This study seeks to explore the factors influencing audience satisfaction of Chinese documentary programs among undergraduate students in Peking, mainland China. Viewership and preference for Chinese documentaries as well as satisfaction derived from Chinese documentaries form the informant’s social, culture, political, and environmental consciousness. Thus, the objective of this study is to ascertain the satisfaction of the audience derives from Chinese documentary TV programs and to understand informant’s preference for Chinese documentaries. The present study leverages on data was gathered via interview with 20 students as the informants residing in Peking mainland, China. Findings indicate that audience satisfaction of Chinese documentary emanates from students longing for a credible and up-to-date sources of information evident in the content of Chinese documentary programs. Additionally, their knowledge of events around them as well as their roots is further enhanced by their viewership of Chinese documentary programs. Further findings also suggest the uses and gratifications approach of media explains the audience’s perception, preference, and viewership of Chinese documentary programs.
Alfian, A., & Herdjiono, M. V. I. (2019). The application of documentary film in improving student interest: An alternative for environmental education. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 343, No. 1, p. 012156). IOP Publishing.
Assael, H. (1998). Consumer behavior and Marketing Action. (6th ed.). USA: South Western College Publishing.
Bagos, A. Z. H., Paz, J. I. M., & Vizco, H. S. R. (2017). Effects of Television Documentary on Communication Skills Development of College Students. Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 5(4). pp 22-31
Barrett, D., & Leddy S. (2008). Assessing creative media's social impact. Wilmington, DE, USA: Fledgling Fund.
Bieniek-Tobasco, A., McCormick, S., Rimal, R. N., Harrington, C. B., Shafer, M., & Shaikh, H. (2019). Communicating climate change through documentary film: imagery, emotion, and efficacy. Climatic change, 154, 1-18.
Chattoo, B. C., & Feldman, L. (2017). Storytelling for social change: Leveraging documentary and comedy for public engagement in global poverty. Journal of Communication, 67(5), 678-701.
Britannica Academic. (2017). Documentary Film, Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
http://academic.eb.com.ezproxy.arcada.fi:2048/levels/collegiate/article/documentaryfilm/30760 15.2.2017
Campolo, A., Sanfilippo, M. R., Whittaker, M., & Crawford, K. (2017). AI Now 2017 Report. Edited by Andrew Selbst and Solon Barocas, New York University, AI Now Institute.
Chauvette, A., Schick-Makaroff, K., & Molzahn, A. E. (2019). Open data in qualitative research international. Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18, 1-6.
Chen, Y., & Yang, D. Y. (2018). The impact of media censorship: Evidence from a field experiment in China. Retrieved, 24, 2021.
Creswell, J. W., & Hirose, M. (2019). Mixed methods and survey research in family medicine and community health. Family Medicine and Community Health, 7(2), e000086.
Cui, S. (2017). Chai Jing's Under the Dome: A multimedia documentary in the digital age. Journal of Chinese Cinemas, 11(1), 30-45.
Denzin, N. K., and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) (1994) Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Dowling, D. O., & Miller, K. J. (2019). Immersive audio storytelling: Podcasting and serial documentary in the digital publishing industry. Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 26(1), 167-184.
Eitzen, D. (2018). The Duties of Documentary in a Post-Truth Society. In Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film (pp. 93-111). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Flynn, S. P. (2015). Evaluating interactive documentaries: audience, impact and innovation in public interest media (Doctoral dissertation), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boston USA.
Fortner, R. W. (1985). Relative effectiveness of classroom and documentary film presentations on marine mammals. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 22(2), 115-126.
Gil, R., & Gutierrez?Navratil, F. (2017). Does television entry decrease the number of movie theaters? Economic Inquiry, 55(2), p.736-756.
Godlewski, L. R., & Perse, E. M. (2010). Audience activity and reality television: Identification, online activity, and satisfaction. Communication Quarterly, 58(2), 148-169.
Hecht, M. L. (1978). Toward a conceptualization of communication satisfaction. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 64, 47-62
Hecht, M. L. (1978). The Conceptualization and Measurement of Interpersonal Communication Satisfaction. Human Communication Research, 4(3): 253-264.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture and organizations. International Studies of Management & Organization, 10(4), 15-41.
