task 1A OFFICIAL RE-DRAFT

    ABIGAIL MBAKI

                   Unit 27: Factual program production techniques for television

  

For this unit I will be comparing a documentary and a news report. The documentary is "Reggie Yates Extreme South Africa: knife crime" and the news  report is the ITV news report 18^th April  : This documentary is about Reggie yates travelling to Cape Town , South Africa's murder capital which has the highest rate of knife crime. Reggie's mission is to find out what is the cause of all this crime. To find out this information that he needs he spends 20 days at a Cape Town hospital , shadowing the medics who deal with up to 100 stabbings and assault victims,80 percent of them being under 25. The news report is a source of information in which we can know what crises are going on around us and also around the world. For this news broadcast the headlines are:” Jerseys government say it's not ruling out an independent into the islands RNLI row", " the youth workers helping young people stay safe in cyber space",  Guernsey fc secure safety despite losing twice" and "the runaway success".  

Accuracy: For this documentary Reggie Yates had to make sure that all the information he is sharing with his audience is accurate and is reported correctly and truthfully. By doing this Reggie would have needed to provide his audience with names, age, what happened to them, why and what they do for a living of the people that he will be interviewing. In this documentary he was able to do this ,even though there was no written text on the screen of the interviewees names but he explains who he is about to meet , what has happened to them and how old the individual is. For example when he is with Lucania, the voice over tells us his name and that he was "robbed and stabbed on his way home after a night out". Reggie had quoted Lucania correctly and we know this because he explains the story which means the information that Reggie has given to us about him is accurate. This information is important because the audience is not misled. Another example is when Reggie introduces Inga “a young girl still at school" who explains her fear of being raped or robbed on her way to school.      

As for the news report, the information provided is also accurate. It is the news reporter’s responsibility to make sure that every source of report is presented truthfully, because if not the audience can be deceived by the information given and this can cause a major problem. By making sure that every source of news report provided is accurately the ITV news reported always stated the headline then showed footage to back the evidence. For example the news reports first announced the title which was "Jersey government say it is not ruling out an independent into the islands RNLI rowel" and then showed footage of the Assistant Chief Minister Sen Paul Router talking about the situation. As an audience by watching that we know the information provided is facts because it is coming from one of the members of the government.  

Balance: Balance is when you find information from both sides of the story to the viewers rather than being biased and only favoring one side of the story to make the audience feel sympathetic. By balancing stories you hear both sides and the audience can make their own decisions with what which side they agree with. Reggie shows both sides of the story by letting the victims explain their story and how they feel and also by interviewing the gangsters and finding out why they do what they do. For example when Reggie interviews Mark, a member of the gang, he explains how they target their rival gangs and people who live in their communities. “Were there to kill everyone, rob everyone, and destroy everything and where they live, as they do here". Mark also added "everyone here knows us we protect them and there are things we have done to save them". Some viewers may agree with the gangsters like Mark because the children in the area idolize them because they protect their community. But others may see the gang from a negative side.  

The news report balance their stories by gaining information from different types of sources to make the news balanced. For example "the youth workers helping youth people stay safe in cyber space" the reports provide evidence that is enough to make the statement balanced such as statistics. 27% of the young people were approached by a stranger, 32% received messages that scared or upset them and 78% spend three hours looking at their devices. They also interviewed different youths about their experiences and spoke to their youth workers. And also showed some of the text messages they have received.   

 Impartiality:  Impartiality is balancing your views and opinions equally rather than allowing our personal views and emotions affect how you see/analyze things, it is very important to be impartial. As a film maker and as news reporters it is fairly important for the two parties to always make sure not to include their own personal views. If they do so, this could dramatically affect the audience as they would not be impressed with what they've seen or heard and this will not interest them. When creating or presenting an impartial show it is necessary to include facts instead of your opinions. For example it would be unacceptable for Reggie Yates to ignore all the facts and present the documentary in his own personal opinion.  

