Conventions of Channel 4 Documentaries

Channel 4’s Mission Statement ‘Channel 4 will continue to encourage documentaries

with social purpose, personal authorship and an international perspective’

This extract from Channel 4’s Statement of Promises shows that Channel 4 sees the relevance of highlighting niche topics as they have the power to give a mass audience an understanding of lesser known subjects.

Niche Subjects Channel 4 often airs documentaries

which focus on very niche topics. They have a series known as ‘Three Minute Wonders’ which focus on very niche subjects.

A shot from a Three Minute Wonder on

street art

A shot from a Three Minute Wonder on

niche music

Three Minute Wonders helps to inform Channel 4’s mass audience of topics they wouldn’t normally study, possibly broadening their interests.

Internal Perspective As stated in their Mission Statement,

Channel 4 promise to show documentaries with an international perspective. This gives audiences a wider knowledge of topics they wouldn’t usually get to study.

This is an advert for a Channel 4 documentary on the 2011 Japanese Tsunami and Earthquake. This shows that Channel 4 are producing high quality documentaries on international affairs.

Productions Within Britain

Channel 4 also produces a vast amount of productions on British culture. As they are a British company, their audience will already have an understanding on their topics, meaning they can explore them in greater detail.

This production focuses on a figure of British history, meaning that non-British audiences may have initial confusion towards the production, but Channel 4’s British audience would already have at least a basic understanding of the subject.

My Production

My own production incorporates several of these aspects. Firstly, it focuses on a very niche subject, meaning it can give completely fresh information to almost everyone who watches it. Secondly, it has several connotations of Britain and the local music scene that may be difficult to understand for people who aren’t already familiar with these aspects.