Audience Research

Welcome to the audience research stage, this is where you will find all research that informs my understanding for the audience and how to meet their needs. This will include looking into relevant theories and performing primary research such as surveys to identify who is most interested in my product. The audience research is vitally important as without there being an audience to create the product for, there is no point in the product, especially as I am creating it to educate an audience.

Who is my audience?

To begin the audience research stage, I am first going to have to answer ‘who is my audience?’. Understanding who my audience is, is vital when producing any type of media product because without an audience, there is no purpose for the product. A hypothetical scenario to explain this is someone designing and creating red boxes, but everyone only wants blue boxes; without a consumer, there is no purpose in the product. This is the same idea when it comes to filmmaking, there needs to be someone at the end of the pipeline to consume the product if it is to have any purpose.

The idea of purpose is particularly important for my idea because, with it being a factual documentary, I intend on educating my audience on the subject – if there is no audience then this is not possible. To explain my purpose for the documentary further, with it being a fairly new disorder, I want to educate people who do not know anything about it. My goal and ambition in this documentary is to appropriately represent those with misophonia as I would feel very unaccomplished with myself if I was not able to do this: if it cannot be used and have real world purpose, then what was the point in making it?

Returning to the idea of audience, and the importance of it, by using my understanding of the purpose of my documentary, I can confidently say that my target audience is very broad. The documentary is aimed at helping those who have either never heard of misophonia or want to learn more about it. Therefore, in terms of the demographics of the audience, it will not be gender specific and will not target any particular income group or location. However, one demographic group that would be more specific is the age. The topic could be very sensitive to a lot of people, so I think it’s important that those who watch it are mature enough to understand the topics being discussed. Therefore, the minimum age I would advise to watch my documentary is 16.

It's important to note that I am aware ‘research indicates it’s most likely to develop in the early teen years’ meaning I understand that it may be useful for those who have developed it an early age to understand more about it. However, I do have the creative dilemma where I want to include triggers in the recreation scenes to showcase the emotions that those with misophonia feel when triggered but it would mean it’s not suitable for this with misophonia to watch. It’s an awkward situation that I think should be looked into further within my research. My current thoughts are that I think it would be more suitable for parents and carers to watch this documentary so they can understand what their child is going through.

Getting back to understand the target audience, now I have understood the minimum age, I now have to look at the maximum age. Due to misophonia being a new disorder, the adults in our current generation may have lived their entire childhood with misophonia and not understanding why they think the way they do. Being a child and not understanding why you cannot control your behaviour after hearing triggers would have been frustrating and confusing and as of writing this I cannot do anything but feel sympathy for what they had to go through. I hope to create this documentary so that when someone asks about their condition, they do not have to explain it every time, they can instead direct the person asking towards this to answer all of their questions – I’m making it for the kid they used to be. Therefore, I don’t think there is a maximum age for the documentary and the target audience is 16+.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Through understanding that the aim of my documentary is to educate the audience, I am able to confidently say that my audience would fit into the surveillance category of Bulmer and Katz’s uses and gratifications theory. The uses and gratifications theory states that an audience member is actually searching for a type of media to fit their needs and that specific time. There are 5 different categories that an audience member can seek for, these include: surveillance; entertainment; personal identity; integration and social interaction; and escapism.

Surveillance – this category suggests that the audience are watching to inform something or educate themselves on a specific subject. This fits perfectly with my documentary, as I am aiming to inform the audience on a the subject of misophonia through the use of personal stories.

Entertainment – this category suggests the audience are watching for enjoyment. An example of this would be to watch a game show or something they have a personal interest in, such as a sport show.

Personal Identity – this category suggests the audience are watching to gain a sense of relatability. The media product will have characters with similar characteristics to the audience, meaning they are able to connect and relate to what is happening on screen.

Integration and social interaction – these media products have the ability to spark a conversation between people. An audience member will engage with these media products with the intent of having social interactions with other people. A great example of this is online gaming, as people with play games with their friends online. Furthermore, an entertainment talent show may spark conversation because of personal opinions, ‘who was the best singer?’.

