Dissertation Proposal: The Million Dollar Chicken Shop Notes

Taken from The Million Dollar Chicken Shop

What is 'The Million Dollar Chicken Shop'?

Whilst undertaking research on which examples I can use for my dissertation, I came across the new documentary called The Million Dollar Chicken Shop. This documentary follows the life of those who work behind the major fast food-restaurant KFC. So, to see whether this would be a good idea, I took some notes to see whether this is a documentary which has been mediated or not.

Structure of the programme

Below is the structure of one of the episodes which I watched:

- Introduction: Brief Facts about the company
- Touches on where the best and the worst stores are in the UK
- The franchisers: Visiting one of their stores
- The inspector: Watching an inspection - seeing it fail
- The future in healthy eating: fighting the battle and finding healthy options
- With the staff: Showing innovative ideas
- New Ideas with the Franchise
- Testing new cheese
- Family fun day at KFC

Has it Been Mediated?

To judge whether it has been mediated, I also listed a few for and against points to see whether the documentary favours one side i.e. if it is against the chicken shop.

For

- Shows the happy working community from the staff and franchisee, directors, managers, etc
- How they all enjoy their jobs, and are motivated into maintaining its safety etc
- How all staff can get involved (from the staff meetings which are shown)
- Success and progression of the new meal, which furthermore shows more happiness from directors
  and staff
- Semiotics purposely used to reinforce this happy working environment: e.g. people hugging,
  smiling, laughing, etc (NVC)

Against

- Purposely show one of the shops failing an inspection, however can be argued for as they then pass
  the next test (showing progression)
- Interviews with customers who didn't like the look of the bbq pulled chicken however then shows
  good reviews (biased)

To conclude, I don't feel this documentary would be a strong example for my dissertation. This is mainly because it isn't very mediated - it doesn't set up a view which is either against or for KFC chicken. In a way it is reasonably biased: it does highlight the worst store in the UK and how it failed inspection however this contrasts against the happiness of the staff whom work there plus the future of the company.