Factual programme review

By Arran Spencer

Why is the notion of ‘truth’ so important to the news?

The notion of the truth is important because many people see the news as a trustworthy source. Many people will tune into the news everyday at 6pm and listen to the affairs of the world. If something has happened in Syria or to do with ISIS usually there might be some breaking news and it will appear on social medias before it gets to the mainstream news. Many people would wait til it has been mentioned on the news to help confirm what has happened. News programmes have a certain responsibility to provide correct news to us. This always comes down to the news show and what they choose to show and how they choose to portray the news.

How does the news relate the truth?The news relate to the truth because most people relate news to being trustworthy in the way that they will supply news to citizens of the country. This is used to keep people up to date on affairs around the world. The news relates the truth because if you was to ask people if you wanted to find out what’s happening in the world now they would say either Newspapers or the News. This has been their claim to fame for a while now being one of the world's highest news distributors. This is good for elderly people who might not know how to use the web or phones to find out the world affairs so the news and newspapers makes it easier for everyone to be connected and informed.

This image shows a news headline ‘A massive fire broke out’ people would believe this information is true and would listen to the broadcast to find out more information this is why people relate news to the truth.

How can the truth be altered in editing The truth can be altered in editing because you can leave out parts of the conversation. For example if someone is talking to another person they can wait til that one person listening could feel tired then yawn. Then they can piece it together to make it look like the person nevers shuts up and then it makes the other person seem like they are boring the other one. You can also cut part of the conversation out so this will shorten down the conversation which to some people makes them look like they rushed the words out. They can also use editing to cut sections out of news broadcasts for example when there is a two sided story after the first side of been said they could cut the other one out making the story biased or visa versa.

Channel 4 News

How are the participants or subject represented in the news extract you have chosen?

The participants in this news article are looking like they have lost everything since the war and fighting in syria is killing and blowing up homes and loved ones. The reason I have chosen this news article is because this news article is fairly recent. So there is still updates and etc being added to this story. There are lots to talk about with the Syria story like how they have chosen to come to the UK and there are lots of people who don’t like that they chose to come here. When they show images of the

Do any of the issues on your glossary exist in the news report?Some of the topics on the glossary are linked into this news article for example objectivity links into this news article since you don’t hear them say much but people are judging them on the way they are dressed and the way they look. This is a main way to get away with having the person say no words and still being to get a little knowledge about how rough they are living based on their clothes and this may seem harsh but it also saves time instead of interviewing everyone who they would interview. The image below shows what people would call a chav but infact he may of decided to wear different clothes or infact he may be a chav but you wouldn’t know because they never spoke to him.

Ethics, risk and adversary

What would you do if a subject reveals things to you that they later regret sharing?I would film the content of them revealing something then ask them so sign a form about sharing the content. If they refuse to sign the form then i would not show the content. If they go ahead and sign the form I would air the content. If they end up regretting the content to a point that it could come back to harm them then I would either blur his face so people wouldn’t know who it was who said it. All in all it depends on what the subject actually says and how severe it would be if it went on air. If the subject said something that was racist or discriminative I would beep the foul words so people would have an idea on what he said but it would not be on air.

What are the risks to the filmmaker when making these films?There are multiple risks that can occur when the filmmaker approaches a subject. If the filmmaker asks a question that the subject does not appreciate he could take it the wrong way and maybe attack the filmmaker. If you are doing a documentary in a run down area there is a chance that some people might try to mug them and take the expensive camera. There are lots of things that can risk to filmmakers health many of those being other people. If they go around asking the wrong crowd the wrong question it could end up bad for the filmmaker. If they was to go to a place like Syria to film a documentary there is a chance that they could lose their life as it has happened before.

When can there be risk and conflict between the filmmaker and subject?There can be lots of risk between the filmmaker and the subject for example if the filmmaker was to go into a rough neighbourhood and do a documentary on council estates they could find nice people there who are they because they are having a hard time. Or they could find the complete opposite and find a person who lost all their money by spending it on drugs and then they could harm the filmmaker or his crew that has come along or if they run into a gang there is a chance that they could get mugged by a group and lose all the equipment. There has been some times when filmmakers would go to places like Syria or Iraq and they would lose their life because of the amount of detail they went into on their respected documentary.

What are the risks involved in trying to tell a story that someone else doesn’t want to be told?

There are lots of risks involved with telling a story that others may of not wanted to be leaked online. If a person comes cleans they could admit to admitting crimes or could accidentally discriminate someone else that may not of wanted to be publically humiliated. There comes trouble to when they will openly admit something and then go ahead and want it not to be aired. If you tell a story someone doesn’t want to be told I would be very careful in what I say to make sure I dont say any names or use any faces off people so that they don't get into trouble this would make it easier on their behalf since it is just a story getting told not his/her story getting told.

