Reggie Yates – hidden
Australia.
This documentary is about Reggie Yates who visits an
Aboriginal community suffering from addiction and generations of
institutionalised racism. His plan is to go to a city in Australia called
Wilcannia, to find out the cause of why it is so isolated, lifeless and why it
doesn’t attract tourism. Reggie spends a couple days in Wilcannia to talking to
those who live there and find out what life is like there and why they have
such a bad name with tourists.
Accuracy:
In this documentary, Reggie went there with no accurate
information but only on what he has heard on passing. So with this, he took the
risk of going to Wilcannia, Australia to share only true facts with the public and
report it correctly without making the rumours about them to be true. For Reggie
to provide all the facts he’s going to have to get specific details from those
he speaks to in this documentary to show people that this isn’t scripted or put
on for show, and by doing that, Reggie normally tells his audience who he’s
about to meet but in this case he doesn’t, he goes in blind and just walks up
to random people on the street, greets them and finds out their story on what
they do in this isolated area and what happened to it. For example, Reggie
pulls up on family, the first family he comes across really, and just asks them
a few questions and he speaks to one male in particular, Lendal King who tells
him about how he’s drinking early in the morning because there’s nothing to do.
Reggie then meets some young girls at a bus stop and asks them a few questions
on why they think their parents drinks and if there is anything to do in the
town. This is important for Reggie as well as the audience because both him and
the audience are not given false information.
Accuracy is one of the most important things for news story,
it’s like a religion, have to stick to the rules and make sure everything is
based on truth. This goes for most or nearly all of the tv news based
companies. This is so they are giving out correct information to those who are
watching, as this is where they get the most views. For example the bbc have to
get all the facts and figures of the story as in name, age, race (if needed),
where the story was taken place and the day it happened. “Folajimi
Orebiyi, known as Fola, was stabbed in the neck outside the Aston House estate
in west London on 3 July 2016.”
Balance:
Balance is finding out information from both side of the
parties to those who are watching rather than favouring one side of the story
to make the audience feel one particular way. For this documentary that Reggie
is doing, it’s hard to sort of suss out if you’re really getting both sides of
the story because Reggie goes around talking to people and to find out their
side of the story but when he meets a radio dj (DJ Smacka), he tells Reggie
what happened and why the town is actually the way it is. “The last time we had
a camera come in was when, I think it was a bloke from 60 Minutes. He left and
done a very horrible story. Then he came back to apologise and said that he’ll
make it good, and the second story he did just made it worser.” For the viewers
this might be hard for them to make up their mind because they’re not hearing
it from the person who made the story but from those who have suffered the
impact from it.
The BBC has to keep everything balanced when they report
news, as there is more than one party involved, such as the victim themselves or
their family if the victim didn’t make it, in which this case the young 17 year
old didn’t.
Impartiality and
objectivity:
Impartiality is weighing views or opinions up fairly,
without letting your personal view get in the way of how you see things. Objectivity
is judging something without allowing your personal feelings to get involved. For
Reggie, no matter what he is documenting, he never lets his view block his way
of seeing things, meaning he may not like how they live or how the guy
portrayed them. “I’m a little shell-shocked. I mean, as someone who hates the
idea of stereotyping and gets incredibly frustrated whenever I feel that
someone is, you know, being massively presumptuous about me based on their own
prejudice. I’m a little disappointed that in the first hour of me being here,
I’ve just walked into a living, breathing stereotype for these people.” From
this you can clearly see what Reggie is feeling but that doesn’t stop him from
finding out more and blocking his view of seeing things.
Subjectivity:
Subjectivity is judgement based on personal feelings and
opinions rather than external facts. The citizens of Wilcannia, are honest
about alcohol playing a big part of where they live and their lives. However Reggie
has shown us, the audience more information and why they really do what they
do, and shows how there really isn’t anything to do apart from drink for those
who live there.
Opinion:
An opinion is a personal view, a belief that doesn’t have
enough evidence to be classed as a fact. Within all documentaries that Reggie
does, he has his opinions and views but they don’t count as facts, but he helps
others make their own opinion on the documentary due to how they live.
With this sort of news the bbc are not allowed to express
their own opinion on the subject, they
are only allowed to provide you, the audience the information.
Bias:
Bias is unfairly siding with one certain side of an argument
without evidence to back it up. Reggie doesn’t take sides and he definitely
isn’t biased. He balances his opinions and hears what both sides of the
argument.
Representation:
Representation is how something is portrayed or stereotyped
within the media. Many things in the media get taken the wrong way or interpret
it in the wrong way by how they’ve been represented. In this case Reggie,
hasn’t portrayed it in a bad way, or said anything to make it look bad, he
leaves that to the public to decide for themselves.
Access:
Access is being allowed permission to film but before you
can do that you have to make sure you are given permission by those who you are
meant to be interviewing so that there are no complications. For Reggie, it was
a different story, he may have got permission to come in the country and film
but because he wasn’t interviewing anyone in particular, he interviewed those
who he just came across, yet he still had to ask if he could ask them a few
questions.
Privacy:
Privacy is being free away from the attention of the public.
As this isn’t a direct interview documentary meaning that he didn’t have to
keep things private like addresses but at the same time he didn’t in a way,
because he had to protect where he was going in Wilcannia and where about’s he
filmed in the area and where he interviewed people, like when he went to a
youth club for the kids. This is so no one can go and find them or try to do
anything with their information.
