixed answer, but
these results show that adults think
social media is less beneficial than
young people. This could be due to
their children having bad
experiences.

22. Q. What is your overall opinion on
social media?
Age 15-25:
Overall, this age group has a mixed
opinion on their overall opinion on
social media. This is good as after our
documentary has finished, it can help
them form their own opinion based on
what materials we’ve provided.
Age 15-25:
Overall, this age group also has a mixed
opinion on their overall thoughts on
social media. However they do have a
more negative look overall as no
females in this age group found social
media a positive thing.

23. Overall
In conclusion, from all the information I have found from
these questionnaires, I am going to apply them to our
documentary. This is so we can produce a documentary that
suits our target audience perfectly, so as our target audience
said they prefer a narrator and they’d rather come to their
own conclusion, we will incorporate that into our
documentary as that’s what the audience wants. This will
therefore makes our documentary more successful as we are
filling the audiences needs and wants.