The first BBC news broadcasts attempted to be completely impartial and unbiased way - not showing the presenter meant that they were unable to express their opinions through facial expressions. So many people had been used to radio beforehand, and were also worried that showing moving images as the news was read would distract the viewers from the audio, and so instead decided to show a newsreel footage at the end of the news. There was also background music as the stories were being read, which is something that is not used in modern news broadcasts. Interviews and graphics were still used in early broadcasts, however, although have developed over the years.
Overseas news reports still had to be sent back to England on an aircraft to be broadcast the next day, however. As news progressed, news broadcasts were displayed on camera instead of it simply being their voice. Reporters on the scene have always given a direct address, looking straight at the camera and talking to the viewers to make them feel closer to the news, and give them the feeling of interacting with the reports. Reporters always seem to wear clothes that match the location that they're in - for example, in the studio, they wear professional, smart clothes, however reporters on the scene in places such as war zones often wear more casual clothes.
As technology developed and improved, news reporters were able to broadcast live news reports from other countries, and show shocking news stories in which people had not been able to see in the full scale before. Events were able to unfold live on television in peoples' living rooms, putting them even closer to the action and events than ever before. However, in the modern days, the more extreme footage of deaths and killings seem to have been phased out slightly after people having somewhat of an outcry over the upsetting nature of the footage.
In the 1990s, 24 hour news channels became available, with more and more news available around the world to report on. The same kinds of stories such as disasters, wars, traditional events, sporting achievements and political news have always been broadcast on the news, even since it was first started. A mixture of graphics, a news reporter talking about the stories in the studio and reports from the scenes themselves became common. It became more and more common to have a montage of clips based on the news story with a voice over layered across the top, with the occasional cut away to a reporter speaking about the news to break it up.
Popular news programmes nowadays tend to be structured in a certain way, with a title sequence opening the show, before the presenters begin with a summary of the top news stories. Then, they go into the stories in more detail, starting with the most popular and biggest story, and go all the way down until they begin on the sports headlines, the weather, and then they tend to generally finish with a happy and light-hearted news story to lighten the mood.
Most news programmes try not to be biased, as they are giving factual information that should not have an opinion. However, certain news companies - such as FOX News - appears to be extremely right-wing, and even goes to far to refuse to allow anyone to speak on the show if they do not follow their ideals.
When something is propaganda, however, instead of it being simply one side of an opinion, it is trying to get others to agree and influence their views on the subject. For example, once again, FOX News will only show stories that makes the right wing side of politics look better than the left, and they seem to be trying to make the population believe in their views and agree with them, without showing them the other side of things. For example, the majority of the time, they try to put Obama in a bad light, and make it seem like he is ruining America, and therefore the country should vote for Romney.
When being a journalist, however, things are supposed to remain completely unbiased and only show the facts in a way that doesn't support one side of debates and arguments, and also doesn't convince people to agree/disagree with something simply because of the reporter's own views.
Bias can be created within the news by selecting certain stories to broadcast. By doing this, something can be made to seem better, or worse, depending on how much positive/negative press one broadcasting station gives a certain thing - such as FOX News making the right-wing parties seem glorious compared to other political parties, by allowing confident and attractive people represent the Republicans, whilst making unconfident and unattractive people represent the Democrats. This then shows the right-wing parties as being 'better' than the left-wing, and the audience tend to pick up on this and believe it, even when it may not be entirely true.
Headlines and captions can give a different light on a story, clearly showing an opinion on the story. For example, when most news stations reported on Nelson Mandela meeting the First Lady, Michelle Obama, they used headlines such as:
‘Mandela asks to meet Michelle Obama.’
However, FOX News clearly shows their views on Obama's political party, and clearly wants to put them in a bad light by using the headline:
‘Michelle Obama Snubbed in Africa, But Looking Forward to Private Safari.’
Anyone who only reads FOX News would think something completely different about the story than what is happening, and it is a form of propaganda because it is trying to get people to agree with their views rather than allowing people to make their own opinion on news stories.
Documentaries are often filmed in a number of different styles and ways according to what they are trying to show during the film. For example, expository documentaries, such as Planet Earth, or Blue Planet are designed to inform and educate people but the camera crew themselves are invisible to the audience, whereas during interactive/reflexive documentaries such as Bowling For Columbine or Louis Theroux's documentaries involve the film makers during the shots, and they usually aim to provoke reactions from the subjects and the audiences during the documentary itself rather than simply showing the facts.
However, there are some conventions that run throughout most documentaries. The majority of the time, facts and issues are focused on rather than a narrative, although occasionally - such as during documentaries that focus on something such as a musical band's journey to fame such as Life On The Murder Scene or The Filth And The Fury, they will have a slight narrative during the film. Most documentaries are non-fiction and are based on true events, with the exception of mockumentaries, like Spinal Tap, which parodies the ideas of normal documentaries to amuse the audience instead of displaying facts.
