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Television documentary

Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film.

Documentary television rose to prominence during the 1940s, spawning from earlier cinematic documentary filmmaking ventures. Early production techniques were highly inefficient compared to modern recording methods. Early television documentaries typically featured historical, wartime, investigative or event-related subject matter. Contemporary television documentaries have extended to include celebrity, sporting, travel, economic and wildlife subjects.


Many television documentaries have created controversy and debate surrounding ethical, cultural, social and political concerns. Controversy has also arisen regarding the current formatting of televised documentary series, as well as the contextualisation of televised documentaries broadcast via contemporary streaming services.

History[edit]

Pre-1900[edit]

Televised documentary finds its roots in the media communication modes of film, photojournalism and radio. Specifically, televised documentary can be traced to the origins of cinematic documentary film. Documentary film emerged in prominence within non-fiction filmmaking as an account of historical and contemporary events. In 1898, Bolesław Matuszewski, a Polish cinematographer suggested documentary film to be a "new source of history".[1] The widespread evolution of documentary filmmaking led James Chapman to consider its origins as a largely "international process" involving nations such as the United States of America, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and Great Britain.[2]

Genres[edit]

Early British television documentaries held a large focus upon historical events, locations and governing states. Additionally, war documentaries rose to prominence in the late 1940s and early 1950s, illustrating efforts of the Allied Forces in the Second World War.[2] Investigative television documentaries also grew in popularity during the 1950s. Chad Raphael highlights CBS's See It Now (1951–1955) as being a landmark television documentary that spawned the investigative genre, marking the "first critical journalism on television."[22] Later, in the 1960s, televised documentary genres continued to expand; Natural history and wildlife subjects became popular documentary subjects.


So too did documentaries that explored themes of humanity. Civilisation (1969), a thirteen-part documentary series broadcast on BBC Two, portraying the course of Western civilisation, was famed for its utilisation of then-contemporary, colourised television media.[23]


Television documentaries continue to spotlight wartime, historical, governmental and wildlife subjects. Contemporary genres of television documentaries also include sport, health, economic, social media and celebrity subjects.

Al Jazeera Documentary Channel

Animal Planet

CGTN Documentary

Discovery Channel

DOC: The Documentary Channel

Docu TVE

Documentary (TV channel)

History

National Geographic

Science

Smithsonian Channel

WORLD Channel

Bill Nichols (film critic)

Documentary film

Documentary mode

Filmmaking

John Grierson

List of documentary television channels

Mockumentary

Public-access television

Sponsored film

Walter Goodman (critic)

A 16mm documentary crew prepare to shoot a basic interview sequence

A 16mm documentary cameraman discusses the cameras used for documentary, and drama, production

A 16mm lighting technician discusses their equipment and the drawbacks of lighting for documentary production in domestic settings