Politics of Truth, The*

• 1993 ----- color ----- 73 min ----- vhs
• (Constructing Reality: Exploring Media Issues in Documentary series) Focuses on critical questions about fact, truth, point of view, and bias in reality-based media. Conventions of authenticity, the creation of propaganda, the thorny questions of docudramas with their mix of fact and fiction, and the biases involved in the construction of television news programs are featured. The Spaghetti Story (3 min), BBC spoof of the conventions of the travelogue vignette, a classic that generates discussion about techniques used to assure viewers that what they are watching is "true"; Has Anybody Here Seen Canada? (Excerpts) (22 min), history of Canadian movies between 1939 and 1953 which focuses on war-time propaganda films and shows how malleable visual images can be; Docudrama: Fact and Fiction (Excerpts) (29 min), the hybrid form of docudrama raises complex issues: excerpts from a symposium on docudrama focus on a debate sparked by the contentious film The Kid Who Couldn't Miss; The Journey (Excerpts) (19 min), selections about the struggle for peace analyze the way in which television news is constructed and documentary conventions of truth, particularly objectivity, subjectivity, and bias. (Closed-Captioned) (Donated by the Department of Canadian Studies) (Restricted to use by institutions of learning within the State of Washington only)
• Topics: (Audiovisual Education, Canadian Studies, Communications, History, History: Canadian, Motion Pictures: History, Political Science, Political Science: Canadian)