Audience Theories

Some of the audience theories linked with a documentary are:

Hypodermic Needle Theory: This is the idea that the media and literally injecting a certain idea into the viewers head. This means they can almost control what the viewer thinks and believes about the subject in hand. They are able to manipulate the viewers to believe exactly what they want to them to believe by the way they portray something.

Uses And Gratification Theory: This is the idea that the media create the need they then fulfill. For example a documentary might make someone so interested in a certain topic that they then want to find out more and watch more documentaries. A documentary maker might be able to make a whole series by using this theory. One way it could be done is leave an almost cliff hanger at the end of one episode and if the viewer was interested they will almost certainly want to watch the next episode.