Escapism – this category suggests the audience are engaging with this media product to escape from reality. The media products may be entirely different to their own lives so they can imagine themselves in the lives of those on screen.

After looking through the 5 different categories of the uses and gratifications theory, I actually think that my audience would fit very well into the personal identity category too. My documentary is going to include personal stories from those with the disorder, so if someone watching these interviews doesn’t know they have misophonia, or someone close to them is watching, they might be able understand what they possibly have. This is particular true as it is a newer disorder, so there are still lots of people who do not know what it is. I am glad I have been able to recognise this as it gives my target audience a broader range.

Now that I am in the position I understand why I am creating the documentary, and who it is for, I can move into the next stage where I plan on communicating with people who are affected by misophonia to understand more about how I can structure the documentary and what it may include. I have decided to do this because I think that this will help me to understand more about how I can appropriately represent people with misophonia. This is relevant to understanding my target audience further as if I can understand what content will be included, I can do a survey to ask the current target audience of 16+ year olds and refine this down to understand a more specific target audience.

Harvard References

Independent Cinema Office. (n.d.). Understanding audiences. [online] Available at: https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/advice-support/how-to-start-a-cinema/understanding-audiences/#:~:text=The%20key%20to%20making%20a

Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). Misophonia: What It Is, Triggers, Symptoms & Treatment. [online] Available at: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24460-misophonia.

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What topics do the potential audience want to see included?

I have decided that the next, most appropriate, step to take in the audience research stage is to communicate with those who have been affected by misophonia. I think it’s important to speak with these people as they will have personal knowledge on the subject that I think it’s vital in appropriately representing those with it. To do this, I am going to create a survey that will be shared with those affected by it. The survey will be focused towards learning more about the contents they would like to see in the documentary. I will discuss the questions I included within the survey further momentarily.

To find those affected by misophonia, I will be using misophonia specific facebook groups. These facebook groups have strict rules and are all private, so I will have to send in requests to get in. The journal entry below showcases my journey of getting into the groups:

19/02/24

On Monday morning, I decided to return to Facebook to see if I had any responses from my requests. To my surprise, I had 5 out of 6 responses which was great news. The groups I had responses for were:

Misophonia: Coping and Solutions - 14.6k members

Misophonia Treatment and Management – 9.8k members

Misophonia Help Group/Support – 1.0k members

Misophonia International Support Group – 1.8k members

Misophonia Support Group – 2.8k members

With a total of 30 thousand members to ask questions to, I am in a great position where I have a huge group of people across the globe that all have their own personal viewpoints and opinions on the subject matter I am looking into. I can ensure that this research is genuine because of the fact that the group is private, and only those accepted by administrators are allowed to be included. Furthermore, the rules of the groups are all quite strict which helps to create a safe environment.

Now that I had access to the misophonia groups, I then went on to produce a draft post that I would send to all of the groups. The draft post can be seen below:

I am a 17 year old media student producing a misophonia documentary for my second year college production.

Since being at college, my younger brother has developed clinically severe misophonia and I have realised how much of an effect it can have on those with it, and family/friends around them.

I have come here to ask what you would like to see in the documentary. I am aware of the lack of representative media online so would like to produce something that represents those with it appropriately.

When creating this draft post I tried to keep it as concise as possible but also give a little background information as to why I am asking them to give me their feedback and opinions. I think it’s important to give that bit of feedback as it makes me seem ore honest and open to the situation I am in. Furthermore, I also hope that the fact I also have a personal experience with misophonia will help to make me feel more connected and a part of the group.

After producing this draft post, I then thought about how the members might want to respond to me. As it would be a facebook post, they can comment in the comment section, but I think it may also be worth creating a google forms that gives them specific questions to answer if they find it hard to give general feedback. The google forms questions I came up with can be seen below:

After posting on all of the Facebook groups, to gain more results for my research, I thought of the idea that I could also post on Reddit. Reddit is a blog posting website that has groups, similar to the idea that Facebook has.

