Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged: documentary form used to be objective and focus on capturing the authenticity of the events. However, when more technologies are developed and put into use, the authenticity of the documentary is greatly reduced. Hence, documentary images are even more powerful because there is no more unbroken belief in their truth. More and more campaigns and propagandas started to use documentary as a tool to achieve their subjective goals. Speaking of the relations between truth and fiction, I believe that truth can provide inspirations and lay a basis in context for fiction while fiction explores freely and uses more imagination under the big picture illustrated by the truth.
The authenticity and representation of the truth in the media are crucial because they can be more dangerous than we expected if used in a misleading way. For example, a difference in the detail such as date and gender can result in numerous rumors or even verbal attacks towards an innocent person, which can cause more serious problems. From my point of view, a live broadcast should take the responsibility to document the events that occurred as realistically as possible, including every detail since it provides audiences with a sense of reality and immediacy.
