Audience research

Audience research

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  Audience Research ByBeth Cox
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  Documentary Questionnaire Ideveloped 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.
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  Q. Do youwatch 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.
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  Q. How regularlydo 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.
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  Q. What channel/sare 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.
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  Q. What timedo 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.
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  Q. Out ofthese 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.
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  Q. What doyou 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.
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  Q. Do youlike 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.
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  Q. Do youfind 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.
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  Q. Would yoube 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.
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  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.
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  Q. Do youuse 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.
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  Q. How manysocial 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.
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  Q. What areyour 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.
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  Q. What doyou 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.
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  Q. Do youthink 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.
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  Q. Do youthink 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.
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  Q. Would yoube 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.
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  Q. Have youever 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.
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  Q. Do youthink 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.
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  Q. What isyour 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.
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  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.