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Discourses of Power and Representation in British Broadcasting Corporation Documentary Practices: 1999-2013
Thornton, Karen D.
Thornton, Karen D.
Publication Date
2018
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The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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Accepted for publication
Institution
University of Bradford
Department
Faculty of Engineering and Informatics
Awarded
2018
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Abstract
This dissertation re-evaluates the ways in which contemporary
television documentary practices engage their audience. Bringing
together historical frameworks, and using them to analyse a range of
examples not considered together within this context previously, the
main finding is that the use of spectacle to engage the audience into
a visceral response cuts across all of the examples analysed,
regardless of the subject matter being explored.
Drawing on a media archaeological approach, the dissertation draws
parallels with the way in which pre-cinema engaged an audience
where the primary point of engagement came from the image itself,
rather than a narrative. Within a documentary context, which is
generally understood as a genre which is there to educate or inform
an audience, the primacy of spectacle calls for a re-evaluation of the
form and function of documentary itself. Are twenty-first century
documentary practices manufacturing an emotional connection to
engage the audience over attempting to persuade with reasoning
and logic? The answer contained within this dissertation is that they
are.
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Type
Thesis
Qualification name
PhD