Video journalism/Ethics of the Gaze

Objectives

At the completion of this topic, you should be able to:

(a) discuss the ethical issues inevitable in script writing and film-making practice;

(b) analyse the processes in developing film and current affairs ideas through the script and supporting proposal;

(c) explore the ways that particular news values or documentary idea prioritising are informed by ideological, cultural and social perspectives; and

(d) inform other imagemakers of issues that need ethical consideration by referring to the codes of ethics and discussion included here.

Note. In referencing the ‘Delinquent Angel’ script (entitled ‘Perceval’) and the PhD (John Perceval: an ethical representation of a delinquent angel) in Resources you should become familiar with the general format of the film script which applies to documentary, current affairs and even fictional films.The script was written with a film in mind that was verite, involving documentary actuality with elements of the film-maker at the centre as provocateur. The film itself will be uploaded in the future for your use and deconstruction in writing and conceptualising your documentary project. All the best.

It is often said that television has altered our world. In the same way, people often speak of a new world, a new society, a new phase of history, being created – ‘brought about’ – by this or that new technology............

Most of us know what is generally implied when such things are said. But this may be the central difficulty: that we have got so used to statements of this general kind, in our most ordinary discussions, that we fail to realise their specific meanings. [Raymond Wiliams Television – Technology and Cultural Form Fontana. UK, 1974, 9.]

Read this essay for some back-grounding: Ethics in the Immersive Documentary by John Dentino December 2013

http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/feature-articles/ethics-in-the-immersive-documentary/

Writing about these issues works at finding a place in culture – for journalism, TV news and documentary. It also allows for a critique of the accountability in news and documentary in the context of the new world information order and perhaps most importantly, in the context of the documentary subject (the social actor).

Since its beginning, my film 'Perceval', later renamed 'Delinquent Angel', underwent three thematic and structural changes in response to public policy.

Outside being complex in filmmaking terms, this provides the opportunity to write about and analyse the changes and then enact a wider critique of genre, trends and processes within documentary journalism and film culture. In this context, one can provide a reflexivity that is difficult to maintain in academic writing on documentary when there is no direct contact or experience with the medium.

Discussions around journalistic representation and fairness, or notions of privacy verses public interest, or comment on the subjectivity-objectivity balance; often become bogged down in their own problematics. The contradictions and problematics within journalism filmmaking are the centre of this work-in progress discussion which deliberately exposes ethical dilemmas in filmmaking. In short, this paper reviews questions of representation and ethical practice in video journalism that employs the new, portable and unobtrusive digital camera. In particular, it looks at questions of ethics surrounding the camera gazing on the very private John Perceval.