Production techniques in Factual Programming
Accuracy
Accuracy in the film industry basically means that facts are presented with the highest of quality and precision, and of course have to be correct and not false. If its a documentary the facts given have to be exactly correct; if they are not then it will cause issues and conflict through audiences and issues for the documentary itself, possibly being taken down. If your areas are not fully researched then incorrect data is most likely to be broadcast. When you research data you have to be sure that the research is impartial and not bias, for example if you give an opinion of someone in your documentary but then the whole documentary leads on to being only with that opinion and not the other side, this relates to bias and impartiality which is explained more in the other sections below. You always want to make any documentary impartial and give both sides/opinions it can cause more issues in the and will give false facts to the wrong audience.
Balance
Balance is essentially what keeps a documentary fair. To "keep the balance" The best way to keep balance is by giving two sides of something. For example impartiality can relate to this, giving facts or opinions that have to have both sides and can not be unfair, because if it is documentaries will begin to taken off air and audiences will probably get offended. To balance your research you need to take into opinion what the audience will and will not find offensive, obviously you will take out the offensive content. When you take out both sides, they have to be equal, fair, and of course true. In the video below it gives a good example of balanced sides, "both sides of the story"
Impartiality
Impartiality as said before, is the equality of opinions, facts, or any given evidence. Everything has to be fair, facts have to be fair. Instead of bias which is taking only one said, impartiality takes all sides or none at all. Impartiality closely links to balance, its a type of balance that doesn't use balance, taking no sides meaning no one can make any harm, no bias info nothing unfair at all. A good example would be top gear, where they discuss cars and other facts. The reason I chose this example as an example is because it was completely the opposite of being impartial, according to feedback on this example they were being racist towards Mexicans. They could of stopped this by not broadcasting the episode with leaving little offended or not actually saying that and being careful with what they say, presumably top gear has a script like most other documentaries, tv shows, films etc.
Objectivity
Objectivity is a type of judgement that is intended to eliminate bias and prejudices, this as you can tell may relate back to balance just like impartiality. It is to make everything clean, fair and balanced. The objective of objectivity is to look at more facts to form documentaries rather than going off of opinionated facts. Unlike most documentaries objective is not like subjective, objective does not give the audience it gives a basic knowledge of informing to the audience. You will find that objective is not used in documentaries, it is mostly used on the News as you may be able to tell the News gives and states facts not opinions, but documentaries can be completely opinionated.
Subjectivity
Subjectivity is the opposite to what objectivity is, it will give the audience something to thoroughly learn, to be taught something. Think of subjectivity as a sub-objective, a second if you will. The second judgement to facts is opinions; the thoughts of the people being interviewed. If this is opinionated this will however mean that any subjective documentary, tv show, or any other type of media can possibly be extremely biased; but there may be a limit to this, for example the audience can get offended by opinions which is the most likely outcome of an opinion if it involves racism, sexism, ageism, many other types of offensive content; so subjectivity will limit that make it applicable to the audiences viewing.
Opinion
Opinions are the common judgements on this earth, or any earth if there is another. Opinions is what give the world something to believe, something to judge, "something that makes something" Everyone's opinion will be different in one tiny way or a huge way. To define an opinion it is eligibly defined as: "A view of judgement formed about something, not necessarily on fact or knowledge" I cannot proved the link for this information I can just provide that if you Google "define opinion" it will be at the top of the page. Opinions are our everyday routine of judgement, it could be a TV episode, a film, or maybe even some food; you give opinions on everything for example if you buy the latest meal from McDonalds, The McRib and you try it but don't like it that will be your opinion.
Bias
Bias is the opposite to impartiality and balance, being biased often unfortunately ends off with racism, sexism, etc. Being bias is strongly something that can lead into many issues in the media industry, you have to be very sure that what people say on TV or in a documentary is not at all racist. The source of being biased is mainly opinions. Therefor bias is very much related to opinions; as I said before giving opinions is the main part to a persons life but that was about food, this is about documentaries, so anything said or done can be biased, which is why scripts are made! Scripts are the main purpose of any media product.
News readers
It is not hard to describe or know what a news reader is as it is in the name, they read the news to everyone. Their job is very important and the people who read the news cannot be any type of person, it all depends on the way they are presented. If you were watching the news right now would you want to have some random guy in some run-down clothes delivering the news to you telling you something that "could" be true? I believe not; all presenters are presented in smart, well dressed clothes. They make us believe that this news/evidence is true. In the picture below is an example of a well presented news reader.
Field reporters
Field reporters are similar to news readers, you will mostly see them on the "field" in the action itself. The Anchorman, a movie, is a good example that is about reporters, and news readers in a comedy way. In the picture below you see a picture of a field reporter from the movie; mostly field reporters are presented formally as like news readers. Their role is to deliver news but on the field, in action, and in front of the place itself. The majority of the time when a field reporter is delivering news they are on the field because it provides more evidence and make it more believable.
Interviewing
Interviewing is not the same as field reporting and news reading; interviews are sort of a main base of opinions or to collect evidence on a certain character. Interviews can vary in many different ways, you could be interviewing an expert, a witness, a local, anyone. Interviews are made to gain knowledge and various opinions, as defined from Link: "a meeting or conversation in which a writer or reporter asks questions of one or more persons from whom material is sought for a newspaper story, television broadcast, etc." There are many interviews from various places in the world a good example is one from Robert Downey Jr. where he was interviewed on his latest movie the avengers, he answers questions for the reporter but does however leave early due to being upset with a question.
Experts and witnesses
Experts and witnesses are included in interviews, they can give great valuable knowledge on various topics that they are being interviewed, witnesses on the other hand are just about as valuable as experts; there may be tragedy's in the process because they might have been an eye witness at a scene of a crime therefor it can put them in quite a high role of choosing whether to tell what they see or leave it out and possibly be the cause of a crime.
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