ABSTRACT
T elevision audiences are invited to experience the lives of other peoplethrough factual TV forms, so factual television carries assumptionsof both realism and social responsibility. Factual programmes play a key role in the public service commitment to disseminate information about contemporary events, and the range of attitudes and ways of life among the population. Television documentary and other factual genres aim both to mirror society to itself and to show the diversity that exists within that society. Documentary was initiated in the film medium and was designed to be socially responsible, and to be an art of record in contrast to cinematic fantasy. In television, documentary especially is able to take up the requirement for public service by focusing objectively and with authority on public events. Its realism is a particular form which not only denotes a real world but also makes it public and explains it. Documentary makes an argument and centres on evidence, and this usually includes some reliance on narration and interpretation. In other words, documentary always has a point of view, even if it claims to be a neutral one.
