John Golden, Grant High School, Portland, talks about documentaries.

His first statement was that documentaries are biased by nature. There is a misconception that docs are supposed to be unbiased in nature.

Youth are introduced to documentaries in school, such as Social Studies and Science classes. Docs are used as info dissemination, so youth form the idea that docs should be unbiased and neutral.

So, for youth to learn documentaries, they need the vernacular.

Visual Track- the visual information
Audio Track- what we hear
Text ot Graphics Track- info laid over

Each Track brings info.

Docs are biased in nature... doc directors are not journalists.


Video News Releases

"VNRs are produced by public relations firms at the request of companies selling products. Oftentimes they are made to look like news broadcasts, complete with on-air "reporters," interview, B-roll. PR firms then send their VNRs to local TV news stations who sometimes run them with only minimal editing."

Here is an example of a VNR from Wheaties (mov 2.9MB) and a News station that used the VNR to make a news story (mov1.0 MB).



My note: Interesting that VNRs are seen as PR. Maybe we need to pay attention to what the field defines what we produce at the ELCA. PR is not a bad thing. It is vital.