Factual TV production is one of the largest sectors of the TV industry, however there are some issues which can impact the production of the programs.
Accuracy can have an impact on the production of factual production both during the production and once the program has been aired. To produce an accurate documentary you must fact check during research so that you do not tell the audience false information, as if it is found that you have false information in the program it will receive bad reception and remove the trust that the audience have for you.
Balance is a model which the BBC uses in order to put across two opposing opinions rather than being bias and only putting across one opinion. It is important to be balanced as to not offend any viewers as they are not going to want to watch a show
Impartiality is the way in which opposing opinions both have an equal say throughout the program, and how the program is not bias towards one opinion over the other and is fair and balanced.
Objectivity is the use of truth, facts, history and evidence from research. An objective documentary would attempt to be un-bias.
Subjectivity is the act of having your judgement shaped by your own opinions and feelings rather than outside opinions or facts. A subjective documentary is a personal story.
An opinion is the way that you choose to believe things. When creating documentaries it is important to consider every opinion.
To be bias is to favour one opinion over an opposing one. This minimises your audience as people who believe in the opposing opinion will more than likely not watch your documentary as it seems as though you are trying to promote the bias opinion.
In terms of factual programs that are viewed, a company like the BBC are impartial, balanced and objective as they try to be unbias. The BBC use editorial guidelines such as:
"Impartiality lies at the heart of public service and is the core of the BBC's commitment to its audiences."
"The BBC is committed to achieving due accuracy."
"The BBC strives to be fair to all - fair to those our output is
about, fair to contributors, and fair to our audiences."
However, a company such as Fox News tend to be bias and subjective. They do not work by a particular set of guidelines.
The sector of News is one of the biggest factual programming sectors, but all programs produced in this sector work within the same basic format.
All news programs have a studio news reader, or an anchor. Their job is to hold the show together, talk through headlines and stories and carry out studio interviews. An example of a studio news reader is Mishal Husain.
A field reporter carries out 'piece to camera's. They stand at the area of the main story/stories, describe the action and interview the public. An example of a field reporter is Steph McGovern.
Interviews are important in factual programming to give more opinions to the news programs. The most common interview format are Vox Pops- 50 second long question and answer which can be done with the general public/ witnesses at a scene. In studio interviews are generally with experts on the subject of discussion to give facts rather than opinions to the audience.
Experts and witnesses are important to news programs as they add objectivity with the facts from the incident. Fact checking becomes a problem, however, with witnesses as two people could have witnessed the same event in different ways.
The report structure starts with an anchor who talks through the main headlines and stories, which then goes to a field reporter who is at the scene of the story and talks to witnesses there, and then the report goes back inside the studio where the anchor is carrying out a studio interview with an expert on the subject.
Documentary formats include Realism, Dramatisation, and Narrativization.
Realism is "the quality or fact of representing a person or thing in a way that is accurate and true to life" so a realist documentary is the most real of all documentary formats, however is still scripted and cannot be fully true as the media always mediate reality. An example of a realist documentary show is the secret life of 4, 5 and 6 year olds. This is what it says about the show on a daily telegraph article. "Here, the four to six-year-olds were mostly given free rein to play." so we know that some parts may be heavily edited or left out.
Dramatisation is the concept of taking a true/semi true story and adding parts in to make it more interesting to the viewers. An example of a dramatisation is the film 127 Hours which was based on the book 'Between a rock and a hard place' by Aron Ralston. The author has confirmed that the film has inaccuracies but that for the most part the film is an accurate documentary of the book.
Narrativization is a usual component in all types of documentaries as it is the method of narrating or telling the story behind the documentary. A problem that film makers face when using narration in documentaries is that it can get boring and the audience may not feel stimulated for very long.
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