The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif

At a very early stage in the evolution of British television, docudrama was exploited to steer a very large audience towards political and societal issues that needed a national consensus to be addressed. Cathy Come Home remains, in the history of television, the most often cited programme when it c...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Georges Fournier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Rennes 2014-02-01
Series:Revue LISA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5641
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841558403197960192
author Georges Fournier
author_facet Georges Fournier
author_sort Georges Fournier
collection DOAJ
description At a very early stage in the evolution of British television, docudrama was exploited to steer a very large audience towards political and societal issues that needed a national consensus to be addressed. Cathy Come Home remains, in the history of television, the most often cited programme when it comes to assessing the influence of the media on the problems of housing and abortion. More than a mere fictional reprocessing of news, docudrama fitted in nicely with the Reithian ethics of the education of the masses through modern means of communication. Yet, there is more to docudrama than merely informing the population. Its filmmakers, heirs to the famous British tradition of the documentary, imbued their work with a reflexive dimension meant to raise questions on the neutrality of journalism and on the legitimacy of the filmic material in its claim to authenticate reality. Through the analysis of reflexivity to be found in The War Game and Who Bombed Birmingham? this essay will try to show how filmmakers purported to arouse the awareness of television viewers to the subjectivity inherent in the filmic material and in particular in television journalism.
format Article
id doaj-art-003d49951f204d1090bce5af280a3f80
institution Kabale University
issn 1762-6153
language English
publishDate 2014-02-01
publisher Presses universitaires de Rennes
record_format Article
series Revue LISA
spelling doaj-art-003d49951f204d1090bce5af280a3f802025-01-06T09:03:17ZengPresses universitaires de RennesRevue LISA1762-61532014-02-0112110.4000/lisa.5641The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexifGeorges FournierAt a very early stage in the evolution of British television, docudrama was exploited to steer a very large audience towards political and societal issues that needed a national consensus to be addressed. Cathy Come Home remains, in the history of television, the most often cited programme when it comes to assessing the influence of the media on the problems of housing and abortion. More than a mere fictional reprocessing of news, docudrama fitted in nicely with the Reithian ethics of the education of the masses through modern means of communication. Yet, there is more to docudrama than merely informing the population. Its filmmakers, heirs to the famous British tradition of the documentary, imbued their work with a reflexive dimension meant to raise questions on the neutrality of journalism and on the legitimacy of the filmic material in its claim to authenticate reality. Through the analysis of reflexivity to be found in The War Game and Who Bombed Birmingham? this essay will try to show how filmmakers purported to arouse the awareness of television viewers to the subjectivity inherent in the filmic material and in particular in television journalism.https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5641politicsdocumentarytelevisionsocial realismfictional treatment of topical issueshybrised genre
spellingShingle Georges Fournier
The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
Revue LISA
politics
documentary
television
social realism
fictional treatment of topical issues
hybrised genre
title The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
title_full The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
title_fullStr The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
title_full_unstemmed The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
title_short The War Game et Who Bombed Birmingham ?  : usage politique du mode réflexif
title_sort war game et who bombed birmingham usage politique du mode reflexif
topic politics
documentary
television
social realism
fictional treatment of topical issues
hybrised genre
url https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5641
work_keys_str_mv AT georgesfournier thewargameetwhobombedbirminghamusagepolitiquedumodereflexif
AT georgesfournier wargameetwhobombedbirminghamusagepolitiquedumodereflexif