Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. How might fiction inform the truth?

Steyerl mostly talks about how documentary forms are not always authentic and can actually manipulate how the audience feels by portraying something a certain way. She states that “the uncertainty that documentary truth provokes is a central component of a general incertitude” and we can “no longer ask whether documentary images correspond to reality or not”. Fiction may inform truth by portraying something that might fiction and has no not happened but in reality, it may “shows something that does not yet exist and maybe come one day.” By the way Steyerl discusses this, it seems as it if it is meant to be seen as a call to reality or a predication for the future, which is why documentaries are strongly influential  yet manipulative.

What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?

In my opinion, the authenticity and representation of truth in the media is very important because I feel like a lot of us are very vulnerable and get most of our information, opinions and beliefs from the media. Also due to visual representations provided, we usually only believe what our eyes see no matter if it is the truth or manipulated. As Steyerl mentions, documentary forms “convey, regulate, and administrate huge emotional potentials that they both keep in check and unleash explosively.” They may be used to ones advantage to manipulate the way we see something and can we used as “a political instrument”. But ultimately, it is up to the audience to interpret what they see. The role of a live broadcast is to be as  authentic as possible. In a live broadcast, every is raw. There are no cuts, editing, manipulation, etc. so it makes people very vulnerable.