Manipulation in Documentaries - Supersize Me, the Great...

Every night when we sit down to watch our much loved Grey’s Anatomy or Desperate Housewives, we know for a fact they are fictional dramas which allow us to escape the reality and boredom of our lives. We also realise the scripted shows use many tactics to manipulate our thinking. The producer does this to position us towards a specific view of life. But what do we expect from a documentary? We know documentaries to be faithful recounts of events; however, these events may be subject to just as much manipulation as the intriguing plots in our addictive shows. Many documentary makers include their individual cultural assumptions and discourses to distort the truth and position the target audience to react in a desired manner. This†¦show more content†¦He also includes many techniques including camera angles, music and sound, lighting and many elements typical of documentaries. Spurlock uses Mise-en-scene to prove that obesity is a result of extreme fast food intake by purposely filming obese people walking through a shot at McDonalds. Spurlock also uses the technique of interviewing doctors and scientists to grab our attention and make it difficult for us, the audience, to make our own decision. He does this as the majority of us believe scientists and doctors have the most knowledge on this argument and therefore we will agree with his discourse. Similarly the documentary, ‘Great White – Deep Trouble’, produced by John Bredar, attempts to influence the audience to feel sympathy and love for the Great White which to many represents a killer beast. The documentary aims to manipulate us towards the view that sharks are gentle fish that are simply misunderstood by humans. Through the journey of David Doubilet, a famous photographer, the audience are presented with pictures, journal entries and filming of the Great White in the hope of capturing the perfect shot. One of the crew on the mission is Rodney Fox who previously had a bloody encounter with a Great White and survived. Although the majority of us would be too afraid to return to the water, Fox has chosen to partake in the mission of