20/02/24

Another reason as to why I decided to post on Reddit is that the audience demographic on this site is much younger than those on Facebook. Businessnewsdaily.com states that ‘Many marketers say Facebook is the most valuable platform for reaching an older demographic’, where as oberlo.com states that ‘Reddit is the most popular among users aged 18 to 29’. The reason I want my survey to reach as many people as I can is because I want to see what different ages have to think about misophonia. If I am to represent those with misophonia appropriately, I have to represent both the young and old.

Havard References

Lin, Y. (2020). 10 Reddit Statistics You Should Know in 2020 [Infographic]. [online] www.oberlo.com. Available at: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/reddit-statistics.

‌Morrison, S. (2023). How to Target Older Demographics Using Social Media. [online] Business News Daily. Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10146-target-older-demographics-social-media.html.

Survey Questions

I decided upon asking this question because it’s straight up and simple, getting to the point I want to make; what does someone who is affected by misophonia, either personally or through a relative/friend, want to see within a misophonia documentary? I don’t give them too much guidance within this question as I want to hear their, what is essentially, an initial reaction to my documentary idea. What this question will do for me is reinforce the choices I make when determining what questions I will ask my interviewees and have them respond to. I think it’s a powerful and sensible choice for me to ask those who are affected by it most for help on this journey of production. The ultimate goal is to create something that is representative of those with misophonia, both mild and clinically severe, so I hope that the results from this answer will help to inform topics/areas that they actually think should be addressed to and talked about.

I have decided to ask this question because it’s more specific, and still informs the content I would be including. It’s worth saying that there is chance the commenter mentioned mis-representation in the previous question, so I have made it so that none of the questions are required – they can skip any question they like if they feel as if they have already said that in another answer. Furthermore, I also think it makes the survey more enjoyable, not pushing people to answer every question if they don’t want to (particularly on a possibly quite sensitive subject). Returning back to the question, I like this because if I can understand and learn what areas they do feel mis-represented in, I can make these main talking points within the documentary.

I have combined these two questions into one summary because they aim to get the same result – learning more about what people who suffer from it think of the help they are able to get from specialists. From my brief knowledge on the subject I understand there is not a lot of specialists in the country, and it's often that doctors, nurses and GP’s will have never heard of it before. I am looking to gather results that hopefully back up my understanding on the subject matter.

As I am making a documentary where I will be representing others, and not myself, I will have had to fully understand what they go through for me to do it appropriately. This question aims to understand how they want to be represented and perhaps why too. This will make a big impact on the contents of the piece as if they could respond in two ways: they are just normal people with a difference and should be represented as anyone should be, or that they would like to expressed and represented very ‘full on’ to show the realism and therefore gain sympathy from that.

I hope that the responses I receive from these questions will help to inform the content choices I make for the production. With the limited time availability I have for the production (~10mins), it’s important that I make the right choices for what is included.

Interpreting Survey Results

Question 1

The first question asked was ‘what topics would like covered in the documentary?’. The goal here was to learn what those who are affected by misophonia, want to see within the documentary. The question is broad in the sense that I only ask for the general topics, as I wanted to ease the respondents in, not pushing them to say anything too personal.

After a quick scan over the responses I received, I kept seeing the same word, ‘relationship’. To see how many times this was said, I used ctrl F to search the page. I found that 15 out of the 62 responses included this word. Considering the fact that the respondents could have written literally anything as an answer, having nearly a quarter of the responses suggesting similar topics to discuss, it’s a no brainer that this is something that I should cover in my documentary.

Additionally to this, I personally also agree with this being a good topic to investigate: I know firsthand how it can tear a family apart, so I think it’s really important that I discuss it. My current thoughts on how I should discuss this is mainly through the use of the mother and son, asking them similar questions and getting their own personal responses. Being able to cut between their responses to see how they are similar/different could be really interesting to watch and learn in the doc.

