ABSTRACT
The study of documentary and the many related forms that have emerged from the genre provide a particularly useful means of exploring the concept of realism, which is central to much of our study of the media. In Chapter 1 we looked at the way in which the media use sign systems to provide us with a representation of the outside world. We also noted that, because of a prevalence of iconic signs in visual media such as film, television and photography, these representations of the world can appear so natural that we easily see them as real. In this way, audiences may overlook the process of mediation that has occurred in presenting these images to us.
