Understand issues relating to factual programming for television/Understand codes and conventions of factual programming for television

Issues

Accuracy

Accuracy is really vital to any news or factual programme, you have to ensure that you have a programme that the audience can out their full trust in, it makes a more believable programme and is more likely draw a response. If you consistently feed false information your reputation with the audience will wear thin and eventually your trust and interest from the audience will die.

When watching a news provider or factual programme the audience are looking for facts rather than an opinion or something that may or may not true, sometimes that can be difficult for example with a news provider, when reporting on breaking news there are usually field presenters that will interview eyewitnesses, this the information you take from these people will usually be highly exaggerated and you can’t help but feed this to the audience.

Here is an example of a news team in America feeding the audience the incorrect information, they were reporting on a plane crash however the crash was actually a set from a movie that was being filmed, the news team was not informed and in accurately jumped to conclusions and mis-represented the story. 

When constructing a news report or factual programme, you must ensure you have researched extensively so you can ensure all of the information you are conveying to the audience is correct, when adding opinions into the mix more so with factual programme you must set the context and made it known that’s not fact it’s an opinion and try to make your opinion neutral instead is biased, unless you want to convey a biased message.

Accuracy is more important than speed; the audience will be happier with a factual programme that takes longer to make because they know the facts are more detailed and researched.

The presenters should take care to tell the whole truth and not exaggerate anything. “In the show ‘Supersize Me’ the presenter often states facts that are correct, however often over exaggerates things to make them seem ridiculously bad making him inaccurate, biased and subjective towards fast food”

Balance

Balance means having a factual program that has a balanced argument, both sides of the argument is fairly presented and fought. When investigating a topic or debate on a programme such as the news and programmes watched by a mass and diverse audience you should always ensure both sides of the debate are represented equally. With most factual programmes such as the participatory ones you will often see a biased theme through out the documentary this would usually lie with the documentary maker’s opinion that are shown through the chosen subject.

An example of when a factual programme may have been biased would be supersized me, all the way through the programme it focuses on the harmful affects that McDonalds and fast food has on your body, this is definitely not staying equal, he’s opinions are clear that its bad for you and there is nobody their fighting the other side to the argument. There are many parts put into the documentary like the clip shows here of the documentary maker throwing up due to eating too much fast food, this didn’t have to make the edit and in some ways its rather graphic, this clip alone would sway the opinions of the views to seeing that this food is bad for you and there is no other side to the story.

Impartiality

Impartiality means that you would view both sides and opinions equally, its as if you are an outsider that will view the complete debate in a neutral manner, this always prevents unfair judgment and biased opinions, this prevents brainwashing the audience to believe a certain side of the story is true. To make and create impartial judgment you will have to research the topic extensively finding evidence for both sides of the subject and present this to the audience for them to draw their own judgments. With news providers the presenters should always stay impartial, they are only feeding the news to the audience and they then interpret that in their own way.

A good example of a factual programme that is impartial is the show “supersize VS super skinny, in this show the presenter will look at how bard the supersize diet is and how bad the super skinny diet is, the presenter will give feedback and help their diet however will explore both cases equally and present to them the health issues they have and she will give advice on what they can do to improve and move forward. Most programmes will usually look at the over weight person and express how bad it is but this programmes goes to the extreme of both sides of the spectrum.

Objectivity

Objectivity is to view the complete truth, this means you will take in all the evidence and opinions and then you will be fair about it. This means the presenter or reporter reporting the subject would have to to a fair view for both sides, they wont have to strong opinions about the subject that will sway a biased view however they will have a fair opinion that is equal of both sides, this could just give the audience another view point on the subject. You may not agree with certain view points however you will need to analyses them and present them in a fair manner.

A good example is the documentary, “cannabis what’s the harm?” the presenter starts by saying when he was younger he did use the drug, this would suggest he’s not going to be biased against it because he has actually experienced the effects, he went on to then explain the effects it had on him, how it effects him in later life. This is giving a fair representation of both sides, the good and bad points of the subject.