3 responses including the word ‘relationship’ can be seen below. The first response states that they think ‘how hard it is to communicate about misophonia with people who don’t have it and don’t understand it’, is something that should be discussed within the doc. Lack of understanding is something I have been able to understand well through my research so far, this idea that no one understands I can imagine must be frustrating and annoying. This is backed up by the word ‘misunderstood’ in the second response. I think this would be really interesting to talk about with my interviewees, as the misunderstanding between people you love and the relationships you have around you is something that I think not only those with misophonia, but also those with other disorders too would like to be talked about and represented more.

The second area of common discussion I found in the responses was the idea that they want to see a clear description and explanation of what misophonia is, how it affects the person with it, and what going on in the brain. The responses here help to inform my decision to speak with a professional within the doc. The reason for choosing to have a professional to speak on the subject is that a professional, from the audience’s perspective is seen as someone with power and authority – they will listen to what they say and see it as the truth. This is important and it’s obvious how frustrating it can be to have to explain to people what misophonia is without the assumption ‘you’re just weird and you’re making it up or over exaggerating’. The use of visual effects may come in to play here when the professional discussion the emotions felt.

I found the response below interesting because of the terminology they used. The response can be translated to, ‘I think you have to know how to tell the brutal inner experience of the person with misophonia. Nobody has done it.’. The word ‘brutal’ perfectly highlights the emotion I think should be being explored in the documentary. It’s a very powerful and negative word which is why I was surprised to see it, but also think it captures what people feel. The term brutal suggests there is no remorse, them misophonia does not stop when you’re at your lowest points, it keeps on pressuring those with it every single day, for the rest of their lives.

Interpreting survey results

Question 2

This second question questions the areas in which they feel are misrepresented about misophonia. This will help me to construct questions and conversations that I can have with my interviewees. It’s important that misrepresented areas are discussed because we can turn them upside down, showing and telling the truth to everyone.

‘Severity’, ‘pain’, ‘anger’, ‘hurt’, ‘victim’, these are just some of the key terms I have picked up upon in the responses to this question. It’s really sad to see that these are the common areas, and often the emotions that those with misophonia feel on a daily basis because of how they are represented and seen by others. This is something really important to discuss within the doc, as despite it not being a topic of misrepresentation, it is the outcome and result of being misrepresented. This could be really powerful to discuss with those who have misophonia, as this could also lead onto personal experiences where they feel as if they have felt a certain way due to misrepresentation.

The next common answer was that misophonia is a real thing. What I have been able to understand is that due to the lack of knowledge for the disorder, the general public are often not understanding why people react in such a way. A comment I find interesting is, ‘people assume there is a broader issue than misophonia and have suggested certain activities and environments are not appropriate for my child’. What I can interpret from this response is that as a parent, they think that others assume their child has different disorders than they actually do. This links to the idea of it not being well known, as people will often state that the traits those with misophonia have are commonly associated with autism. Though its possible, and common for people to have traits of multiple disorders, this should not be assumed, particularly when the reaction misophonia can cause is very severe and unique to any other disorder.

Another response I would like to look into further is, ‘ill tell people im sensitive to sound and they’ll say “yeah I hate noisy eaters!” Its not just disliking sound, it’s being hurt by it’. This is something that I have discussed with one of my interviewees previously too, showing that it is definitely a problem that needs to be talked about. In fact, I will most likely discuss this with the interviewee I had spoken to, as she had some really interesting points I’d like to delve into deeper. The reason this issue is such a big problem is because of media. Media, in particular, news articles such as The Guardian have stated that ‘One in five people in UK suffer from misophonia, researchers find’ which has not been accepted by the misophonia community. Sure there are sounds that you may not like and they may cause you to feel angry, but to me, that is just part of being human. Misophonia, through the research I have conducted so far, is far more severe and unrepresented than it is.

The answers I have interpreted have helped to guide my learning and understanding for the misrepresentation of misophonia. With what I have learnt, I can move forward into the preproduction section, knowing what topics I should discuss.

