Generic Research: Websites Research MIND

MIND

Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales, offering information and advice to people with mental health problems. They provide support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem and campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding. They state on their website: We won't give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect.

They have a large and full website, with so much available. They have links for someone to talk to, urgent help, and donations at the top of every page.

What interests me, and what I find really powerful is the amount of 'stories' they have about personal experiences that people have had and chosen to share. I think that this clearly proves that they really do want to empower, and shows people they are not alone - and would be able to read some of these and probably be able to relate. Even if people on their website aren't personally struggling - they may have someone close to them who is, or just want to learn more, which is exactly what the Mind website is able to do. It provides great education on so many topics and even has a section dedicated to 'Training'.

Relating to my documentary, they also have lots of information on 'Physical activity and mental health'. This also supports that exercise plays an important role for mental health, as such widely known and important charities like this one are writing about it. On this page there is:

'Support for people wanting to become more active'

'Training: Mental Health awareness for Sport and Physical Activity'

'Our newsletters'

'Thriving at work: A guide for the sport and physical activity sector'

'We are undefeatable' (this is a campaign led by Sport England, the National Lottery, Mind and the Richmond Group of Charities)

'We've launched our Regional Networks'

'Mental Health Charter for Sport and Recreation' 

'Mind and the EFL are #OnYourSide' (increasing awareness within the football community)

'Support for Coaches'

'Our toolkits'

This is just the titles of the additional links they provide - only for physical activity. 

I found this article below particularly useful - and will especially refer back to it when producing my documentary, and may include a similar article or information like this within my website.

https://www.mind.org.uk/about-us/our-policy-work/sport-physical-activity-and-mental-health/

Generic Research: Websites Research Sport England

SPORT ENGLAND

Sport England are a 'non-departmental public body' that fund projects and other organisations small and large - helping people to get active. They have a page on their website about Mental Health (part of it shown below), including why they invest in it, how physical activity helps it, their partnerships, other resources and even case studies.

This article helps to fulfil the purpose of their company, as well as helping people around them, who could be struggling with mental health, or even just want to see the benefits physical activity can give.

I want my documentary to raise awareness about mental health and give people something they could try if they are struggling. Hopefully, the main story will be something that people could relate to, and see that they can get better if they feel like they can't.

The information in this article can help me in terms of factual pieces to give to the audience to show them reasons why exercise can benefit your mental health.

How physical activity helps mental health

There are various ways that physical activity helps mental health, including:

Improved mood

Studies show that physical activity has a positive impact on our mood. One study asked people to rate their mood after a period of exercise (i.e. walking or gardening) and after inactivity (i.e. reading a book). Researchers found that people felt more awake, calmer and more content after physical activity. 

For more information about the study, please see the Mental Health Foundation website.

Reduced stress

Being regularly active is shown to have a beneficial impact on alleviating stress. It can help manage stressful lifestyles and can help us make better decisions when under pressure. 

Research on working adults shows that active people tend to have lower stress rates compared to those who are less active.

Increased self-esteem

Physical activity has a big impact on our self-esteem – that’s how we feel about ourselves and our perceived self-worth. 

This is a key indicator of mental wellbeing. People with improved self-esteem can cope better with stress and improves relationships with others.

Depression and anxiety

Exercise has been described as a “wonder drug” in preventing and managing mental health. Many GPs now prescribe physical activity for depression, either on its own or together with other treatments. 

It’s effective at both preventing onset of depression and managing symptoms.

Revision of Pitch

When looking back at my original pitch and with all of the new and much more in depth research that I have now done, I realise that I could make it much more specific.
When writing that I was unsure on what to have the main focus of my documentary on - I knew that I wanted it about sports and horse riding just not enough.
Here is the link to my original pitch, where I explained how it would be able to meet the brief, how I can encourage audience engagement, and using digital convergence.
https://602216607.blogspot.com/2020/03/planning-pitch.html
However, as this documentary is for BBC 3 it needs to fit in with their previous documentaries and what you would be likely to see as part of them. After looking on their website and carrying out more research into this I decided that my documentary would be about a girls struggles with mental health, and how she coped with sports - in particular horse riding - helping her. I feel as though this may be a lot more relatable for some people and also interesting even if its not. Having a story will be much more entertaining and easier to watch and follow.
I also now think that voiceovers could be really powerful if included. For example I am thinking about starting the documentary reading out statistics that could shock people, and maybe interest them to want to watch more.

Audience Research Summation

What have you discovered about the leisure and media consumption habits of you target audience and in particular your focus?
When talking with my focus group I realised that all of them enjoy spending time going out with friends, and they all go out and socialise at least once a week.

