Media

Television has changed our lives! There are many reasons why we watch T.V. It entertains us, informs, provides an escape, can educate and assist us in forming ideas and opinions and can also be used as a babysitter. Three main categories shown on T.V are documentaries, soapies and lifestyle programs. Documentaries have been around since 1926. A documentary is a film, recording or a video of a non-fiction subject. They are not all just about facts that create a critical argument inviting the audience to draw conclusions. The filmmakers view is usually the one shown most, so a lot of bias is usually used in documentaries. The audience should be aware of this and be able to make up there own view. The two main types of documentaries are the objective and the subjective. The objective documentary shows the audience all angles of the subject, where as the subjective documentary only allows the viewer to see one point of view of the issue. The producer can show part of there opinion through the techniques used. The most common techniques used in a documentary are: Voice over, statistics/dates, photos, live footage, comparisons/facts, text caption, old footage, recreation and evidence. A documentary that uses most or even all of these techniques is The Australian Story – Know Stoned Unturned, produced by Clair Forster. This documentary is a real story, which attempts to present what really happened, mostly through interviews. The story is about the Morcombes, and their 13 year old son, Daniel who disappeared from a bus stop near his home on the Sunshine Coast around Christmas time three years ago. The purpose of this story is to inform people in what can happen to people, and what its like for the family, and to help people understand what their going through. The family is also desperate for information or clues on the whereabouts or events leading up to the disappearance of Daniel. So another purpose of putting this documentary on T.V, for the world to see, is so that any one watching with information are given contact numbers and are urged to contact them straight away. A soap opera uses the same characters and settings in a continuous narrative, like a serialized story, and their regular screening, usually several times a week, attracts a large amount of people. Soap operas can become very addictive, as people dislike missing an episode because they don’t like to loose touch with the day to day happenings of their favorite characters. Soapies often in each episode finish with a crisis that will be solved in the next episode. Most soapies have the same types of certain groups of people. The manipulating villain, a female victim, a character with a problem solving ability, a romantic hero, a good heroine, and the powerful business character, who can be helpful or villainous. An example of a soapie, leaving a cliff hanger is the last home and away episode for 2007. This episode finishes with a cliff hanger, so the viewers are left hanging until next year to find out a 20year mystery of Sally’s imaginary friend Milko. The viewers are left with clue’s on who Milko might be, but are left unsure until next year. Lifestyle shows are aimed to inspire, entertain and inform us about the things that encounter in our homes and backyards. They show a variety of different segments on different topics for people with different interests. At the beginning of each episode the presenter usually starts the show by showing us what will be on the night’s episode but leaves the best interesting segment to the end of the show to keep people watching. Voice over’s are used a lot in lifestyle programs whilst the demonstrations are taken place. Interviews are another technique used in lifestyle shows as well as music in-between segments. In the Lifestyle show, better homes and gardens, they advertise shops, and places where you get equipment and gear that are used in the show, they advertise these places through out the show and in the breaks. Out of all three T.V categories I believe soapies are the most popular as they are viewed from all ages, kids up to elderly people.