All the shots and footage used within the film is generally linked together in a way that keeps the viewer engaged and entertained, and both found and shot footage are often included to do so. For example, during the Bowling For Columbine documentary that we watched, Michael Moore used both footage that he went out and filmed, as well as clips from news programmes, adverts, television shows etc. A lot of interviews are used throughout this documentary, as well as during others that aren't completely fly-on-the-wall documentaries.
During most documentaries, voiceovers are used to explain to the audience the facts, or what is happening during the film, for example, Michael Moore uses voiceover through Bowling For Columbine to link together various facts and information, such as what happened on the morning of the shooting at Columbine. Also text can be used to relay these facts too. Text is mainly used to show locations, times and dates, although can be used to relay other information too, such as a translation of what people being interviewed are saying if the sound quality isn't terrific, like they do occasionally in Bowling For Columbine.
Depending on what is happening during different shots of the documentary, both digetic and non-digetic sound can be heard. Say there is a voiceover explaining the scenario on screen, for example, there is normally no digetic sound heard, although if it is an interview there can be. During Bowling For Columbine, there is a montage of footage, mainly involving terrorism, with the song 'What A Wonderful World' playing over the top of it, though this is used in an ironic way because clearly the images are not of a wonderful world. The music seems to be used satirically to point the finger at the American government's involvement in financing and training the terrorists themselves. Also, in the same documentary, phone recordings of people involved in the Columbine Massacre - such as teachers phoning 911 for help are played with a slight guitar playing in the background which makes the recordings seem more powerful and moving than they already are as it is more eerie that if they were played on their own. Meanwhile, in Louis Theroux's documentaries, he doesn't tend to play music over recordings, or during montages. Instead, he mainly has quirky and upbeat music as the introduction of the documentary, and also between interviews which both reflects his personality, and lightens the mood, because otherwise the footage and interviews being played would be extremely dark and serious for the style of the documentary that he is trying to create.
Documentaries are often filmed in a number of different styles and ways according to what they are trying to show during the film. For example, expository documentaries are designed to inform and educate people but the camera crew themselves are invisible to the audience, whereas during interactive/reflexive documentaries involve the film makers during the shots, and they usually aim to provoke reactions from the subjects and the audiences during the documentary itself rather than simply showing the facts.
However, there are some conventions that run throughout most documentaries. The majority of the time, facts and issues are focused on rather than a narrative, although occasionally - such as during documentaries that focus on something such as a musical band's journey to fame, they will have a slight narrative during the film. Most documentaries are non-fiction and are based on true events, with the exception of mockumentaries which parodies the ideas of normal documentaries to amuse the audience instead of displaying facts. Bowling For Columbine seemed to take a comedic approach to interest the audience whilst actually discussing very serious topics such as gun crime, the Columbine Massacre and biased media in America.
All the shots and footage used within the film is generally linked together in a way that keeps the viewer engaged and entertained, and both found and shot footage are often included to do so. For example, during the Bowling For Columbine documentary that we watched, Michael Moore used both footage that he went out and filmed, as well as clips from news programmes, adverts, television shows etc. For example, during the interview with Charlton Heston (the head of the NRA) was footage that Michael Moore shot, but the 'Wonderful World' montage during the documentary was all footage from other people.
A lot of interviews are used throughout this documentary, as well as during others that aren't completely fly-on-the-wall documentaries. Also, during Bowling For Columbine, a single camera setup was used for most of the time, and this was because when going into public places such as supermarkets or streets, it would be extremely difficult for there to be a multi-camera setup as it would be too noticeable and take up too much space, especially in places where they were not really supposed to be filming. For example, the interview in K-Mart with the staff selling bullets that were used during the Columbine Massacre was shot with a single camera as it would be far too difficult to bring multiple cameras into the shop, where they were not supposed to be filming anyway.
During most documentaries, voiceovers are used to explain to the audience the facts, or what is happening during the film, and also text can be used to relay these facts too. Text is mainly used to show locations, times and dates, although can be used to relay other information too. Depending on what is happening during different shots of the documentary, both digetic and non-digetic sound can be heard. Say there is a voiceover explaining the scenario on screen, for example, there is normally no digetic sound heard, although if it is an interview there can be. The opening of Bowling For Columbine, where there was the voiceover about a 'typical day in America', which links the images together in a comical way that makes sense, because without the voiceover, the footage would make no sense. It is done in an ironic, yet informative way, and is used as an attack on America as well as intro ducting the rest of the documentary and the madness that goes on.
Documentaries, although factual, are often biased towards a certain opinion or another. It normally makes the documentary rather one-sided, and doesn't show the other side of arguments. During the Bowling For Columbine documentary, although he showed people telling the camera that they feel safer with a loaded gun in the house although they had never been attacked, the same person probably had enough security in and around their house to stop the threat of being attacked, yet they never asked people in the streets whether they had been attacked or not.
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