Question 3

The third question asks whether there is enough understanding about misophonia in general. I understood that this was a quite a closed answer when writing this, but I’m not too worried about this because at this point in time I am only assuming that there isn’t enough understanding. After a scan over the responses, and seeing the same two sequential letters, n and o, I am happily able to say that there is apurpose in producing the documentary. The idea was to spread awareness, and with this being agreed upon by the misophonia community, I can confidently move forward.

There was a particularly detailed response which I would like to look into further, this can be seen below…

This person states that due to the severity of their misophonia, they class themselves as ‘disable’. Along with misophonia, they also state that have ADHD. As previously discussed this can be quite common but should not be misrepresented. Speaking to a professional in my documentary will help to show that there are, despite only a few, people who are able to help and support those with misophonia. Considering the fact they say any doctor they go to doesn’t really understand it, I think this is really important.

Another interesting viewpoint they bring up is the idea that the lack of education is a by-product of gerontocracy (government based on rule by old people). As misophonia is an ‘invisible disability’ it is somewhat disregarded as not being as important. I understand this is just one person’s viewpoint and it is definitely controversial, but it is interesting to look at and discuss, especially when I understand other disorders relate to this ’invisible disability’ issue too.

Question 4

The fourth question is very similar to the previous one, except this time asking whether there is enough health/support. Once again, the answer was a very much in favour, ‘no’.

A particular response I received that made me quite sad was, ‘I am 62 and am too embarrassed to talk with any health professional about this condition’. No person, particularly at that age, should ever have to feel embarrassed about something they cannot control. If someone at that age cant speak to a professional about it, I can just imagine how many younger people are too embarrassed to even talk about with friends/family. This is something that needs to change: why shouldn’t someone get the help and support they deserve?

Despite the over whelming response of ‘no’, there are two responses that stand out against the crowd, shining a small ray of run through the clouds. The first comment agrees that professionals do not know enough about it, but they do think that ‘if you have worked things out for yourself then there is a growing amount of information, podcasts, online support etc to access’. This is definitely true, as I know first-hand from my brother that there are places to access for help – one being the Facebook groups I used for sending out this survey. Though it’s not professional help, community help can be beneficial to a lot of people, particularly those who are just learning something new about themselves and discovering what they have. A lot of these support sites have advice on how to deal with, including lots of different coping strategies.

The second comment thinks that there is more awareness of neurodivergent disorders in general, meaning that the very common coping technique of using headphones or earbuds to mute/dampen sounds has become a lot more normalised. They state that ‘in the past it was seen as rude’, and I can agree with this because as technology has advanced, society and rules have changed, meaning wearing headphones is no longer seen as rude. I can use my personal experience to back this up: I am 17, and I do not think it is rude at all, I do just see as normal.

Question 5

Lastly, the fifth question asks how those with misophonia, or are affected by it through a family member/friend, want to be represented within my documentary. This could perhaps be seen as the most important question of them all as representing the disorder appropriately is the goal I have set myself since deciding upon this idea. I understand the limited represented media, particular even more now after questions 2 and 3, so want to create something that the community are proud to have that represents them.

To start with, a particular word, or words with similar meaning, that I saw kept on popping up in the responses was ‘respect’. Respect is such a strong word that I think if everyone in the world had just a little more of it, the world would be a much better place. What I can interpret from why they have used the word respect is that they are human too, and just as anyone else would like, they deserve respect and consideration.

The use of the phrase ‘prisoners in our own body’ helps to highlight the agony and suffering those with misophonia have to go through. Its something they can’t control and are stuck with forever, the bars stopping them from getting past. Thismetaphor is amazing, and as I think about it more and more I can visualise certain visual effects I might be able to do that play on this phrase. Pairing with that, the phrase, ‘we want a normal life with friends’, is something I can relate to very much as my brother, since having misophonia, and being a prisoner of his own body, has since lost contact with friends and has caused him to be very lonely. This isolated feeling adds to the prisoner he feels. This is a very powerful andheartbreaking statement, and is something I should be thinking about moving forward with my production.

