Documentary VS. Reality

Documentary vs. reality essay 

                  In the last fifty years both reality and documentary entertainment has increased dramatically due to the growth in popularity of realism rather than fiction. Both reality television and documentary film share the same primary goal. Which is to expose as well as expound on real life events, situations, and occurrences. However, these styles of film and television differ in the ways in which they present the information. Reality Television is known for its dramatized, often scripted speech as in this day and age it is most commonly used solely for entertainment purposes. Documentary films differ from most reality television programs by the way the information is presented raw, unfiltered, and almost always totally factual. The general difference between the two forms of film is that Reality Television is used for entertainment and Documentary style television is used for educational purposes.  

            Reality Television, although exposes real life events, situations, and occurrences often brakes the boundary between private and public in an exploitive manner. The directors of these Reality Television programs don’t always present the situations for what they truly are by a series of things such as editing and cutting the information given as well as scripting the original speech and dialogue, thus exploiting the contestant for public entertainment. This form of television and film is not for educational purposes but solely for entertainment as the information and situations presented may be entirely fake and written up.

            Documentary films serve primarily to educate the public on real world events, situations, and occurrences. This form of film and television is most often unfiltered and unscripted, providing the viewer with a raw, truthful perspective. Documentary films are presented to the public not to exploit but rather to expose the truth behind a situation in hopes to further educate viewers.

            Documentary films and Reality television are two very different branches of entertainment as they both target different viewers and expose information differently. Documentary films generally serve to educate the public on real world events, situations, and occurrences, providing a raw perspective to the audience. Whereas, Reality television exposes and exploits the contestants for the viewer’s entertainment by scripting the dialogue and editing things to make them appear differently than originally intended. The basic difference between the two forms of television and film is that one is used for educational purposes while the other is just for entertainment.