Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged.
What does Steyerl mean by this? Certain movies and films are based on a true story.
Steryerl explains that it’s the “unbroken belief” that documentary images have, which gives them this efficacy amongst the audience. The ambiguous shapes and unclear objects leave questions in the mind of the audience. Since the image does not provide these questions with an answer the brain fills in the blank with the thoughts of the viewers. The image says shows 80%, and the audience then interprets the remaining 20% as they want. The sense of doubt that documentary images carry is what makes them so powerful.
How does truth inform fiction?
Truth is the basis of fiction. Fiction takes its initial imagination from reality and distorts it or emphasizes it to change it into something new. For example, a mermaid is a fictional mythical creature and therefore fictional. However, the creation of the mermaid was through the combination of a fish and a human, both real creatures. Fiction takes inspiration from the truth and changes it into something that never existed or something imagined.
How might fiction inform the truth?
Fiction can influence the way that we explain truths. Fiction has always been more interesting and even exciting than the truth, so people sometimes choose to follow that over the truth. For example, if ghosts were real, and the door closes on its own. It would be more thrilling to give blame to the possible existence of paranormal activity than to a simple draft.
What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis?
On a daily basis, I consume various types of media content. On the TV I watch news channels that are heavily reliant on the verification of sources before anything is aired. They try their best to explain the story as it really happened. Of course, that is their objective, perhaps political views and beliefs could affect their perception of truth but at least none of the aired content is fabricated. On the other hand, I do also watch the stories small team content creators post on Snapchat. Their perception of truth is very different from one of a larger news channel. Their goal is to have as much traffic as possible, the way that they sometimes do this is by creating inaccurate stories or false scenarios to go along with an ambiguous image. They could manipulate an image or video by slightly altering the story or putting on a misleading clickbait.
What is the role of a live broadcast?
The goal and original role of a live broadcast are to report an event as objectively as possible. It shows real-time pictures and real-time videos of the event. The shows the viewers that whatever happens in that life time is not fabricated and therefore increases the reliability of the story and broadcast.
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