Just as the top comment states, I also found a lot of people saying that they want the pain they go through to be seen so that their peers or jus the general public can literally see and hear what they have to go through. This is quite difficult to visualise, because despite it being an audio-led disorder, the anger it can spark can lead to physical changes such as high blood pressure, change in breathing pattern and more. Playing with these physical experiences they go through could really help me to accurately portray misophonia through visuals.

Though this survey has been helpful in informing my content choices, I have chosen to put it in the audience research section because it is research from the potential audience. Additionally, though I understand the documentary will have triggers in, meaning those with misophonia will not want to watch it, there are also relatives/friends responding to the survey too, so I believe it's appropriate to place it here in the audience research.

I have been able to learn a lot through the interpretations of these results, as it has been great to hear such detailed and informed responses. I am very glad I took my chance at the opportunity to share it with a community of people related to the topic, as not only did I receive good responses, but the general feedback towards the creation of it has been so positive. I think this shows how desperate they are as a community to be appropriately represented, so I truly hope I can make something of use. The idea that I am representing a community will help push me along all the way to the finish line of this production.

General Audience Survey Questions

I have decided to produce a 'General Audience Survey' because it allows me to understand more about more possible audience. It's vital that I am able to get some feedback on more general objectives for the documentary so that I am able to confidently move forward knowing I have a wide audience that are wanting to watch what I produce.

Below you will find all of the questions I ask in the survey, with reasonings as to why I am asking them too.

The images above show the first 3 questions of this survey. I have decided to group them together like this because they all aim to provide me with the same thing: who am I getting this response from?

Understanding their age, gender and a little information about who they are helps me to understand what my potential demographic is. I have discussed previously on this page that my intended audience is wide, so they are intentionally not specific questions. It's important to know whether that if someone says something I did not expect, I can understand a little about them and understand how what they said might correlate to their age, gender or how often they watch documentaries.

This question will help to inform the creative decision I make to how I am setting up the documentary; what mood am I trying to create? Though I understand that my topic is very serious, the way in which I discuss the topic with my interviewees will make the documentary feel very different. If it's a very chatty conversation between me and the interviewee, it may feel very relaxing and interesting to watch. However, if it is a serious and more formal conversation between me and the interviewee, the interviewee may feel more inclined to speak about negative problems they have faced and his will have an effect on how the audience feel watching.

This question will help to inform the creative decisions I make for how I shoot the interviewees and what I will primarily discuss in them too. The selections the respondents have are all common conventions or elements that you might expect in a documentary interview. Some of these points go against each other, some are stand alone conventions. It will be interesting to see if there is a particular point they would like to see, or if it will be spread evenly.

To me, this is one of the most important questions: it helps me to understand whether my documentary is worth making. With what I have learnt in the previous survey, I am aware of the lack of representation and how it is not understood, so it will be interesting to see whether the general public have ever heard of it. The point of the documentary is to spread awareness about it, so my hope here is that the larger percentage says 'no'.

This question asks whether they would be interested in watching the documentary, and questions them as to why they say what they think. It's important to ask why here, as otherwise I am preventing myself from gaining qualitative data, leaving me with only quantitive data. I am hoping that this question will lead to some good explanations so even if they do say no, I can understand why they do and perhaps make changes to suit them. I will be able to use their answers from the first 3 questions to understand a little about who they are, which may be important when thinking about the demographics I'm trying to target.

This question simply gives the respondents a chance to write anything they would like to say. I realised my mistake of not including this within the last survey, so have ensured I did it this time.

Interpreting General Audience Survey Results

Question 1, 2 + 3

The reason I have decided to interpret these questions together is because they all aim to provide information on who is taking my survey.

As you had seen in the creation of my questions, I have a question stating, would you watch my documentary. If everyone there were to respond to that question saying ’no’, they how would I know who’s saying no? I need to know so that I can direct my product at an audience who would want to watch it. Furthermore, what could I change so that I can target that audience that is responding to the survey. Without these 3 questions, the rest of the survey, and the interpretations I could draw from it, would not have the same impact as they otherwise would.

