gregory mclaney - unit g324 - evaluation - q2

A2 Media Studies – Unit G324: Documentary Evaluation

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

A2 Media Studies - Unit G324: Documentary Evaluation - Gregory McLaney

IntroductionWhilst creating the first five minutes to the opening of a documentary, we needed to produce two additional products for the ancillary texts. These products are a double page article for a TV listings magazine and a radio trailer. These products act as advertising methods to draw spectators for our documentary. With these products we had to develop stylistic, topic and audience connections to our documentary to enable the most effective combination and chance of appealing to our intended target audience.


Target AudienceThe intended audience for our documentary is middle/working class, aged 20-55 and mixed genders. Our documentary focuses heavily on to the price and time issues of having a healthy lifestyle and the effects of having a job or children. This makes our target audience slightly defined, yet still wide enough to focus a mass audience into viewing our documentary. The main focus of our documentary is ‘Health & Fitness’. However this topic focuses into the ‘modern times’ and ‘busy lifestyle’ aspects, and we want this to appeal to the adult audience’s. The only element in our target audience which we defined was the aspect of age, due to the topics being related to an audience generally older than 20+.

Through the demographics that society define characteristics, our documentaries target audience is only defined through age range. There is no particular race, ability, gender, location or religion in which define our documentaries target audience.

When establishing a target audience it can be effective researching into the psychographic profiles of an audience and the ‘4C’S: Cross-Cultural Consumer Characteristics’, this is identifying an audience based on their goals, motivations and values. These profiles include: ‘resigned poor’, ‘struggling poor’, ‘mainstreamers’, ‘aspires’, ‘succeeders’, ‘transitionals’ and ‘reformers’. When applying Young and Rudical’s theory of ‘4C’S’ to our documentary, it establishes a whole new angle on our target audience. The types that could be applied to our documentary are the ‘mainstreamers’, ‘aspirers’ and ‘succeeders’ – these three types fall in to one of the main normative segments of society called ‘The Middle Majority’. The main aspect which amounts to these categories fitting with our documentary are the ‘values’, the three values of this group are ‘social acceptability’, ‘status’ and ‘recognition’. All of these values relate directly to an interest in to gaining a fit and health lifestyle.


Magazine ArticleOur magazine article for a TV listings magazine, develops many features that relate directly to the documentary. The first being the stills used. We used three stills from our documentary, one taking up the majority of the page, and in doing this, immediately our double page spread has an effective link to the documentary. Next, we used several key words which create a predominant link to our documentary such as ‘hitting’, ‘health’ and ‘fitness’ – these are placed over the main image to create a strongsemantic field of energyand to portray ourdocumentary topic whilst creating an evident link toour actual documentary. Plus, in the magazinearticle there are various quotes from ourdocumentary which illustrates our research and in doing thiswe create an authoritativevoice throughout all products.


Magazine Article


The combination of products is further illustrated by having ‘Health & Fitness’ repeated four times on our pages, it is used in a still, for the title, date and time segment and in the sub article text. The use of repetition in our article is effective in linking the documentary title. The still used creates an additional link to our documentary and there is a clear and effective combination of both products illustrated. It is vital to add stills in to the article to enable an insight in to the documentary for the audience to visualize the topic, and in doing this four times in our article it creates a very prominent effect.

Magazine Article AudienceIt was essential to advertise our double page spread article in ‘Radio Times’, due to the readership of ‘2,227,000’ and being the third largest selling magazine in the UK. Plus, with a target audience of 15-44 it captures the majority of our age group (20-50), this is vital due to age range being the only defining aspect of our target audience. Plus, ‘Radio Times’ has a split of 46% men and 52% women as their readers, which is an almost balanced figure, which relates directly to our magazine target audience due to not defining a gender. Furthermore, a social classreadership of ABC1 is 74% forthe ‘Radio Times’ making a strong link to our social classmajority for our target audience, as our audience is working/middle class. Overall,the ‘Radio Times’ is a perfect magazine to advertise in due to the large readership, broad audience and broad topics and TV shows advertised.


Radio TrailerThere are several features in our radio trailer that relate directly to our documentary. Firstly, we use an upbeat, energetic and vibrant song, which is similar to the one used in our documentary, plus the atmosphere conveyed through the music creates an effective link between the products. Next, to create a further link between products, we used extracts from our documentary of the interviews and voxpops; this gives the listener an insight to the audio which will be illustrated in the documentary and with editing we made the dialogue intriguing and attention provoking for the listener. Furthermore, we used the same voiceover from our documentary in the radio trailer with similar dialogue, which develops a strong connection between the products. Similarly to the double page spread, we have illustrated the time, date and channel of the documentary at the end of the product. Putting this at the end creates the link between all three products in an ultimate attempt to provoke the audience to watch the documentary.


Radio TrailerThe use of particular extracts are effective in creating a strong combination of products. The first extract used is ‘The main way I keep active is by cycling’, this is a voxpop extract and allows the listener to gain an insight to an initial context. Following this there is an extract from a professional interview ‘Running would cost you nothing’, and an additional cut to a voxpop ‘Its quicker for me to microwave a meal I’ve done at the beginning of the week which is healthier’. All of these extracts create a foundation and intrigue the listener, which is the intended effect due to the following voiceovers and extracts revealing our topic. By using particular extracts and the same voiceover which we used in the documentary it creates an effective combination in products, whilst attracting the listener to our documentary.


Radio Trailer AudienceOur radio trailer is intended to be aired on ‘BBC Radio 5 Live’, mainly due to the fact that this radio channel is directly related to sports. Additionally, ‘5 Live’s’ remit states ‘The service should appeal to news and sports fans of all ages and from all ethnic background and areas across the UK’ –Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi/publication_scheme/classes/services/radio.shtml which definitely fits our intended target audience for our radio trail, due to sports and the broad target audience. Furthermore, over the past year ‘5 Live’ have been averaging weekly listeners of ‘6,200,000’, which is a massive figure and will mean our documentary will reach a mass audience and hopefully attract them to our main product. The radio trail works effectively with the double page spread article to create a combination of set target audiences and broad mass audience companies (BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio Times), which will lead to the highest possible awareness created for the documentary.


ConclusionOverall, the combination of the main products and the ancillary texts are very effective. Not only are the three products linked through stills, extracts, and similar atmospheres, but they are linked through strategically decisions of publication. We have decided to publish the documentary on ‘Channel 4’, the double page spread article in ‘Radio Times and the radio trailer on ‘BBC Radio 5 Live’. All of these publications have a very similar target audience which directly links to our intended audience, and in doing this it creates the most effective combination in products, which enables our double page spread article and radio trailer to advertise mass audiences to watch our documentary.


gregory mclaney - unit g324 - evaluation - q2

Education

documentary topic

documentary title

actual documentary

magazine target audience

magazine article audience

intended target audience

documentaries target

intended audience