Subjectivity

Subjectivity is basically opposite to objectivity; it is the term that is given to your opinion or a judgment you have passed. Subjectivity is usually avoided in factual programmes as this would prevent the facts being used and could make a biased slant on the programme. However some presenters will use this to lead the audience to a certain opinion, they add their opinion, this could slightly turn the audience to one side of the argument, this is a great way for the maker to manipulate the audience.

Opinion

A producer will often use opinions in factual and news programmes, it would be a news issues and a field presenter is interviewing a member of the public to find out what they think of a certain matter or an eye witness of a breaking news story. It could also be really helpful to add opinions into a factual programme; you could cater the opinions to put a certain message across to the audience without them even knowing. With news story’s and factual programmes that don’t want to manipulate the audience you must ensure you gather interviews from all different people from different walks of lives, this ensures you get spread answers and it allows the audience to view them all and then side.

Bias

Bias is when one side of the story is more favoured and therefore the message being

conveyed is more one sided than an equal outlook. This is very common in documentaries, the presenter or the theme of the documentary would be more one sided and the views and evidence in the documentary is only one sided and therefore this will persuade the audience to also take this view.

 Its like one sided story, only one side is told and it painted in a better light than the other and therefore the audience would be stupid to think anything else. News programs are an example of a non biased [programme, the thrive on being impartial and equal and they would get in trouble for biased views, they are solely there to inform and not give their own views.  

Representation

Representation can mean many different things, however in this sense it would mean how someone or something is being portrayed to the audience, and within TV the way a subject or person is represented is very manipulative and it will be presented in a certain way on purpose. The way something is presented can be good or bad, its often presented in a certain way to draw an emotional response from the audience,

if you present someone as being alone and sad it would draw a sad response from the audience, this is often used in charity adverts, this creates sympathy and builds a story and therefore creating that sympathy will make their audience more likely to donate. The media is such a powerful industry and has the power to influence mass audiences, it has the power to easily change stereotypes, and this type of manipulation of people and subjects is what makes it so powerful. If you are constantly seeing that a certain person or place is so horrible, it wont take long for you to believe it. The media and factual programmes in particular thrive on presenting things to influence their audience.

Access

Access is simple, its to have permission to use a certain thing, such as a place, music, footage etc. when looking at factual programmes, having access is so important, you need access to the hottest story or the newest headline, the producer will need to gain access for a lot of things such as contributors permission, location access. With factual programmes location access is a massive issue, getting access to country’s, peoples house, headlining news locations.

 News programmes usually get access to places where the public are not, for example when something happens in the world a news crew is always on the location first to inform their audience. and because of this access they draw a large audience.

Privacy

Privacy is very important in factual programmes, there is laws to what you can broadcast, such as data protection etc. when dealing with sensitive issues some people may not want their identity known and therefore they will hide this keeping it private. An example could be the show crime watch, they receive anonymous calls giving evidence, also morning shows such as this morning sometimes go over pressing issues and the victims don’t want to be identified, this keeps them feel secure.

Contract with the viewer

Contract with the viewer is when the factual programme has a contract and vow to the viewer. This isn’t a physical written contract however its like a set of conditions that is expected from the viewer. The viewer expects the factual programme to not falsely promoting the product, they expect reports t be biased free, they expect to be informed with truthful, ensuring each story has entertainment factors, being presented calmly and rationally and believing in accuracy.

News

Studio news readers

Studio news readers are news anchors, usually a double however some singularly, they are presenters that will be in a studio usually behind a desk or on a sofa that will read your news each day in a calm manor, they will always be in the studio in front of a camera. They will read the daily headlines off an auto cue and will cut to field presenters and side stories. The presenters that read the news will be in formal dress and will be well spoken that will be recognised by the mass audience. studio news usually on the larger programmes such as, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and channel 5, they all have news programmes and the conventions are the same.

An example is below, this is BBC news opening and headlines.

Field reporters

Field reporters are the reporters on location, the studio reporter will be reading a story and then will link to the field reporter that will be in a location associated with the story and will elaborate on the story and usually have some more information, up to date information of an eye witness. A field reporter would usually conduct and interview with some who is connected or have witnessed the story they are reporting.

The field presenter would still be wearing formal clothing, and would be suing formal language that is understood by the mass. It’s a way of engaging the audience and taking them to the heart of the story, have a field presenter the scene can also keep the news fresh and up to date. On programmes such as this morning the filed presenter would be a lot ore laid back and more for entertainment than informative factors.

