Television Documentary
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Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen
documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called docuseries, are
television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...
screened within an ordered collection of two or more televised
episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Greek term ''epeisodion'' (), meaning th ...
s. *Television documentary films exist as a singular
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
to be broadcast via a
documentary channel A documentary channel is a specialty channel which focuses on broadcasting documentaries. Some documentary channels further specialize by dedicating their television programming to specific types of documentaries or documentaries in a specific a ...
or a news-related channel. Occasionally, documentary films that were initially intended for televised broadcasting may be screened in a
cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ...
. Documentary television rose to prominence during the 1940s, spawning from earlier cinematic documentary filmmaking ventures. Early production techniques were highly inefficient compared to modern recording methods. Early television documentaries typically featured historical, wartime, investigative or event-related subject matter. Contemporary television documentaries have extended to include celebrity, sporting, travel, economic and wildlife subjects. Many television documentaries have created controversy and debate surrounding ethical, cultural, social and political concerns. Controversy has also arisen regarding the current formatting of televised documentary series, as well as the contextualisation of televised documentaries broadcast via contemporary streaming services.


History


Pre-1900

Televised documentary finds its roots in the media communication modes of film, photojournalism and radio. Specifically, televised documentary can be traced to the origins of cinematic
documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
. Documentary film emerged in prominence within non-fiction filmmaking as an account of historical and contemporary events. In 1898,
Bolesław Matuszewski Bolesław Matuszewski (August 19, 1856 Pińczów, – c.1943 or 1944; in French texts Boleslas Matuszewski) - Polish businessman, photographer and cameraman, pioneer of cinematography and documentary film. Biography He was born in 1856 in Piń ...
, a Polish cinematographer suggested documentary film to be a "new source of history". The widespread evolution of documentary filmmaking led James Chapman to consider its origins as a largely "international process" involving nations such as the United States of America, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and Great Britain.


1900–1950

The emergence of documentary film within its televised format followed the advent of the launch of the world's first high-definition (as then defined) public television service on 2 November 1936 by the
British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
(BBC). Following this initial broadcast, the BBC's television service continued, albeit in limited capacity, until 1939 with the onset of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. This suspension lasted throughout the six-year wartime period. Regular television broadcasting was resumed in 1946. Subsequent expansion of the BBC's network throughout the coming years toward nationwide coverage, additional channels, as well as the introduction of novel competition into the television network market (notably Independent Television) spurred opportunities for the emergence of televised documentary. In line with the British conception of a publicly televised broadcasting network, television documentary also finds its origins in British media. It is of common belief that the widespread televised revolution, particularly within documentary filmmaking, was an inevitable construct. Duncan Ross and Ramsay Short became early pioneers of the televised documentary format, prominently embedding existing filmmaking techniques within this new broadcasting vehicle. Ross, in 1950, noted that documentary media was "perfectly at home in television." At this time, Ross and his contemporaries considered television documentary as an extension beyond traditional documentary filmmaking – particularly in celebrating John Grierson's defining notion that documentary exists as "the creative treatment of actuality." These early television documentarists advocated for the potential influence of television documentary within educational, social and cultural mediums.


1950–1970

The origin of television documentary within the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
dates to 1949, depicting a series of wartime memoirs. During the 1950s, prominent commercial broadcasting networks, such as
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
,
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, centred their televised documentaries around historical, military, wartime and event-related genres. The 1960s are frequently celebrated as the "Golden Age" of television documentary within the United States. At this time, television documentaries began to hold increasing importance within both journalistic and political realms. Notably, the
Kennedy administration John F. Kennedy's tenure as the 35th president of the United States, began with his inauguration on January 20, 1961, and ended with his assassination on November 22, 1963. A Democrat from Massachusetts, he took office following the 1960 ...
believed that televised documentaries could contribute towards the American efforts to constrain the growth of
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
. Television documentary continued to grow in popularity globally throughout the forthcoming decades. James Chapman notes ''
Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
'' (1969) as "the best indication of the cultural acceptance" of television documentary. Following its screening, ''Royal Family'' amassed viewership figures of 40 million people globally.


