A documentary film seeks to tell the ‘truth’. The documentary persuades the viewer that what they are telling them is just the directors’ beliefs and trying to get people to think in the way that themselves already think. They usually include humans strengths and weaknesses e.g. honesty, fear, hope, anger. Documentaries educate and inform the viewer to bring change to people’s attitudes, values and opinions, not always for the greater good. Quite frequently they also include what is happening or has happened previously to the world outside the film itself.
Documentaries construct an argument about the world from these assertions or claims. Every documentary has a voice over, which explains the film in more detail than just what the viewer can see.
Reality T.V. uses a different range of features although some are the same.
Voice overs as in documentaries are also in Reality T.V. shows, e.g. Big Brother.
Usually the voice overs in Reality T.V. are a celebrity or a well known host.
The group of people in the program are specially chosen so they are put into situations so they will conflict, e.g. Catherine Deveny and Peter Reith in the same group.
Participants are forced to do things they wouldn’t normally do in everyday life, like going through a warzone with heavily armed guards and travelling by boat.
Most reality T.V. shows are sponsored. World Vision sponsored the show when it first aired. ‘Go back to where you came from 2’ has a voice over narrating what is happening in the show, has a group of people that conflict, e.g. Imogen Bailey and Michael Smith, Catherine Deveny and Peter Reith, Angry Anderson with both women. The group were made to travel to Christmas Island by boat, in which no