The video below is a great example of a stereotypical news field reporter, it involves the news update and new evidence also interviews.

Links to studio

A link to studio is a clever cut away that integrates the studio presenters to various different areas of a story for example it may be to an interview that is video linked or it could be a link to the field presenter. Having video link interviews is very common when having debates about current issues like politics, it will have the presenters and the interview side by side on the screen and will zoom into each one as they speak but when a question is asked its normally a two shot.

When it comes to field presenters you will usually have the studio presenters introduce a story and then say “over to………. Who is at the scene” it will usually have both shots on the screen of the studio and filed and then it zooms into the field reporter, and the same when linking back to the studio. Here’s an example of hen there is a video link  to the studio and the way its cut between the two.

Mode of address to viewer

Mode of address to the viewer is simply the way that the audience is addressed by the presenter and how they communicate with you, its the style and format in which the programme and presenter interacts with its audience. when it comes to news programmes its very straight to the point and formal, there is no direct address to the viewer, there is just talking to you and informing you. They will always introduce them selves and say hello and good morning however apart from this the contact with the viewer is limited.

When you watch a show like this morning, they are more informal, they will commonly ask the viewers to give their options and the way they talk the camera is relaxed and will often be joking about and have less formal content. The mode of address would also change depending on the type of content they are living out, for example a terrorist attack has happed, this is hard hitting news and would be taken very seriously and therefore new programmes would give all the facts the have in a formal manner without much emotion. If you look at this morning or loose woman you would receive and emotion and sympathetic response, you would feel how they feel and they would express their opinions.

I’m going to provide 2 examples of the sae story to show you the different modes of address. The way that this morning are having a conversation with some survivors is emotional and although they are not addressing the audience purposely, they way they are portrayed effects the audience in different ways.The the BBC clip, they are giving the raw facts off the brand new story and are not really showing any emotion for those lost.

Interviews

Interviews is seen as a conversation by the interviewer will will ask the interviewee questions, with news programmes they will link their story to a witness and hen interview that witness, interviews commonly take place with the filed presenter also, with news programmes such as BBC when interviewing it will be formal and straight to the point, they will want the facts from their interviewee and as much break news as possible.

The interviewee would usually be a specialist in the topic filed or a witness f the latest story, they will be someone with great insight for the story.

If you look at other programmes such as this morning you will see that their line of questioning is different, more laid back ad sometimes would turn into a conversation as they have steered off course. And like I said before, the types of questions will depend on the topic.

The interview below is an itv news interview, the questions are straight to the point, and there is no sympathy or emotion expressed.

Experts and witnesses

Experts and witnesses are really important to any news programme; the main reason they are important is because in depth knowledge into their specialist subject or event. Have a witness or a specialist on board with a story gives the audience a better understanding of a situation and they can help build a story and give the audience more of a picture to form an opinion.

Another great thing about having witnesses and specialists is that it makes the story more real, they have a deeper insight making it more believable, also having an official specialist certifies the story and the audience believe this even more.  Here are some examples.

Expert 

Eye witness 

Report structure

A report structure is the sequence that the news programme decided to feature their segments. The basic and standard running order of a news programme would be be the opening presenter would read the headlines, this would cut to found footage giving the audience a visual, it would go on to a main story cutting to a field presenter for more information and maybe and eye witness or specialist, it would then cut back to the presenter and they would have a closing stamen and move on.

With news programmes such as BBC news and ITV news, this is the standard order however with longer running shows such as this morning there will be more VT’s and cut always as there content has to be spread over a much longer time.

Actuality footage

Actuality footage is video or audio that news programmes will used as VT’s, this is sued all the way through the programme, normally narrated by the reporter and it gives the audience a visual of the situation and helps them to understand the situation even more. The videos help you build a story keeps the audience engaged when the presenter has to introduce or explain a headline.

This is used all the way through the programme for example at the start when the presenter is saying about the headlines a montage of videos will play over the top showing you what’s happening as the explain it, sometime it will also cut to a video when explaining about the main story and the presenter will even make reference saying “ you can see here on the screen live from the scene” it could be a helicopter showing footage from the headlining location.

