Textual analysis
- 1. Can we trust the police? This is a documentary about police and whether people are able to trust them, the narrating/presenting is done by a well known actor from London, this documentary was produced and directed Max Shapira and funded by BBC in early June. I think the target audience for this documentary is from 15-25, I think this because it is being narrated and presented by Adam Deacon. Despite his age, Adam Deacon is looked at as more of a teenager than an adult; this has been portrayed because of the films that he has been in, which were all targeted at young people. From the clip that is shown on BBC iPlayer, it is evident that this is documentary is informal and targeted at more young people than adults, this is because of the way he is dressed and the way he is speaking. He is speaking quite informal and he is also wearing informal clothing which is jeans and a hat also. The fact that he is wearing jeans and a hat signifies that this isn’t meant for an older audience, this is because in documentaries targeted at older people the presenter would be dressed in professional clothing and wouldn’t be speaking in colloquial language. Also the fact that he isn’t in a professional setting, he is driving is quite informal also. Putting a documentary like this on BBC Three makes it clearer that this documentary was targeted at teenagers, as BBCThree is a teenage channel, which shows programs and documentaries that are for/relating to teenagers. This is mainly targeted at people in London; however it will appeal more to Hackney than anywhere else. One of the conventions they used in this clip was music; the music that they used was Labrinth, who is a teenage rap artist. This is a good convention to use as it is easy to appeal to your target audience, which they did. Another convention that they have used is cutaways, the presenter Adam Deacon is talking about a specific area within Hackney, and as he is talking about it, it cuts away to the area he is talking to; this is a good convention to use as it will give the audience a chance to see what exactly he is talking about. Adam also speaks about how when driving through Hackney he would see a lot of police and people getting stopped and searched, they then cutaway to a police which was driving down the road next to him. The style of this documentary, I think is investigative. Other conventions used in this documentary are expert opinion and interviews, Adam had a friend who previously had an incident with the police, this was useful for the documentary as it helped prove his point that the police may not be as trustworthy as people think. This documentary also contained expert opinion as the presenter interviewed members of the Metropolitan Police Service which gives the whole documentary a bit of balance. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00v0yd0
- 2. 16 and Pregnant This is a documentary about couples/girls who are in high school and are 16 and pregnant; this is also about how they cope with their school life, family life and also with being pregnant. This documentary was created by Nicole Dolgen, produced by Morgan Freeman and funded by MTV. The style of this documentary is Docu-soap. I think that this documentary is also targeted at teenagers, this is because every episode is narrated by a teenager girl, also whenever they are participating in the documentary they are always wearing bright clothes which will appeal to the target audience more as it is more fun and childlike. Also the titles in the documentary are all like scribbles and bubbly etc. This also makes it evident that the target audience is 15-18 year olds, mainly for 16 year olds as the title says ’16 and Pregnant’. The title shot is quite bubbly and colourful; it is also in a kind of diary effect which will appeal to the right target audience as some girls keep diaries. At the end of every series they use expert opinion; every ‘character’ speaks to a doctor in front of a live studio audience. I think the mode of address for this Docu- soap is informal as the ‘characters’ speak in quite colloquial language and they don’t dress professionally, they wear the normal kind of clothing that teenager’s wear. The clothing these ‘character’s’ wear are usually quite bright, this is makes it obvious that the target audience is for teenagers as for teenagers these colours are quite eye-catching and attractive. These are the sort of cutaways that are used in this documentary, and them being drawings makes it more appealing for the right target audience. This makes it more fun and more attractive for teenagers to watch. When watching 16 and Pregnant I could see that each episode is based around one specific ‘character’, that ‘character’ would be the narrator for the whole episode. A convention I saw that was used in 16 and pregnant was music, they play quite upbeat, bubbly music which teenagers listen
- 3. to. As this documentary is a Docu-soap it doesn’t have all of the conventions a typical documentary would have, for example it doesn’t contain vox pops, archive footage etc. Docu-soap’s wouldn’t need to contain these conventions as this documentary isn’t really investigating anything; it is more ‘a day in the life of’. As this the documentary is in this style they wouldn’t really need to have public opinion or archive footage as they aren’t investigating anything and wouldn’t have a point to back up.