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?
We are living in an ever-changing world full of uncertainties. People are more confused and mentally unstable than ever. There is no denying that the massive media is the main cause of the changes in our mindset. In the past, what we could and needed to care about was the world around us. Now that the media has fully developed, news around the globe can be sent to us in a split second.
Diseases, famine, wars, political propaganda……What is true and what is not? Living in an era of information explosion, we can hardly tell. Instead of holding some unbreakable belief in truth, we start to accept the fact that media can be infinitely close to but never reach what happened at that moment. Just as the author points out, “The need for objective, institutionally guaranteed, and even scientific integrity is successfully being replaced by the desire for intensity.” We tend to appreciate the expression of media, interpret it in our own way, and most importantly, feel emotionally connected with others. The authenticity and representation of truth in the media are a gesture of pursuing something common in ourselves. And that is enough. It doesn’t even have to be one hundred percent correct.
And that is probably the reason why we prefer live broadcasts to recorded videos. There is an emotional bond in the instant feedback coming from the screen, which holds people behind the screen and the audience with an invisible string. Once a video is recorded and released, it is more of a product than a window that opens for others to interact and respond.
Live broadcasts just document. They don’t pursue the so-called truth intentionally. There is no editing or polishing. Live broadcasts face the uncertainty directly. people like to see imperfect and even out-of-focus images because those images remind them that they are real and they live under the same sky at the end of the day.