Irving, M. J. (2015). Institutional Influence on Documentary Form: an Analysis of PBS and HBO Documentary Programs. (Master Thesis) University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Jacobs, R. (1995). Exploring the determinants of cable television subscriber satisfaction. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 39(2), 262-274.
Jenkins, H. (2012). Textual poachers: Television fans and participatory Culture. Routledge.
Jones, J. P., Thomas?Walters, L., Rust, N. A., & Veríssimo, D. (2019). Nature documentaries and saving nature: Reflections on the new Netflix series Our Planet. People and Nature, 1(4), 420-425.
Karlin, B., & Johnson, J. (2011). Measuring impact: The importance of evaluation for documentary film campaigns. Journal of Media & Culture, 14(6),
Kim, J., & Rubin, A. M. (1997). The variable influence of audience activity on media effects. Communication Research, 24, 107-135
Li, Q., & Yang, Y. (2018). A comparative study of discursive constructions of Chinese smog documentary in Chinese and American news coverage. Círculo de Lingüistica Aplicada a la Comunicacion, (75), 205-229.
Liu, J. C. E., Huang, H., & Ma, J. (2019). Understanding China’s environmental challenges: lessons from documentaries. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 9(2), 151-158.
Liu, S. C. (2018). Environmental Education through Documentaries: Assessing Learning Outcomes of a General Environmental Studies Course. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 14(4), 1371-1381.
Macek, J. (2017). Traditional and Convergent Domestic Audiences: Towards a Typology of the Transforming Czech Viewership of Films and TV Series. Iluminace, 29 (2),7-24.
Mangold, W. G., & Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons, 52(4), 357-365
Mao, Y. (2011). Educational discourse in film: The history of Chinese educational documentaries. Frontiers of Education in China, 6(4),. 620-638.
Maxwell, J. A. (2019). Distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative research: A response to Morgan. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 13(2), 132-137.
Moura, M., Almeida, P., & Geerts, D. (2016). A video is worth a million words? Comparing a documentary with a scientific paper to communicate design research. Procedia Computer Science, 100, 747-754.
Oliver R. (1980). A Cognitive Model of the Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction Decisions. Journal of Marketing Research. 17(4), 460-469.
Palmgreen, P., & Rayburn, J. D. (1985). An expectancy-value approach to media gratifications. Media gratifications research: Current perspectives, 61-72.
Perse, E. M., & Ferguson, D. A. (1993). The impact of newer television technologies on television satisfaction. Journalism Quarterly, 70, 843–853
Perse, E. M., & Rubin, A. M. (1988). Audience activity and satisfaction with favorite television soap opera. Journalism Quarterly, 65, 368–375.
Podara, A., Matsiola, M., Maniou, T. A., & Kalliris, G. (2019). Transformations of television consumption practices: An analysis on documentary viewing among post millennials. Participants Journals of Audience Reception Studies, 16 (2), 68-82.
Qin, B., Stromberg, D., & Wu, Y. (2018). Media bias in China. American Economic Review, 108(9), 2442-2476.
Rahman, M. S. (2017). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language" Testing and Assessment" Research: A Literature Review. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 102-112.
Rajala, A. (2017). Documentary Film, Truth and Beyond: On the Problems of Documentary Film as Truth-telling. (Masters Thesis) Arcada University of Applied Science, Finland.
Robinson, L. (2013). Independent Chinese documentary: from the studio to the street. Springer, Palgrave Macmillan
Stollery, M. (2017). John Grierson’s ‘First principles’ as origin and beginning: the emergence of the documentary tradition in the field of nonfiction film. Screen, 58(3), 309-331.
Sun, W. (2016). The Image of China in a BBC Documentary and Chinese Audiences' Reception of it: The Case of The Chinese Are Coming (Masters Thesis) Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Ting-Toomey, S. (Ed.). (1994). The challenge of face work: Cross-cultural and interpersonal issues. SUNY Press.
Virulrak, S. (1983). Mass media, tradition and change: An overview of Thailand. Media Asia, 10(2), 101-105.
Westerstahl, J. (1983). Objective News Reporting. Communication Research, 10(3), 403–424.