‘Truth’ in texts is a concept that is influenced by many factors including the values, beliefs, experiences and context of its composer and responder, and thus it could be said that truth itself is a contest ground. Considering the immense amount that power wielded by the mass media in shaping the way we view events and issues, a minor distortion in the representation of the truth can leave society with a similarly distorted world view, and no way of knowing what ‘truths’ have been left out of a story. The combined pressures of the quest for ratings, the visual imperative and the concerns of those in power mean that the goal of an ‘objective’ truth is often compromised as seen in Rob Sitch et al’s satirical series Frontline, Martin Durkin’s anti-climate change documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle and two articles on the story of Jessica Lynch, a US soldier captured and rescued in Iraq three years ago, whose story has been subsequently changed over time. These texts have all undergone production processes that have changed the final form in which they appear to an audience, and thus it can be seen that any notion of truth, contested or otherwise is swept away by other motives.
The quest for ratings and thus higher advertising revenue is a major concern for commercial media, as it will guarantee a program’s economic viability. This however, can lead to stories being valued as ‘news worthy’ or not based on how highly they will rate, which can cause the deliberate exclusion of important stories that won’t attract a large audience, or an unnecessary amount of emphasis being placed on one aspect of a story. This can be clearly seen in the Frontline episode ‘The Siege’ in which morals go out the window as the crew seek to explore and exploit the siege for the highest ratings. Marty’s contrasting reactions between when he discovers someone has the unman n the phone – “You bastards. You’ve crossed the line” – and when he realises it is his own team – “You beauty”, clearly exemplifies this attitude. Marty is easily able to let go of the moral high ground when it is his own program (an reputation) which will benefit from the higher ratings.
A similar look is taken at the mercenary nature of the commercial media in Jake Easten’s article The World’s Thinnest Book: The Jessica Lynch story (Radou news, Nov 2003). In this article, he describes Lynch’s story as being “fodder for the front pages”, with the alliteration and animalistic connotation of “fodder” emphasising the ruthless exploitation of this girl’s story by the magazines and newspapers alike, as producers and editors realise Jessica’s story will guarantee them higher ratings.
The Frontline episode ‘We Ain’t Got Dames’ takes a look at the depths a commercial program is willing to sink to in order to prop up their ratings with the realisation that they are losing female audience members, the crew realise that they have to make themselves appear more friendly and appealing. Brian’s instruction to “make [Mike] look warm and fuzzy” leads to a promo of Mike walking along the beach, picking up a baby’s teddy bear, complete with soppy music, slow motion, and soft focus lighting. The humour of this promo as well as its obvious contrast with Mike’s REAL off air persona (a complete buffoon) shows us that this is a deliberate construction very far from any notion of truth – but it works, as female audience numbers begin to rise by the end of the episode.
It can be seen that the need for high ratings and stories that rate well can lead to the exclusion of more important stories or other angles of a particular story, which are traded away because of this commercial imperative – clearly not serving the public good, and not allowing the public to have any idea of an issue other than what the media presents as ‘the absolute truth’.
The visual imperative is inextricably linked to the need for higher ratings, as new stories with enough ‘vision’ are the ones that attract audiences – however, they are not necessarily stories the audience need to hear. The deliberate exclusion of parts of a story for the sake of the visual can be seen in ‘The Siege’. As the gunman insists – “mate, they won’t listen!” – we are presented with a map of NSW, complete with a moving graphic showing where the gunman is calling from. Ironically, no one is listening – they’re too busy looking at the picture. The danger that can be caused by this need for vision is shown through Marty’s brazen ignorance of the exclusion zone as he flies over in a helicopter t get good shots of where the siege is taking place. Although he is endangering people’s lives, this takes a secondary (subordinate) position to the need for pictures – “we got our shots”.
Martin Durlin’s documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, an attempt to convince viewers of the fallacy of man-made global warming, displays a similar need for constant visuals. We never see the narrator, but constant footage of whatever he is talking about, flashing onto the screen in 3-second chunks. The documentary is also full of animated cartoons and diagrams, as well as graphs – but some of the graphs are deceptive, only stopping at 1996 and leaving out information that would contradict Durlin’s scientific theories, this leads to a simplified or even incorrect understanding of a very serious issue.
Thus it can be seen that visuals, causing the exclusion of more important stories or the oversimplification of complex issues, leading to a misrepresentation of the truth. “Don’t let the truth get in the way of some good pictures” appears to be the adage, as the media floods us with images in an attempt to present their notions of truth as the one and only truth. As Brian says in ‘Smaller Fish to Fry’, it’s all about “vision, vision, vision!”
The relatively few media barons wield an enormous amount of influence in controlling what we see and hear, and thus how we perceive certain issues and events. However, they are not without their own personal agendas as clearly seen in ‘Smaller Fish to Fry’. In this episode, we witness the active suppression of truth as those in power (Caville, Brian then Mike) attempt to manipulate those beneath them in order to prevent the story of dodgy bank dealings going to air.
Durlin’s documentary also shows us the desires of those in power – in this case, Durlin himself. Although the film presents itself as an objective scientific documentary, its simplistic visuals, selective use of experts and opinions and outright polemic statements – “You are being told LIES” – reveal the film-maker’s desire: to leave viewers without a choice and that climate change is not happening. A scientist who demanded to be dropped from the film, Carl Wunsch, did so because he felt that his interview had been cut to the point where his views were being misrepresented. Durlin’s selective use of experts and comments that only match HIS opinion is a dangerous thing to do in a documentary, a text-type that by its very nature purports to telling the truth and it is exactly this kind of selective editing – what Brian refers to as “major surgery” in ‘We Ain’t Got Dames’ – that is routine at Frontline.
Returning to a further article on Jessica Lynch, Susan Schmidt’s story ‘She was Fighting to the Death’ (Washington Post, May 2003) employs a similarly selective use of sources. Over nine un-named
In an increasingly complex society in which the mass media is our primary source of information, it is obvious that influences like ratings, the visual imperative and the desires of those in power have led to the neglect of any aim for the most objective truth possible. The AJA code of ethics states “only substantial advancement of the public good allows dry [AJA] standard to be overridden” but it appears there are standards being ridden over left right and centre under these influences, leading to a truth which is not ‘contested’ but in fact, an entire misrepresentation of reality.
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