Audience ResearchBy Beth Cox

Documentaries Questionnaire

I developed a questionnaire about documentaries so I could get an insight into what my 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 9 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, 2 males said they watched television in the morning, and 1 female did. Between 1pm and 6pm, 3 males said they watched afternoon television, where as 2 females did. Between 7pm and 11pm was the most popular time for this age category with 5 males saying they watched night time television and 6 females. Suggesting we air ours between 7pm and 11pm to suit our target audience.

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.

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 educated and attending school.

Q. Do you like documentaries that come to a conclusion at the end?

Age 17-25:There wasn’t much of a difference in the response to this answer. But, only slightly, 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.

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.

Q. Would you be interested in a documentary about social media?

Age 17-25:Every single person, all 19 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 the documentary

at also.