A. O. Uchenunu

A Documentary film has become a veritable tool in the broadcasting industry, used to propagate and sensitise society towards social issues that must be understood and/or changed. As such this research studied how documentary films foster behavioural change in University of Benin students of Mass Communication Department. Its objectives were to assess the audience reception of documentary film, examine the awareness-creating capability of documentary films on social issues, to what extent documentary films have influence viewers attitudes on social issues and to ascertain if documentary film foster behavioural change among audiences. Survey research design was adopted and data collected using questionnaires and in depth interview. Findings established that documentary films made social issues understandable and have the capacity to expose audience to social problems they knew nothing about. Documentary film influences viewers' attitudes and perceptions on social issues by helping them understand problems through various perspectives and the study also showed that documentary films can foster behavioral change among audience, and sensitize society towards social responsibility. The study concludes that Documentary films are persuasive channels of communication that can affect attitudes, increase knowledge and instigate favorable behaviors among its viewers. As such, documentary films addressing social issues should be produced more frequently and distributed through appropriate media channels to sensitize society