How many times a week do you go out with friends?
Amelie: Other than seeing everyone at school, normally once maybe a Friday after school - because I work weekends.
Lauren: 3 or 4
Sam: 2 or 3
Alex: Around 2 or 3 normally

As my documentary is based around sports I also asked my focus group how often they spend a week doing physical activity of any kind and what they do.
Amelie: Everyday, with my horse every late afternoon/evening.
Lauren: 4 to 5 times a week, I love to go running and also the gym.
Sam: Around every other day if I can. Although I love exercise its hard to fit it in with Uni work and having a job, and wanting to see friends.
Alex: I love riding my horse as often as we can, and I go to the stables every single day. I also really enjoy cycling.
These are answers I expected from this group, and this is helpful to remember for my documentary when making it. I am thinking that I could include either in the main video, or a separate section as part of my website about how to manage your time, or how the star was able to cope with sports and socialising, and struggling with their mental health. I would like to do an article based around this.

In terms of media consumption they all also spent a lot of time dedicated to social media, and on their phones. When I asked what device/form they use the most it is being on their phone, and the most popular social media said was Instagram. I also asked older members of my family which they use just to get a general idea of the secondary target audiences interests - and they also said the same (with a few saying Facebook). This well help me when creating my product as I am now able to see that there is an overlap for users of Instagram and my 16-25 target audience. I can create an Instagram page for the star of my documentary and link it on my website as well, possibly the end of the documentary as I know this is the most popular social media for my audience - and even for those out of this age range.

Generic Research Summation

These are some ideas that I am planning on using in the production of my documentary - shown in a mind map, along with the reasons why.

Audience Research: Focus Group Questions

What is your favourite genre of documentary?
Amelie: I love documentaries based around the natural world, whether that be in the water or land. For example I am fascinated by blue planet and how you get an insight into many animals behaviours we wouldn't see normally.
Lauren: My favourite genre of documentary are ones based around peoples lives. For example, I really enjoy watching Stacey Dooley's series as I find it interesting to have an insight into other peoples lives and different ways of living.
Sam: I'm into crime documentaries, like ones about serial killers - mainly because I find them interesting. I also like nature documentaries, mainly David Attenborough ones also because they are interesting to me.
Alex: My favourite type of genre is ones based on true life stories and murder/crime. Also equestrian ones about training techniques. For example, rich kids go poor or smugglers, also anything Stacey Dooley does as she asks straight very off the cuff questions and gets truthful answers she wants.

How often do you watch documentaries?
Amelie: Multiple times a week, sometimes I will rewatch old ones that i particularly enjoyed.
Lauren: I watch at least one documentary a week.
Sam: I tend to watch documentaries a couple of times a week.
Alex: Whenever I see something that interests me, if it catches my eye then I will invest my attention.

What platform do you watch them on?
Amelie: Netflix, National Geographic or BBC iPlayer.
Lauren: Depends what documentary but normally Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
Sam: Mainly BBC iPlayer and Netflix
Alex: BBC iPlayer, Crime Channel, Horse and Country.

Have you ever felt like a documentary impacted you?
Amelie: Completely, on Netflix there are 2 documentaries called 'chasing coral' and 'chasing ice' - they both look at the impact of global temperatures on different habitats by using camera that take photos of the same location everyday for months and evaluate how it really impacts humans if we don't start changing our behaviours.
Lauren: Definitely. Especially mental health documentaries - for example I loved Jesy Nelson's documentary Odd One Out and it really impacted the way I look at celebrities, and found it reminded people that what you seen online isn't everything - nor is it always realistic.
Sam: I think I was impacted the most by a documentary on Netflix about the Russian filing scandal and how easy it was for them to get away with it, it really highlighted to me just how bad the scandal was and how corrupt the Russian government are in their attempts to win and later cover it up.
Alex: Yes, particularly the equestrian ones as I like them to try the techniques demonstrated and different exercises to see if they could work for me. (So it impacts my horse as well!)

Generic Research: Textual Analysis 2

The web page for the Odd One Out documentary includes many aspects for promotion, and also demonstrating convergence. Underneath the actual documentary is a 3 paragraph description of what it involves.
As you scroll down you can also see the music played which is all linked. I find this interesting as even though this documentary is about Jesy Nelson herself, they are still promoting Little Mix's music which is the band she is a part of.


I will take a few things from this web page that are useful, and would be good to include in my own. For example I think that the 'Broadcasts' section would be good as it could give it a more realistic appearance.




As you scroll down nearer to the bottom of the page there is a section for 'Mental Health on BBC Three'. This is very helpful for making my documentary as I can see both the range of documentaries that they have, and as well one of the easy ways they can advertise other documentaries available for people to watch.

When you click on the 'Mental Health on BBC 3', you get this page full of more documentaries on similar topics. I find it really interesting that they included this as it is almost saying to the audience - if you enjoyed this, then heres loads more you could watch - which is promoting themselves at the same time.
It also shows that they feel importance about mental health, and their target audience do/should too. The primary target audience for BBC 3 is 16-34 year olds, which is fairly similar to my documentary of 16-25 year olds, except mine targets a smaller bracket of younger people.

What isn't included on this webpage, which I would like on my own website is something about 'getting help'. For example website links for online chats, helplines, and even places to get more information.