Objectivity: Objectivity is looking at something without making assumption. The term objectivity looks at the subject logically without being emotionally attached or sympathizing, objectivity is more about facts. For example a teacher giving a student a good grade because that is their favorite student is objective. This is because the teacher has included their emotions about the student towards the student even if the quality of the work is very poor. But in this case in the Reggie Yates documentary many of the citizens in Khalicha believe that the root to all the crime in their area is because of alcohol. This is because many of the citizens have been victims to crimes caused by alcohol or have lost many loved ones due to people drinking and causing crimes. "When someone drinks alcohol in our society, they start to pick up fights and it ends up to tragedy, I think it is an abomination"(said by a member of the community who's name wasn’t stated). On the other hand if you were to look at it in terms of objectivity and get rid of personal emotions. It is a fact that drinking alcohol on occasions is hardly unlikely to cause long term damages. Reggie Yates is objective throughout this documentary because he does not let his emotions take place, for example when he is with the gangbangers and victims and they tell him their story he does not get emotionally attached because his face expressions are relaxed.  

 Objectivity gives us the opportunity to gain and analyze facts, we then have an opportunity from our own discoveries. For example in the news report they feed the audience with factual information and the audience then later have the choice to pick what sides they agree with based on their emotions or experiences or to just agree with it. 

Subjectivity: Subjectivity is the complete opposite to objectivity, subjectivity changes the way you judge or view things/topics based on personal feelings, tastes and opinions. Objectivity is based on facts. According to the Reggie Yates documentary the victims of the gang crimes are affected and traumatized due to personal feelings and experiences which has prompt their opinions against the gangs who are also seen as hero's to be negative through every aspect. 

Opinion: Opinion is your personal view towards something or someone. Opinions are caused through past experiences or how you feel which trigger people to have a certain mindset towards things. For example in the Reggie Yates  documentary, Reggie expresses his opinion  when he visits Inga's home and meets her mum as she explains how the gang members take advantage of her as there is no male figure in the house. Reggie sympathizes for the mother and gives his opinion by saying "it's very sad, I can't help but feel for them".  

In terms of the news report, it gives the audience a chance to have their own personal opinion in which source of information they agree with.  

Bias: Being biased is being unfair and deciding to take sides against the other side without evidence or facts to back your point. As a film maker Reggie does not take one side of the story and automatically agrees. He hears both sides of the story and their reasons behind the story. For example the community of Khalicha feel that the gangsters cause problems in their community but Reggie also hears the gangster’s side of the story to why they do what they do, to avoid being biased.  

As for the news report most of the times the news is presented in a biased way. The news present what they want how they want in their own interpretation.  

Representation: Representation is how the media portrays something or someone. Many viewers are influenced by the media and believe what it has presented to them. As a film maker Reggie presents all his information on extreme South Africa as documentary format. Reggie gives Khalicha a bad representation. When the documentary starts, Reggie states "the countries murder capital, with major crime, treating up 100 stab and gunshot victims every weekend". This gives the audience a bad representation of Khalicha.  

The news report always represents news in their own manner.  

Access: Access is being given permission to film or write. Before filming or writing you'll need to be given permission by whoever you are filming or writing about so that you do not get into trouble or break the law. As a film maker Reggie would have needed to provide release forms and give them to whoever he will be filming in advance to show that they have given him permission to film in their properties. For example the hospital, Reggie asked whoever's in charge for permission to film in the hospital and to film the casualties and to film the doctors and nurses. He would have also asked Inga's mother patience as some parts of the documentary was filmed in their household. If they said no, Reggie would not be able to film and the access would have been denied.  This also relates to the news report, before filming in certain places or to even allow a minor on camera, they would need access from the parents or local authorities.  

Privacy: Privacy is being away from the public eye, everyone human being has the right to their own privacy and by invading someone's privacy is breaking the law. Privacy is when you are not constantly being observed or disturbed by people. In this case Reggie had to make sure that he was not invading people's privacy whilst filming for example when he went to film at Inga's house only certain places were shown because they might not wanted their privacy invaded and shown on national television.  They also had to protect the home by not revealing their address , showing their road or even their door number.  Privacy is also protecting people's identity, for example if a witness of a crime decides to come forward but does not want their identity show they can make it private by covering their face. 
News reporters need to make sure that they are not invading someones privacy just for a story.

Contract with viewer: Contract with the viewer is the unwritten rule with the producer and the viewers. For example the documentary is called "Reggie Yates extreme South Africa: Knife crime" as the film maker it is Reggie's job to make sure he gives the audience what they want , which is to see the extreme South Africa, with knife crime. And it should also be presented by Reggie Yates as his name is in the title. Same as for the news report, the audience are expecting to see news. By both Reggie and the news reporters doing this, this keeps the audience entertained and they will be aware of the facts throughout the shows.