1970–2000

The latter decades of the twentieth century saw television documentary decline in popularity on commercial broadcasting networks, rather screening primarily via
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
networks. This saw the rise of several specialised documentary channels, such as
The History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...
and
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
, in the early 2000s. During this period in the United States,
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
continued to screen investigative television documentaries. Moreover, this period also saw the emergence of television documentaries produced by minority groups, offering novel cultural and political opinions.


Contemporary television documentary

A new medium for documentary broadcasting emerged in the 2000s and continued to rise to prominence in the 2010s. Interactive documentaries, otherwise known as i-docs or web documentaries, often accompany traditionally broadcast television documentaries, featuring interactive hyper-links, audio, text and images. Interactive documentaries have been recognised in recent film festivals, such as the
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...
and the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
, largely for their success in educational and historical media productions. The current trajectory of television documentary productions is widely suggested to transit towards streaming services such as
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
and Stan. This trend coincides with the emergence of brand-sponsored documentaries. For instance,
Johnson & Johnson Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation founded in 1886 that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods. Its common stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the company i ...
commissioned the production of '' 5B'', depicting several nurses who founded an
AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
ward at the San Francisco General Hospital. The documentary aligns with Johnson and Johnson's brand focus on "care" and "touch". Tim Stevenson indicates that brand-sponsored documentaries allow marketers to access widespread audiences through mediums that traditional advertising methods cannot.


Production techniques

Early television documentaries were produced by recording the relevant visual and sonic media separately. Sixteen millimetre
film cameras A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either on an image sensor or onto film stock, in order to produce a moving image to project onto a movie sc ...
, often positioned on tripods, captured the image, utilising accompanying lighting and filtering equipment. Sound was recorded using a quarter inch
sound recorder Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording te ...
alongside several microphones. During
post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...
, the visual and sonic elements were syncopated. Particularly prominent equipment utilised throughout the early period of television documentary production included
Éclair An éclair (, ; ) is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it ...
16mm film cameras, in conjunction with
Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company’s product lines into new markets. ...
sound recorders. Contemporary attempts to recreate a similar vintage production environment note such methods to be inefficient and often faulty. The early 1970s sparked revolutionary changes within documentary production techniques. Marshall McLuhan and
Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing mo ...
inspired a revolt against the existing traditional methods of information communication to American society.
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
's newly developed
Portapak A Portapak is a battery-powered, self-contained video tape analog recording system. Introduced to the market in 1967, it could be carried and operated by one person. Earlier television cameras were large and heavy, required a specialized vehicle ...
video camera was a significant tool that spurred the Guerrilla television campaign and was recognised for its facilitation of the transfer of video tape recordings from one company's device to another company's respective device. The next significant development within television documentary production techniques came in the 1980s with the introduction of portable video recorders, also known as
camcorders A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-swap ...
. Most notably, Sony developed the
Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, "Betacam" singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. Al ...
. This product was renowned for advancing the mobility and flexibility of video cameras, thereby facilitating heightened efficiency during documentary production. Moreover, camcorders allowed for substantial production cost reductions in relation to traditional film camera production techniques, thereby allowing for increased amounts of footage to be captured. This led camcorders to almost entirely replace film cameras by the end of the twentieth century. Glover suggests that this widespread adoption of digital documentary production methods provided novel opportunities for documentaries to "take on any or several of the modes" of documentary as defined by Bill Nichols. This lends particular convenience to the production of the 'slide-show' approach, which shows framed-stills with narrating 'talking heads' – a "constant staple" of television documentary.


