Non-fiction storytelling – Documentary – is about exploring reality, current issues and other subjects with the purpose of informing and possibly bringing candid insights to the viewer. Hopefully, giving the viewer choices about how they end up feeling about the subject. Documentaries are very different from the news or “Reality” programming in that documentaries are about conveying information in a narrative form. Some documentaries are both informative and entertaining.
Unlike, for example, a news broadcast on the BBC, where someone sits at a desk and reads the day’s news to the audience; television in the United States is an entertainment medium. We watch television to be entertained. American Television, both broadcast and cable, has turned “News” into entertainment because that’s how they get ratings and advertisers. Not only is the news presented as entertainment it’s exploited by people, corporate interests, political groups and others; so we end up with entertaining propaganda.
There is an overwhelming amount of true and false information coming from various sources including the serious press, tabloids, internet, cable TV, broadcast TV, political organizations, public relations companies, and foreign governments. These sources should not be lumped into one big mass, called “The Media.”
As far as Television (broadcast [radio too] and cable) people are watching and listening to programming that takes information and presents it in such a way as to attract a certain demographic. People who watch Fox Cable News are interested in “fake news” stories, with a right-wing twist on the information. This twist does not need to conform to any factual realities. What they watch supports their beliefs. The entire population is divided by the diverse sources of the information they receive. This applies to all demographics not just people who watch Fox Cable.
The big difference between Fox Fake News and the others, is that the other cable news outlets do not have the goal of creating propaganda.
James R Martin
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