1st Edition
Creating Reality in Factual Television The Frankenbite and Other Fakes
1. The Cutting Room as Field of Academic Inquiry 2. Reality Roots 3. Cross-Pollination and the Problem with Story4. Dancing with Contradiction in Factual Television 5.Self-Reflexive Editing for Informed Audiences Appendix
Biography
Manfred W. Becker is a documentary filmmaker and Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director in the MFA Film program at York University, Canada
"At a time when documentary ethics debates are heating up, this carefully-researched account of editorial practice in factual television in context is much needed. Becker probes the gap between academic analysis and even carefully-considered practice, and between creators’ intentions and commercial imperatives. "Frankenbite" is a valuable cautionary word to add to our documentary vocabulary."
-Patricia Aufderheide, University Professor, School of Communication, American University
"Creating Reality in Factual Television: the Frankenbite and other Fakes will be an important contribution and much-needed addition to the ethics questions of editing in factual programming. The book will directly address the particularly important value of storytelling as a scripted approach, as a narrative device is coming under increasing critical scrutiny because of unintended or deliberate consequence in a form of emotional manipulation of the audience. It will also introduce and discuss the question of who might presume ultimate editorial control among the competing interests and values of the editor, producer and commissioner of the program. As the hybridization of information and entertainment become more pronounced in all media, the role of independent adjudication by independent ombudsmen or public editors is clearly indicated. This book will be an important step in that direction."
- Jeffrey Dvorkin, First NPR News Ombudsman and Program Director, Journalism, University of Toronto
