1. Learning Outcome Two: Media products and audiences
There is a large market of documentaries out there already covering a large variety of topics and
genres which is why it’s more important than ever for documentary producers to produce and
market their documentary uniquely (to stand out from other documentary’s covering the same
topic) and make it appeal to their target audience as much as possible.
To show you the importance of documentaries being produced and marketed to appeal to their
audiences I will use two different documentaries to compare as I explain how they appeal to their
target audiences
Documentary One: BBC panorama North Korea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zDYrFE985g
Documentary Two: Walking with Dinosaurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sPDLQL2Spo
Panorama:
The original target audience for Panorama were seekers (people who seek information and
understanding of matters), journalists and students aged 18+. The reason for this target audience is
because Panorama is a TV programme which investigates into all kinds of things all over the world
(usually uncovering dark secrets). The programme is structured on journalism, rather than news
readers reading a script, you have journalists reporting to the views on TV talking about matters that
they really care about and understand personally. This is more appealing to the target audience
because it makes them feel like the journalist is talking about something they truly understand
rather than them reading from a script.
Panorama in a way is essentially a news programme; however it usually focuses on one story in each
episode. This is why journalists would take interest, perhaps looking for stories to write about in
their blogs or magazines, or maybe they are just watching the programme because they aspire to it.
The seekers (people who seek information and understanding) take interest in the documentary
because it informs them of things that are going on in the UK or world that they may not know
about. Panorama has an almost similar target audience to BBC news the only difference is that
Panorama draws its target audience in by going into more depth on individual stories (usually
covering one story in a single documentary).
However, the Panorama documentary I am discussing (North Korea) had a much larger target
audience and audience than the standard Panorama documentary. There were two key reasons why
this documentary received a larger amount of views from their target audience and audience than
usual.

2. Reason One: The first reason this documentary had a larger target audience was because two weeks
before this documentary was aired newspapers and media were releasing news bulletins talking
about North Korea tensions increasing between USA and South Korea, in the following days tensions
increased and North Korea closed its border and advised tourists to leave the country. Since then
there has been barely any video media coverage of what’s going on in North Korea. That was until
the BBC revealed that their documentary programme “Panorama” was about to air a special
documentary about North Korea that was filmed there just before the borders closed.
This generated allot of interest across the country and USA too because it would be showing footage
of what was going on in North Korea.The documentary was advertised (which is rare for BBC to do)
on BBC channels and especially after BBC news programmes which is what allot of Panorama’s
target audience watch as well, this consisted of seekers (people who seek information and
understanding of matters) and journalists. The BBC weren’t the only ones advertising this
documentary though. It was headlining in newspapers such as “The sun” and “The Sunday times”.
The news media empire generated allot of interest for this documentary creating a much larger
target audience and audience for this documentary.
The documentary producer was very clever in the way that they held on to the documentary for a
while rather than airing it straight away they waited until North Korea had closed their borders (so
there was no longer any decent news video coverage if at all) and waited until tensions had
increased more. Then they gave out a week advance announcement saying what the Panorama
documentary would be covering. By doing this they gave themselves a week of mass publicity with
help from the news media empire.
The documentary producers grabbed the target audience’s attention or this documentary by
choosing the right moment (when there was minimal media coverage of inside North Korea) and the
exclusivity of their documentary.
Reason Two: The second reason this documentary received a much larger target audience and
audience was because of the scandal that appeared all over newspapers and TV news shows. This
scandal was that the BBC Panorama documentary in North Korea had used students from the UK to
get into North Korea (going undercover as a University trip). The students said they hadn’t been
informed properly about the scale of danger they were putting themselves in until they arrived at
North Korea. You may think this is bad publicity for the Panorama documentary but it wasn’t. It
actually boosted the audience for the documentary because not only did the target audience and
audience want to see what was going on in North Korea but they also wanted to see for themselves
how the students had been used for the undercover filming in the documentary.
The documentary was aired on BBC1 at 8:30pm Monday 15th
April 2013. The TV channel (BBC1) was
the only choice of channel the producer had because their TV documentary series was funded by the
BBC. They could have gone with BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 ect but they all have less views than BBC1 which
is the prime BBC channel. Not to mention the fact that BBC1 is accessible by anyone with a TV and
TV licence rather than channels such as BBC3 or BBC4 which require a Freeview digital box set to
view them.
The chosen time of the day for airing the documentary was chosen very well because between 7pm
and 9pm is prime viewing (most amount of views at once for TV channels) time for TV on weekdays.

