What?

Factual television is a genre that is always non-fiction, this genre speaks about real people and real events that have occurred. The genre includes products such as; documentaries, news shows, chat shows, review shows, reality TV and some over sub-genres. An example of a factual programme would be big brother. The channel 4 show focuses on the life of normal people in a small environment with challenges to complete in hope for good content for their audience to continuing watching. The positives of factual programmes are that they can educate and inform the people that are watching whilst also creating some form of empathy for the audience to change. However, factual programmes also has negatives as some channels may give off a biased story to use against what another political party are saying. They also give no impact to society as they have a niche audience.

SECTORS

Factual programming as a genre, can come in many different forms of media:

TELEVISION

RADIO

CINEMA

DOCUMENTARIES

PODCASTS

Codes and Conventions

Commonly, most factual programmes contain either a presenter or commentator who explains to the audience what is happening within the show. An example of shows that have presenters would be news or sports shows, Presenters and commentators often perform in front of a green screen, on-site or are voiced-over.

Each media text has codes and conventions that make up their genre and allows the audiences to have an understanding of what they are watching. There are different types of codes used to break up different sections. Visual codes could consist of using angles, camera shots and movements to help define the genre. Within factual programming, a low angle would make the character seem much more powerful and a little bit intimidating as it makes

them look much bigger than they actually are. Technical codes consist of things that have been changed during post production in a hope to make the genre seem more realistic. Examples of these would be editing, lighting and camera techniques. However, conventions are known to be the way in which codes are being used as this would improve the audiences understanding of the character roles in the programme. The way in which these are used can define whether a character is an antagonist or protagonist whilst giving the audience an overall better understanding of the importance of each character.

Interviews are very important in the media industry as they are used to help get added information from people who are known to be experts on this situation. Interviews allow the audience to learn something new in which they probably never would have before. An example of this would be the BBC’s ‘Match of the day’ as they interview a vast majority of players and managers to get their thoughts after the game. They ask questions on whether they think the game was deserved and if they believed the team played well etc.

Legal issues

Accuracy– In a factual programme on television the word accuracy means how authentic the facts and statistics in the programme are. This plays a very important part whilst making a factual programme. When presenting information to the public, it must be accurate. If false information is transferred, the public is misled. The information has to be fact based, as people will much prefer to hear a story with straight facts and not a story with information that may be false. If the information transferred to the public is misleading or false, the viewers may begin to lose trust in the service and factual programmes may lose their audience because of this. An example of an accurate news broadcaster is the BBC. They are very accurate when they present. As the BBC is funded by the public it is very important due accuracy is achieved in their factual programmes.

Impartiality- In a factual programme on television the word impartiality means consider both sides of an argument, not to take a certain side and not to include personal opinion. If programs aren’t impartial and constantly bring their own view into a topic, viewers will most likely believe other information said will be biassed, unfair and based around their own personal opinion.

Objectivity is when no judgement or opinion is included in an argument. A broadcaster doesn’t take a side, yet takes both into matter, given that they are backed up by evidence

Subjectivity is the term given for someone’s personal opinion or judgement on a certain topic and is basically the opposite of objectivity.

Bias- This is where one focuses on only one side of a story and is very firm on their opinion. This means they have no room to take in other opinions as their mind is completely set on one side of a certain topic. In a factual programme it is very important that the producer discusses, opinions and facts and equally focuses on both elements. Reporters have to make sure not to be biassed when broadcasting a topic as it may offend viewers of the programme.It is very important that factual programmes stick to their facts instead of opinions and not to favour one argument as opposed to another.

Privacy- Everyone has the right to be in a state of being away and free from public attention, however the media have a right to a freedom of expression. The media argue they should be able to produce anything they think is of public’s interest, however it must be accurate and factual. Privacy is a very controversial topic, some believe privacy is a human right and we should all be entitled to it, however others believe we should invade people’s privacy to get to the bottom of the story.

Styles

EXPOSITORY

Expository documentaries are made to expose someone to the audience, often through a disability or generally something that makes their life harder than the average person. Although they are not in the entire documentary with the camera always on them, unlike observational documentaries. These documentaries will include an interview with the individual then branch off to other areas/similar subjects before coming back to the person at the end. The person is still a vital part of the documentary, but more of an example of something than showing their daily life.

OBSERVATIONAL

This type of documentary is when it revolves around a person. It's often done to show the life of the person. These types of documentaries often include either a narrator speaking over the top or an actual presenter on screen with the people ``featuring" in the documentary. They also include interviews, sometimes people related to the featured person, facts about the surrounding subjects and then of course footage. This style of documentary is usually to inform the audience of subjects most people would not know about.

PARTICIPATORY

Participatory documentaries are very different especially when compared with the more professional types/styles of factual programmes. These involve a communal effort talking about any issue or any story that they wish to. This sort of documentary allows the community to really work together, and therefore represent themselves in the way they wish, instead of being stereotyped or generally conveyed in someone else's way. This style is popular when doing documentaries about universities or businesses or even towns.

DRAMATIZATION

This is where the script of the documentary is purposely tampered with to make it seem more dramatic, and therefore more shocking to the audience. This is often seen in the news the way they change it to "Breaking news".

Learning Aim B

Learning Aim C

Final Video