To start with, the age range is dominated largely by 16-25 year olds, this is because this is who I was mainly able to share my survey with. Though it seeming overly dominated by this age range, I am actually happy with the diversity I was able to get, particularly the 25% of 36-50 year olds, as this is not something I was able to get in previous formative units.

The gender split is fairly even, with a ~60%-~40% split in favour of females. This I am happy with because it is not completely one-sided.

The third question helps me to understand a bit about who I am listening to in the survey. With ~50% saying that they watch a documentary every 2-3 months, I think its clear to say that the majority do not watch a whole lot of documentaries. This means that it is important I entice them in with the content, rather than the idea of ‘being a documentary to watch’.

Question 4

What I am able to interpret from the results here are that the documentary style does not inflict upon whether the audience are willing to watch it or not. There is an even split between the two styles, with 12.5% each, and a large percentage of 75% stating a mixture of both is good.

I suppose what is interesting is the idea that I could and should be mixing the styles together, creating for variety within the doc. This is definitely possible for me to do because as I am in the interviewee, I have control over the conversation; I can direct the answer to what I want. This means that depending on the question I ask, and how I address it to them, I can receive a different style of response. An example of this is if I were to ask about their personal experiences regarding people’s opinions of them after they are triggered and cant control their reactions – this would be a very serious chat and if I am effectively able to control the conversation and push it in the way I want to, could lead to being quite in depth too.

Question 5

This question discusses the sort of conventions/topics included within a interview, asking which of them they find engaging. The most selected, with nearly double the selections as that in second place, was ‘personal, real-life stories’. This is absolutely perfect and perhaps the best response I could have had to this question: it fits in well with my idea for the documentary. I can assume that as the description of the documentary was at the top of the survey, and this is a survey directed towards my survey, their answers are in favour of supporting the idea. Therefore, this is why I think this answer was selected so highly. Hearing this response to the survey question suggests to me that my idea to delve deep into personal stories and experiences.

The second most selected response is ‘exclusivity – information not heard before’, which sort of ties in with the idea of personal stories, so this is positive to my idea too. I suppose, with the current assumption, and what I was able to learn in the previous survey that misophonia is not well known, any information I discuss within the documentary will be information they have not heard before.

The least selected response is ‘only seeing the interviewee’, having 5 selections. ‘Seeing the interviewer interact with the interviewee’ has 11 selections, meaning that its possible I may need to consider with my decision of not being a part of the documentary I made in. Despite this, it must be understood that I am the filmmaker, and I ultimately have the decision to overrun the thoughts of my potential audience. Furthermore, I have a greater understanding for the documentary I want to This is something to think about further, but should definitely be thought about to ensure that I make the correct decision – I need to address the target audience.

Question 6

Despite a larger quantity of people saying ‘no’ I have not heard of misophonia before, and this being the answer I was hoping for, the yes percentage is larger than I thought it would be.

I think the reason behind this is that I only sent the survey around to people I know, and those that know me well, will know that I have a brother with misophonia. Therefore, I do not think this a fair test that shows if the general public have heard of misophonia or not.

With the answer still being ‘no’, I am still happy because it shows there is a purpose for producing the documentary, but I do feel that if I got a larger number of responses, particularly from people who do not know me, I would have got a more accurate response.

Question 7 + Reasoning

This question is perhaps for me, the filmmaker, the most important question to get the response I want. It asks whether they would be interested in watching documentary or not after reading the description at the top of the page.

Luckily, the response from this question was very much in favour of ‘yes’, with ~94% of respondents suggesting they would be interested in watching the documentary. This is great news, as with the information I was able to learn at the start of the survey results, I am able to understand that a whole array of age ranges, genders and those of who watch documentaries in varied quantities, are wanting to watch the misophonia doc.