Genres

Early British television documentaries held a large focus upon historical events, locations and governing states. Additionally, war documentaries rose to prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s, illustrating efforts of the Allied Forces in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Investigative television documentaries also grew in popularity during the 1950s. Chad Raphael highlights CBS's ''
See It Now ''See It Now'' is an American newsmagazine and documentary series broadcast by CBS from 1951 to 1958. It was created by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, with Murrow as the host of the show. From 1952 to 1957, ''See It Now'' won four Emmy ...
'' (1951–1955) as being a landmark television documentary that spawned the investigative genre, marking the "first critical journalism on television." Later, in the 1960s, televised documentary genres continued to expand; Natural history and
wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...
subjects became popular documentary subjects. So too did documentaries that explored themes of humanity. ''
Civilisation A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of State (polity), a state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and Symbol, symbolic systems of communication beyond natural language, natur ...
'' (1969), a thirteen-part documentary series broadcast on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
, portraying the course of
Western civilisation Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
, was famed for its utilisation of then-contemporary, colourised television media. Television documentaries continue to spotlight wartime, historical, governmental and wildlife subjects. Contemporary genres of television documentaries also include sport, health, economic, social media and celebrity subjects.


Criticism

The continued emergence of television documentary within historical and informative media contexts has engaged significant debate and controversy surrounding its wide-reaching influence. These controversies typically consist of ethical, cultural, social and political concerns. Televised documentary media has been considered to create
ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
controversy surrounding the incomplete portrayal of an event; ethical controversy following image modification via
digital editing Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...
techniques and ethical concerns regarding the verifiability of the information presented within an
image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...
. As such, defamation within television documentary has been a persistent source of controversy. ITV's 2003 documentary, ''
Living with Michael Jackson ''Living with Michael Jackson'' is a television documentary in which the British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed the American singer Michael Jackson from May 2002 to January 2003. It was broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV (as a ''Toni ...
'', drew criticism from
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
, who claimed that the film "utterly betrayed" him in its portrayal of his relationships with young children. Similarly, '' Fahrenheit 9/11'' (2004) raised concerns regarding the factual accuracy and honesty of its portrayal of the geopolitics of George W. Bush's administration. Such factual discrepancies have led to frequent suggestions that television documentary occasionally deviates from accurate historical representations, rather escalating drama for entertainment purposes. The
cultural Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human Society, societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, and habits of the ...
influence of television documentary has frequently been under public scrutiny. Such concerns date to the initial emergence of televised documentary within public spheres. Cultural controversy arose regarding the BBC's 1965 production, ''
The War Game ''The War Game'' is a 1966 British pseudo-documentary film that depicts a nuclear war and its aftermath. Written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC, it caused dismay within the BBC and also within government, and was subseque ...
''. Despite previous broadcasting approval, the BBC later concluded that the documentary was "too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting," thus, it was not publicly broadcast. Later remarks affirmed that the BBC took such an approach with concern for the potentially negative institutional and cultural influence arising from public televised broadcasting of ''The War Game''. Contemporary studies have been conducted with specific focus on evaluating the
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
and
political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
influence of television documentaries. Feldman and Sigelman conducted a study in 1985, analysing the effect of the television docudrama, ''
The Day After ''The Day After'' is an American television film that first aired on November 20, 1983 on the ABC television network. More than 100 million people, in nearly 39 million households, watched the film during its initial broadcast. With ...
'', presenting the aftermath that could unfold following a
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
nuclear attack upon the Kansas City area. They concluded that the docudrama held influence upon other newspaper and television stories, particularly regarding discussions of arms limitations with the Soviet Union. The study also found that public concerns heightened regarding the United States' ability to survive following a major nuclear attack. Additionally, ''The Day After'' sparked debate about whether or not
President Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
should have increased public defence expenditure. Similarly, another study concluded that several recent social-issue documentaries, including '' Semper Fi'', held "situated knowledge" and thus were influential within the United States in enacting
law reform Law reform or legal reform is the process of examining existing laws, and advocating and implementing change in a legal system, usually with the aim of enhancing justice or efficiency. Intimately related are law reform bodies or law commissions, ...
. The advancement and contemporary formatting of popular television documentary productions has also drawn controversy in recent years. In 2014, famed documentary narrator,
David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...
, expressed an opinion in which he lamented the contemporary state of television documentaries. He believed modern audiences to lack an interest in lengthy documentary series, rather favouring miniseries composed of two or three episodes. He suggested that these miniseries do not "deal with something properly." Instead, Attenborough longed for a "stronger commitment and belief" in one subject matter, facilitating extended documentary series production once more. The emergence of streaming services into the cultural broadcasting mainstream throughout the 2010s in particular, has also sparked contemporary controversy surrounding the format and classification of televised documentaries. Subsequently, the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. It is a 501(c)(6) non-prof ...
(ATAS), a leading professional honorary organisation that champions the advancement of the television industry in the United States, has recognised documentaries published by streaming services as eligible for consideration for an
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
. Televised media, broadcast via streaming services, has grown so much in popularity such that
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
-produced television shows received a record 160 nominations in the
72nd Primetime Emmy Awards The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2019, until May 31, 2020, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was originally to be held at the Microsof ...
in 2020. This achievement was followed by streaming service rival
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
, who received 107 nominations in 2020. Notably, the 2020 grand prize for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series was won by
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
's '' The Last Dance'' (2020) which was streamed on Netflix globally.


