The topic discussed today was on the ‘power of
creativity’ and the group presenting decided to focus on documentaries and I
must say it pretty eye opening. From the presentation I was able to take a few
things from it, first, that documentaries can act as a form of resilience for
the people telling them, as they are able to tell their stories their way. In a
nation where we have the right to freedom of expression, many people use
documentaries as a way to express their views on an issue. Something else I
took from this presentation was that documentaries are a way for viewers to see
multiple perspectives on an issue. By this I mean there have been several
documentaries made about Black men in low-income neighborhoods, highlighting a
few in Toronto, Regent Park, Malvern and Jane and Finch. Many of the
documentaries depict the people living in these neighborhoods as poor, drug
dealers, neglectful, delinquent, criminals, just to name a few. There are very
few documentaries that actually show what it is like to live in these
neighborhoods. Another important aspect that I was able to take from this
presentation was that although documentaries can be very informative there are
a lot of things that the director cuts out. This means that at the end of the
day it is what the director wants you to see or what they want to put in is
what is included in the documentary. A very touching clip was the one about a
mother raising her disabled sons. Now while I thought that this was going to be
a documentary about raising disabled children it went further than that. It
discussed the effects of raising disabled children on parents is rarely
discussed, and that these parents often suffer their own disabilities as they
try to carry out their daily routines which can often be stressful. This
reminded me of my own mother who's raising disabled children and the effects
that it may be having on her. I don't think I've ever really taken the time to
consider what it does to her because she appears to be strong.
So this brings me to wonder whether or not as individuals can we really believe everything that we see in documentaries and take it to be fact/truth. Or should we be more critical and ask ourselves, what isn't this documentary telling us?
So this brings me to wonder whether or not as individuals can we really believe everything that we see in documentaries and take it to be fact/truth. Or should we be more critical and ask ourselves, what isn't this documentary telling us?
I think this we should believe everything in this documentary because everyone situation is different so people could be luck to have high income with disabled children and some he low. If we took this and believed it we would generally have the same thought that we are stereotyping and classing ourselves in catergories
ReplyDeleteI think we should be more critical because even though the media acts as an informant and lens it does not always portray reality as what it is. The media likes to focus on aspects that they think are attention grabbing for an audience so if it means editing out parts because they believe that it does not fall in line with what they want to depict, they will. I would like to end this with the quote "until lions have their own historians,tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters ".
ReplyDeleteThe Media is a controlled industry and all information given through documentaries whether it’s good or bad, it is all done for a purpose. When watching documentaries I feel you should have an open mind towards the topics to ensure you don’t let other opinions cloud your own.
ReplyDeleteToo Answer the questions, in my opinion you should always be thinking outside the box when watching or listening to anything coming from the media.
Bias is not limited to just media. In any piece of replication, be it an article in the news, a research report, a fictional movie "based on" true events, it will always contain some sort of bias and message (which does not have to be the author's own).
ReplyDeleteWe should absorb the information from documentaries because we do not always have the chance to experience the contents and information of the documentaries ourselves. It's just another piece of information available to us.
We should be critical of the documentaries because documentaries are just another side of a multi-faceted story, but not the whole picture (for a variety of reasons).
I believe that documentaries are made to be based on fact however just like the old saying there are two sides to every story, there are usually facts that can both prove or disprove any perspective / point of view. Many documentaries have hidden agendas and many documentaries simply have agendas and are not trying to hide anything, but are still showing only one side because that is what they wish to portray. We should always be critical in what we are watching and especially when watching documentaries because we are already conditioned to believe that the documentary is educational but we must also consider the other angles that they are not showing.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say that I am on the fence on this one. I think that documentaries eliminate all the glam and glitter that are often seen in other types of videography. However, the whole point of compiling a documentary is because the director or the writer has a particular stance on a specific topic. They are generally biased to begin with. Hence I believe that you should always view a documentary with a level of critical thinking. But I do believe that they are an eye opener on so many different levels.Sometimes they take you to the heart of an issue that you probably were ignorant to and other times they illuminate a social problem that many may shy away from. However, across the board I would have to agree with everyone that you should take everything with a grain of salt, explore it for yourself and draw a critical conclusion as to what you believe and what you don't.
ReplyDeleteI think that is an amazing quote! I also think that there are various stances as many commenters have said in documentaries, but if you only absorb one I feel like you are limiting yourself, but yes, documentaries again are only one piece of a whole pie.
ReplyDelete