With this, it was also important to ask why they would/would not be interested in watching. To begin, I will be looking at some response as to why they would like to watch documentary.

The main response I am getting back and seeing a lot of is ‘to be more informed’ or ‘because it sounds interesting’. This shows the lack of knowledge towards the subject, and by delving into the personal stories idea, with the use of the professional viewpoint too, I am able to educate an audience. It is great to hear that they are on board with this concept and idea as it means that what I am creating has an audience who are willing to watch it for the right reasons.

The responses from this give me great confidence in progressing with this idea.

I will now look at the responses suggesting why they would not want to watch the documentary. There were only 4 responses here, so I will go through them all.

The first 2 responses suggest very similar reasons, which are both valid and fair. The first says they are ‘not in to watching many documentaries’ – if you don’t like watching documentaries as a whole, I think it’s fair to see why they would not want to watch mine. The second says ‘I prefer to watch true crime documentaries’, which shows that the genre of my documentary is not right for this specific person.

To understand the demographic of these people, I looked at their responses to previous questions. Commenter 1 is a 16-25 male who watches documentaries every 2-3 months and likes nature documentaries. Commenter 2 had the exact same characteristics apart from liking nature documentaries specifically. Seeing that the age range of 16-25 and watching documentaries every 2-3 months had thelargest percentage, it can be seen that these 2 respondents are anomalies to the norm. There is always going to be a few people who go against the trend, because we are all human and all different. In the position I am in, I have to accept their opinions and essentially ignore them, because using the trends I have been able to learn, I understand that 16-25 males who watch documentaries every 2-3 months want to watch my documentary.

The 3rd response suggests that it could be upsetting, which is definitely true considering it can be quite a sensitive subject to talk about. This is one of those documentaries where I am looking for subjects to open up and talk about their personal experiences/stories, so I do actually want it to be quite upsetting, hence the targeted age demographic of 16+ I have talked about within this audience research.

Question 8

There wasn’t too many responses on this question, which I expected considering the fact it is just an extra place for people to add any information they’d like. The main answer I got back from this question was that people are excited to see the documentary. This is nice to hear and makes me even more enthusiastic and determined for the creation of it.

A particular response I received that I like was, ‘education and awareness are fundamental to human development’. I liked this because it shows that a potential target audience member agrees with the purpose of producing the documentary. If we are to advance as humans and as a society, educating and making everyone aware about disorders others may have is very important.

Conclusion to Audience Research

This audience research has helped me to understand more about not only the audience, but also the content related to the representation of the disorder I am discussing.

Understanding who my audience is was the first step of this research section: without an audience there is no need for a product. Within this first section I was able to discuss the basics and parameters of my targeted audience, understanding a rough guide for who I was trying to make this documentary for. Additionally, I was able to use the uses and gratifications theory to help acknowledge why I was producing the product, and what that might mean for the audience. From this I was able to interpret that my product was for those looking to inform or educate themselves on a specific topic, or to personally identify themselves with the condition. As it is something not talked about or well known, the documentary could be used a way for those unsure about why they think they way they do, to learn something new. Along with this, it may also be useful for parents/guardians to understand what their child is going through.

From here, I reached out to the misophonia community and essentially asked what they would like to see in the documentary. I feel as though this was and is the best way I am going to be able to get the best out of the opportunity I have. More so, I want to accurately represent the disorder, so discussing specific topics they want to see will help to do this. The end product and what I was able to get out of this was really good and I am very happy with my decision to speak with those most affected by it – particularly as they, at this moment in time know more about the disorder than doctors do.

After learning what a potential specific audience group want to see within the doc, I asked a broader group of people for their thoughts too. These questions were far more general and broad as I understand I am aiming for a large target audience. The response from this section was good, but in all honestly wasn’t as handy as the first survey. This is because is the responses I was getting back from them didn’t really change much of my idea, they essentially just supported it. Not to say that that is a negative thing, it is just something I noticed.

After this research section, I feel far more informed about who my audience is and what they want to see in the documentary.