Oxford Dictionary’s definition of documentaries is as follows “A film or television or radio programme that provides a factual report in a particular subject.” Documentaries are made to help inform and educate its audience, usually revealing new information on the chosen subject. Documentary-makers present factual information, which, is mainly focused on economic, social, cultural or historical subject matters. There is a sense of reality included within documentaries created through the location and the subject being captured through a picture or film, this is a way in which the documentary-makers can put across the realism and truthfulness of the subject, as there is visible evidence of the stated fact.
The main focus in this thesis will be discussing the diverse range of strategies employed by television documentary-makers and how these are executed to convey to the audience the ‘truthfulness’ of their work and also what might be the possible problems that are present in some of these strategies employed by the documentary-maker.
Between the 1920s and 1980s we witness dramatic changes and developments to the evolution of Television documentaries. World War ll was crucial to the progression of radio documentary, as it distinguished the works of the CBS writer Norman Corwin and the reporting of Edward R. Murrow, then in 1946, Murrow created the CBS documentary unit, this was a way in which documentary journalism was linked with an idea where broadcasters could exchange a public news service for the station licenses.
Documentaries began to increase in both quality and quantity during the early 1960s. Mary Ann Watson articulates how the link of technology within social dynamics gave a profuse momentum to the television documentary movement in ‘The expanding vista: American