With Close Reference To Two TV Documentaries Of Your Choice

With Close Reference To Two TV Documentaries Of Your Choice With Close Reference To Two TV Documentaries Of Your Choice Discuss:what Are The Opportunities And â€" Assignment Example > Television Documentary in the UK: Opportunities and Constraints2006Documentaries, particularly those based on current affairs, have occupied a major share of the British television time for long. Since the 1960s, documentaries have formed 20-25 percent of BBC’s and Channel 4’s programs and 10 percent of advertisement-sponsored ITV (Winston, 1999). However, the place of documentaries in television time scheduling since the 1960s till recently was driven by public broadcasting policies rather than popularity, although some documentaries did figure in the top slots in the viewer surveys (Kilborn, 1996). Since the 1990s, and particularly in the new millennium, television documentaries have gained in popularity. Much of this is related to global politics grabbing the headlines and facts becoming stranger and as intriguing as fiction. Besides, politics and current affairs are no longer the domain of politicians, strategists and academicians but involve the destiny of the common man, particularly in the post-9/11 world. Apart from the current affairs documentaries, another genre of documentaries that have gained in the popularity charts is the docusoaps â€" a type of Reality TV on the lines of the cinema verite. These multi-part documentaries, typically following celebrities in their everyday lives or ordinary people in extraordinary situations, have become immensely popular since the 1990s. BBC’s Vet’s School and Driving School have grabbed 41 percent and 53 percent audience in 1996 and 1997 (Witson, 1999). In this paper, I will discuss the opportunities and constraints for documentaries of these two types â€" the socially aware current affairs or historical genre and the docusoap genre â€" on British television with respect to one example of each. British television is taken much more seriously than in other countries. Based on public service, the television industry is closely linked with other establishments like the government, the monarchy, educatio n and the print media. Television journalism finds an important forum in the making of documentaries which are inherently educative, analytical and often controversial. Current affairs, historical analyses and informative issues that cannot be handled with regular news programs are dealt with through documentaries, which has been the major reason for the boom in documentaries aired on serious channels like BBC and Channel 4, the public service broadcast companies. BBC, the leading television broadcast company in the UK shows documentaries in BBC1 and BBC2 (the latter does not air regular news programs), which has commissioned heavyweight film makers like David Attenborough to make informative documentaries like Civilization, Ascent of Man, Life on Earth, Blue Planet and the Private Life of Plants. BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland air documentaries based on these parts of the UK, many of which are often on politically sensitive issues (wikipedia. org). Other BBC services, like Channel 4, are also raking in to commission serious documentaries following its rating success in airing foreign documentaries like US-made Fahrenheit 9/11 made by Michael Moore which it bought it. Even though Channel 4, which can commission and buy documentaries but not make its own, has an annual budget of 30 million pounds, only 6 percent of its total budget, it plans to make a difference in documenting events and trends that could build up public opinion (Rowan, 2005). The federal grouping of 15 regional television companies, Independent Television (ITV), also has important public service requirements that it has to adhere to.