3. The main reasons this documentary was aired at this time of day was firstly because the target
audience for the documentary was a mature aged group (16+ anyone below would be bored, not
fully understanding what was going on). The second reason this time was the best suited time for
airing the documentary is because everyone has come home from a day at work (finishing usually at
5:30-6:30 pm so they can sit down in front of the TV.
Walking with dinosaurs:
Walking with Dinosaurs is a six-part documentary television miniseries that was produced by BBC,
narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The documentary
showcases prehistoric dinosaurs and uses visual animation to show (fake) footage of dinosaurs.
The target audience for this TV documentary is a young aged target audience (10+). Using the
Physiographic graph I would say that the target audience for this documentary series would be the
Explorers category which consists of people seeking discovery (for example, students, historians,
scientists’ ect).
The documentary producers were very clever in the way they captivated their target audience, they
and two mass target audiences watching their target audience. One being young aged individuals
(aged 10+). The other target audience being an older aged group of individuals (18+).
The documentary producers managed to keep a perfect balance in their documentary series to keep
both target audiences captivated. To keep the older audience captivated the documentary had
strong facts about dinosaurs included so it wasn’t boring theories.
The technique they used which I like the most (mainly because I have never seen this method used
in a documentary) was to make video animations of dinosaurs to entertain the younger target
audience and keep them captivated rather than looking at dull fossils and listening to boring facts
(which is how the younger target audience would have felt about it).
The first episode of the Walking with Dinosaurs documentary series was aired at 6pm on Saturday
16th
April 1999, and aired the rest of the episodes every next Saturday. The documentary series was
aired on BBC1 because of the same reasons as the Panorama documentary.
The chosen day and time for airing the documentary was great, because it was well suited to the
younger and older target audience. Most children aged between 10 and 14 are usually getting ready
for bed, if not already in bed at around 8pm, which is why airing the documentary at 6pm was best
suited for both target audiences. For example if they had aired it at the same time as Panorama
(8:30) allot of the young target audience would be in bed losing the documentary allot of viewers.
Saturday evening/ afternoon TV is the time when the highest amounts of people are watching TV, so
this was a well-chosen day for airing the documentary because its the best day of the week to reach
a peak amount of viewers. For example if Panorama documentaries were aired on Saturdays rather
than Mondays they would have a much larger audience and target audience watching them.

4. Audience Questionnaires
I asked 10 people who have watched both of these documentaries to fill in an audience
Questionnaire (times two questionnaires per person, one for each documentary).
Audience Questionnaire templates (used for both documentaries):
1: Do you feel that this documentary has
chosen the target audience that is best suited
to it?
Yes
No
2: Do you feel that this documentary has
made itself appealing to its target audience ?
is there room for improvement?
Yes
No
Yes, but room for improvement
3: Was the Documentary aired on TV at a
suitable time and day for the target audience?
Yes
No
4: Did the documentary market/ advertise
itself clearly enough if at all?
Yes
No
Yes, but room for improvement

5. Panorama North Korea questionnaire feedback:
Do you feel that this documentary has
chosen the target audience that is best suited
for it.
Yes
No
Do you feel that this documentary has made
itself appealing to its target audience? Is
there room for improvement?
Yes
No
Yes, but room for improvement

6. Walking with Dinosaurs documentary questionnaire feedback:
Was the documentary aired on TV at a
suitable time and day for the target
audience?
Yes
No
Did the documentary market/ advertise itself
clearly enough if at all?
Yes
No
Yes, but oom for improvement

7. Do you feel that this documentary has
chosen the target audience that is best suited
for it.
Yes
No
Do you feel that this documentary has made
itself appealing to its target audience? Is
there room for improvement?
Yes
No
Yes, but room for improvement

8. Was the documentary aired on TV at a
suitable time and day for the target
audience?
Yes
No
Did the documentary market/ advertise itself
clearly enough if at all?
Yes
No
Yes, but oom for improvement