DOCUMENTARIES

What factual programming have you chosen?The factual programmes I have chosen to review is the documentary following the well being of the staff and animals at SeaWorld, Orlando called ‘Blackfish’. The second factual programming I have chosen to review is the Louis Theroux’s prison documentary called ‘Behind bars’ Where he goes into a high maximum security where they keep the murderers, big time thief and the major pedophiles. In this documentary Louis talks to many people including a transgender and including some different crews around Jail. He spoke to a few thief's and some convicted murderers.

What are the main themes of the documentary. What are they trying to show.The main themes I have picked out from the two documentaries really is the bias methods used within the introduction of the ‘Blackfish’ when it shows interviews with people at the beginning of the documentary. It shows the people who are working there saying how they visited as a kid and saw the fantastic stunts the animals do and from there on out they trained to become a whale theory.

What tendency do the documentary have?In Louis Theroux behind bars he has a tendency to keep talking to the white inmates over the different races. He only speak to two different gangs and speaks to a lot of different people in the gangs and doesn’t talk or interview any of the other inmates. There are some tendencies that in Blackfish they only show Orcas when they have different animals inside the park. They also tend to just show one side of the lawsuit and we never heard anything from the Seaworld point of view of the events that was explained in the documentary. There are very little tendencies within the documentary but they do them little and often so you are able to pick up on them. When Louis Theroux finished his documentary many people thought and said how come there was very little interviews with black people.

What style are the documentaries?Blackfish - This documentary is hard to give it a type since it is mostly interviews with people and then they show the court cases and things that happened revolving the incidents. There isn’t any use f fly on the wall that I can pick out except for a few times when it would just show the park. They have used lots of factual information. Those are the only styles that I can find in the documentary.

Behind bars - This documentary could be classed as factual since it shows facts like how the people have ended up in Jail and it sheds some light on the subject. This hasn’t got any fly on the wall aspects apart from times where it shows people walking down corridors which they probably didn't know they was being filmed. So they have used 2 different forms of documentary styles.

What is the director trying to show in the agenda?I think that the producer had a vision of how he wanted Blackfish to turn out. He wanted to show one side of the story and then flip it round halfway through the documentary. At the beginning he makes Seaworld seem really happy and that it was the greatest place on earth. Then halfway through the documentary they flipped the perspective and made out that the theme park was evil and everything that happened there was evil. They made out that all the workers hated working there and that all the deaths that happened was all covered up. They didn’t let Seaworld say anything on the matter and kept all the stories one sided and never showed any arguments always just stories which people would then take as truth and believe every word that was said.

The Truth

Why is the notion of truth important?The notion of truth is very important because people mostly watch documentaries to be informed on thing, For example if a person wanted to learn some things on cow they could watch a David Attenborough documentary and watch him talk about cows this would be important because they are getting told information and most people do not like being lied to. It’s the same with the truth in news because people watch the news to be informed because watch the news specifically to be informed on the world's affairs to learn things that they wouldn’t of known if they didn’t watch the news. The truth in documentaries is just as important because people don’t wanna get lied to.

How can truth be altered in editing?The truth can be altered in editing in many ways. Some of the examples I have is say Louis filmed more interviews and he had 15 with white males and 10 with black males maybe all 15 could be used for the white male and they only use 1 black male this can give him the image of being discriminative this is an example of editing being altered. There are other examples like if two people are talking to each other I could wait for one of them to look interested and use that image for the beginning of the chat so it would make the other person sound boring and look as in they just keep talking and won't be quiet. There are variations of altered stuff in documentaries this can affect the final product dramatically.

The women in the video says that they hide loads of the story in the editing of the factual piece. She states that there will always be hidden pieces that never get shown to help alter the truth.

How are the subjects presented in the documentary you have chosen.In blackfish the subjects are shown very positively since they are telling their side of the event but it is making Seaworld and the other people who work there look very bad. In the Louis Theroux documentary it makes prison life seem good in a way. That it gives people 3 meals a day a roof over their head and they can have their own food to an extent. The actual prisoners make themselves look really bad they get told that they can leave and then they end up back in jail about a few months later which makes them look bad and not very nice people. It shows people shouting at the camera crew after they talk to a male who many believe is a child pedophile without saying he is.

How does filming relate to truth - (Nick Broomfield)The reason i have chosen to talk about the Nick Broomfield is because of the thing that happened with him when he filmed a women in Jail and admitted the camera was off when it was actually recording so it caught some discriminating behaviour. When she was in court she said a different story than what she told Nick. This is because people may not be fully honest if the camera was on thinking that if she gets off the hook then this could come back to bite her. People act different on camera then they do in real life. This relates to truth because of course if she knew the camera was on then she wouldn’t of told the truth but of course she did because she believed it was just her and Nick.

Do any of the issues on your glossary exist in the documentary.In Louis Theroux behind bars there are some uses of subjectivity with the people who he interviews. He interviews people with tattoos all over his head and seeing that person in public most people would find that scary to walk towards or around. That is a use of subjectivity because when he actually interviews him he seems like a nice person rather than a big scary thug but of course he would of had to do something to get put in one of the americas worst prisons. There is little use of objectivity since they can’t really have anything in prison and they also wear the same clothes so you can’t treat someone different on what the are wearing.