Documentary

Poetic

Poetic documentary’s first appeared in the early 1920’s, which it moved away from the continuity editing that was common in the early feature films. Instead it moved onto organizing images and material world by association and patterns, both with film showing time and space. They removed the favored life like person of the time, and replaced them with people who were known as just entities. Poetic is a more abstract way of documentary making, because it was common so long ago this was seen as exciting and people liked the different patterns etc.

It was very common that poetic documentaries are artier and creative based, there will be no or little narration through out the documentary, they are there for the audience to draw their own opinions and they are there for visual effects. There’s very rarely a clear story, its normally montages of videos that relate to each other. When it comes to the standard documentary this type of documentary wouldn’t come to mind however audience still watch these documentary today.

Expository

An expository documentary is more stereotypical of a documentary, it has a narration and this style will talk directly to the audience. an expository documentary would give strong facts and points of view to the audience, it will expose the facts and then let you decide what you think, it very rarely will have a biased view. The narration is very common through out all of these documentary’s and would be stereotypically male, it will be deep, persuasive and rich, it would sometimes be referred to as “the voice of god”.

The documentary itself is actually there to persuade the audience, giving only one side of the story and only giving the fats it wants, its not biased however it will give facts and they are not rhetorical, there is one answer and the audience is forced to believe this.

Observational

An observational documentary is that stands back and just films the situation, it try’s its best to no interact or intervene with the subject, its as if there not even there. Just like a fly on the wall documentary observational is that, it will just observe the the situation, its common that this type of documentary will be used for social experiments etc. this is a common choice for film makers as its not too abstract however its not so involved either.

This sub genre was introduced in the 1960s, this came with the introduction of smaller camera, much better technologies and microphones, this made it much easier to have multiple cameras and observe in different locations. Just like other documentary’s this one can have narration, sometimes it does however the amount of narration is limited compared to other genres.

Participatory

Participatory documentaries are the most common documentary style in todays market, it has a presenter and the presenter and sometimes even the crew will be involved, it has a presenter and also it will have narration also, it will have the film maker normally the presenter, interviews and contributors involved. The presenter will often lead the documentary, he will conduct the interviews, and he will often put his own opinion in the documentary.

Participatory documentaries tend to be biased, this is because the film maker is involved in presenting the documentary and therefore he’s opinions are made to look much better than the other side of the story and therefore they try and influence the audience to see the situation the same way as they do. Most of Louie Theroux documentaries are in this fashion, he’s very opinionated, he does explore the other side to the story however there is always a glorified side.

Reflexive

A reflexive documentary is usually associated with experimental documentaries, the viewer tends to be just as interested in the way its actually made as they are the content of the documentary, the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and they are the person that provides the narrative. This is very similar to the participatory style, the crew and maker is involved and Louie Theroux is also a good example for this style.

There will be a narrator involved, usually the maker is the voice over the same as he presents and conducts the interviews, its common that this style looks at different world issues and will try to shine light on the other side of the story.

Performative

A performative documentary is a sub-genre that tries to raise questions about what knowledge is. They use people’s subjective experiences from interviews to try and give the audience a better understanding of general processes at work in society. They do this by drawing emotion from the audience, the film maker will play on his emotional experiences. The documentary will try and involve the viewers through the emotions of the events, however at the same time it will be telling the story.

Documentary’s like supersize me are performative, you can see the presenter emotions and you are in the story with the presenter, you follow it all with them and can draw an emotional response from this, this documentary has a presenter and a narration.

Realism

Realism means real footage from real life subjects, this is not that common for a complete documentary to take this theme, its more like reality TV or news, you would commonly see found footage in documentary’s as examples. The whole point is that its not scripted or set up what’s being filmed is natural and real. The majority of the documentary’s in this style wont have a specific purpose their purpose is just to entertain the audience, its very similar to the observational style.

Shows such as big brother started the social experiment realism documentary, now a reality show. Just watching life and how arguments arise and how people go about their everyday life’s proved to be entertaining for the audience, some scenarios are set up but this is to make it more interesting and entertaining for the audience. These documentaries’ will usually have no presenter but will have a narration.