Example channels

*
Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Al Jazeera Documentary Channel (Arabic: الجزيرة الوثائقية) is a pan-Arab satellite Arabic language film and documentary channel and a branch of the Al Jazeera Media Network based in Doha, Qatar. It was launched at 12:00 GMT on ...
*
Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...
*
CGTN Documentary CGTN Documentary (formerly CCTV-9 Documentary) is a Chinese pay television channel operated by the China Global Television Network (CGTN) group, owned by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). The channel broadcasts documenta ...
*
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
* DOC: The Documentary Channel * Docu TVE *
Documentary (TV channel) Documentary Channel (stylized as ''documentary Channel'') is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the National Film Board of Canada and four other independent producers. ...
*
History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
*
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
*
Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
*
Smithsonian Channel The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facili ...
*
WORLD Channel WORLD Channel, also branded as WORLD, is an American digital multicast public television network owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. It is distributed by American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunica ...


See also

*
Bill Nichols (film critic) :''See also Bill Nichols (disambiguation).'' Bill Nichols (born 1942) is an American film critic and theoretician best known for his pioneering work as founder of the contemporary study of documentary film. His 1991 book, ''Representing Reality ...
*
Documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
*
Documentary mode Documentary mode is a conceptual scheme developed by American documentary theorist Bill Nichols that seeks to distinguish particular traits and conventions of various documentary film styles. Nichols identifies six different documentary 'modes ...
*
Filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
* John Grierson *
List of documentary television channels This is a list of documentary channels, including channels that have been affected by "channel drift". It also contains channels accused of a biased point of view. List See also * Channel drift References {{DEFAULTSORT:Documentary televis ...
*
Mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
*
Public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...
*
Sponsored film Sponsored film, or ephemeral film, as defined by film archivist Rick Prelinger, is a film made by a particular sponsor for a specific purpose other than as a work of art: the films were designed to serve a specific pragmatic purpose for a limited ...
*
Walter Goodman (critic) Walter Goodman (1927–2002) was an American author and journalist for ''The New York Times'' and worked as the newspaper's television critic concentrating on the mediums news and documentaries. His book ''The Committee'' (1968) chronicled the H ...


References


External links


A 16mm documentary crew prepare to shoot a basic interview sequence

A 16mm documentary cameraman discusses the cameras used for documentary, and drama, production

A 16mm lighting technician discusses their equipment and the drawbacks of lighting for documentary production in domestic settings
{{Authority control Television genres