Formal Proposal

Our chosen topic for our documentary will be - Social media effects on education. The
reason why weve chosen this topic is because we can relate easily to it as we have grown
up in a generation where we are constantly using technology and being introduced to new
technology, therefore it is a topic we have interest in as well as one we can relate to.
We shall be using a mixed documentary type, which includes interviews, observation and
narration. We chose to use this type as interviews and observations are very important
within a documentary to gather peoples opinions and it also helps us look further into the
topic. We shall be using a voice over as our narration rather than a presenter, as a voice
over fits in with a mixed documentary.
The genre we have decided to use is to inform our audience of the various impacts of social
media but also investigate further into these assumptions by interviewing experts and
filming voxpops with students. We shall also have some aspects in the documentary, which
will entertain the audience so that we keep their attention throughout.
Our target audience will be a wide target audience, as it will be aimed mainly at students of
school, college, university or any other type of education. The vast majority of students use
social media either on their phones or computers and this could therefore create an interest
for them to watch the documentary, as it is a wide and popular topic. Our target audience
will also include parents of students as they would be interested in the how their childrens
education is potentially being impacted. Teachers may also show an interest as they could
be experiencing the effects of social media on their students work in their jobs.
An ideal example of our target audience would be a 17-year-old female attending college,
currently doing her first year of A-levels. She uses her phone frequently to use social media
such as twitter and Facebook, and meets up with her friends every weekend.
Our documentary on the effects of social media on education will take a linear structure
where it will follow a timeline of events in chronological order and will have a cause and
effect narrative where an event or topic leads onto a topic about the effect.

Our chosen channel for our documentary will be ITV1, airing at 8:00pm on Monday nights
and finishing at 9:00pm. We originally chose 9:00pm for our starting time, but after
researching the prime time for TV slots in the UK, we found that 8pm-9pm received on
average 24,000,000 viewers, more than any other time slots.

For this documentary, we will need to conduct primary and secondary research in order to
receive the most valid statistics and views that we can find, making our documentary as
truthful, with the information we will be presenting, as possible. The primary research that
we will need to conduct will consist of self-report methods such as a questionnaire. The
questionnaire will be handed out to a sample group that fits our target audience, and the
information we will withdraw from it will help us base our documentary around what our
target audience prefers. The questionnaire will firstly ask about if they watch/like
documentaries and why, and will then go on to asking about how our audience uses social
media. These results will help us improve our documentary so that our audience will be
more interested as it will relate to them more.
We shall also need to conduct interviews with our experts a psychologist teacher, a media
teacher and an examiner. As these are experts, it will gain trust in the audience to believe
the experts are being truthful as they are professionals. We will interview them in their
office or classroom so that the mise-en-scene reflects their professionalism. We will also
need to conduct voxpops of students around college to find out views of the general public
and we shall film these voxpops in areas where social media is available e.g. the internet
caf. This will then constantly remind the audience of the aim and topic of the
documentary. Both of these will be important as they will help the audience conduct their
own opinion after hearing the opinions of the general public and the experts.

The secondary research we collect will consist of watching the news, reading news articles
online and reading blogs about effects of social media. We will also search YouTube for
videos relating to social media to see the effects actually happen. This could also represent a
wider part of the populations views.

Codes and conventions in a documentary are very important to include to keep the
audiences attention. Some codes and conventions that will be included in our documentary
are a voice over. This will narrate the documentary as events happen to add more
information and so the documentary makes sense.
We will use archival footage such as old interviews on the topic of social media to support
our argument and show it has been an issue for a long period of time. Background and
actuality footage will also be used to show the effects happening in the present, in college.
The use of texts and titles will be important when interviewing our experts or conducting
our voxpops to show who is talking. Giving the experts a title will also emphasize their
professionalism.
Background music will play when there is no speech or audio from a video playing. This is so
the documentary is more interesting and doesnt become boring for the audience to watch.
Finally, exposition shall be included when introducing important background information. It
will help us to explain our theory and support our argument.

There will be a number of resources required for the making and planning of the
documentary. We shall need a camera and tripod to record our footage. Our phones on at
all times so we can communicate effectively within the group about tasks set. We will need
risk assessments for each area that we record in so that we know how to avoid any risks,
and a reccee list to keep track of where we shall be filming.