Andrew Mondrus
Professor Montague
Radio Documentary
12 December 2015
1.
There are many different developments in society, technology and media that helped bring about the birth of the documentary form.
Marconi’s morse code message across the Atlantic Ocean was the first notable achievement in long distance radio transmission. Marconi sent his message from Cornwall,
England to Newfoundland, Canada disproving allegations that radio transmission was limited to two hundred miles because of the earth’s circular shape. Marconi proved that development of radio was possible on a worldwide scale.
The audion by Lee De Forest was an invention that strengthened the performance of the radio. De Forest's’ creation was a vacuum tube device that could amplify weak radio reception into a strong signal. In 1912, De Forest developed a regenerative circuit that could heighten the output levels of radios. However, De Forest did not realize the potential of his invention and was forced to file legal action to patent his invention. Despite, winning rights De Forest was never acknowledged by the radio industry for his invention. De Forest also developed phonofilm, being able to record sound while taking film. This invention resulted in the ability to watch movies with sound. The invention of AM and FM radio by Edwin Armstrong increased the efficiency of radios. Despite controversy regarding the sole inventor of the regenerative circuit, Armstrong invented a device that could produce radio waves called amplitude modulation or AM.
Additionally, in order to eliminate radio static, Armstrong invented frequency modulation or FM.
Frequency modulation allowed for the much better quality sound to be heard on the radio.
During World War One, Armstrong figured out how to find the location of the enemy by searching for radioactivity using his own invention called the super heterodyne receiver. This invention is now used in radios today to locate signal.
The contributions of David Sarnoff legitimized the use of the radio. Sarnoff is famous for locating the signal of the sinking Titanic, as well as receiving and passing news back and forth regarding during the incident. As a result, Sarnoff was promoted to a high position at the
Marconi company. In his esteemed role Sarnoff envisioned the impact the radio. In 1921,
Sarnoff became the general manager of the Radio Corporation of America. Sarnoff was able to display the potential popularity of radio by streaming boxing games between Jack Dempsey and
Georges Carpentier. Later in 1926, Sarnoff created the National Broadcasting Corporation known as NBC.
The first commercial radio station known as KDKA was essential for establishing accessibility to radio. On November 2nd, 1920 KDKA broadcasted for the first time, presenting the presidential elections. Over a thousand people tuned in to hear that Harding had defeated
Cox in the race. This was the first time people looked too private radio stations for information and entertainment.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor address on radio was significant in increasing the popularity of radio. His speech brought about the largest audience in United
States Radio History, eighty one percent of households listened.
8.
Multiple other elements in a documentary other than information content are able to convey meaning, intent, theme and imagery.
The style of narration is essential towards understanding meaning, intent, theme and imagery. Nichols in
Documentary Modes of Representation suggests that there are six forms of
documentary; Expository, Observational, Interactive and Reflexive. Each mode uses different methods of narration.
The Expository mode uses “the voice of god” narrative that can be described as a verbal commentary, addressing the listener directly attempting to provide evidence to support a strong thesis. It is important to note that the “voice of god” narration creates a bias because there is a specific argument therefore the audience cannot rely on neutral information.
Examining the Observational Documentary mode, the listener is exposed to a piece without narration so the work is entirely objective depending on how the individuals react to the microphone. Thus, the audience hears a piece that is unbiased. An example of an observational documentary is Walter Ruttmann’s Weekend. This piece is a sound montage of the Berlin weekend. The audience can hear how an individual's Sunday working at a factory turns into a festive night out. The listener also can hear the return to work the next day. Ruttman, recorded his sounds by driving around Berlin with a hidden microphone in his van. Subsequently,
Ruttman is able leave himself out of the recording process to capture the rhythm of the city.
The Interactive Documentary allows the creator to become the main character of piece.
The listener is able to hear the input of the main character as events occur. An example of an interactive documentary presented in class is
Dr. Gilmer and Hyde. Koenig, the narrator of the
piece becomes a character along with Dr. Gilmer to directly engage the topic of the documentary. In the reflexive mode, the producer becomes the narrator of the documentary. The producer and audience are interested in the focusing on the construct of the documentary itself.
This is achieved by the narrator directly engaging the audience, displaying events exactly as they occurred, adding authenticity. The purpose of adding awareness of the documentary making process is to better understand issues existing in the historical world. An example of a reflexive documentary is
Santaland Diaries where writer David Sedaris broadcasts his
experience as a department store elf for a season. Sedaris’ piece reflects on the commercial and sacrilegious elements of holidays.
Ambience and music are important elements in a documentary for portraying, meaning, intent, theme and imagery. Sound can serve to place the audience in the setting of the documentary to evoke imagery. For example, in
Roots of Resentment by Stephen Smith and
Sandy Tolan the producer has recordings of people talking, as if the listener was in a literary salon in downtown Cairo at midnight. Similarly, the audience hears the voices of devout muslims in Jordan who are enraged at seeing a woman without a scarf over her head at the mosque. The listener can hear the anger of the Jordanian people towards western influence as well as perceive the influence of Islam on politics.
5.
The producers’ use of personal narrative is effective because there is direct engagement between the narrator and the subject. Multiple narrators in the radio documentary who are identified as United Nations peacekeepers share their horrific experience when visiting Rwanda amid conflict between Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
After the narrator states that in the “cartography of death” large areas are “still terror incognita”, the documentary begins to play a montage of news recordings regarding the
Rwandan Genocide introducing the listener to the topic of the documentary. The audience hears the various accents in the recordings so they know the Rwandan Genocide was issue of global caliber historically. The role of the peace keepers to help solve the conflict, is also mentioned in the montage.
The tone of voice used by the narrator is very serene, it works perfectly with the background ambience of the african wilderness sounds that are very calming. Even though genocide is a very gruesome event, the narrator offers insight into their experience without attaching emotion.
Different speakers allow for the documentary to switch between the present and the past. The female narrator's reflection on her past experience in Rwanda allows her to evoke important ideas towards the listener. The female narrator mentions naming the bodies of the dead in order to preserve their humanity. Often in situations of widespread death, individuality is stripped from humans as we refer to them as statistics or refugees. Additionally, racial conflicts occur because ethnic groups are targeted as a collective, people forget that everyone is an individual. Ambient sound is used throughout the documentary to place the listener in Rwanda. For example while Dorothy is speaking, crickets are chirping and there are bird sounds in the background. The producer of the documentary also incorporates sound to highlight the widespread death by recording the howling of dogs. The owners of the dogs have been killed, the animals are now feasting on the hundreds of dead bodies.
In the beginning, Dorothy describes the smell of corpse as like no other, to convey how unimaginably gruesome it is to stare at hundreds of dead bodies. We understand the history of
the scope of the event, by listening to news recordings regarding the HutuTutsi conflict. This radio documentary does not offer an opinion on any topic; the United Nations Peace Keepers offer their experience while in Rwanda.
The purpose of the documentary is to suggest peace is fragile. For example, the narrator draws a comparison between an ecosystem and Rwanda. Both areas can have natural balance, but anything can throw off equilibrium. In Rwanda issues such as lack of land, ethnic conflict, colonialism and revenge can easily disturb peace and cause violence. The narrator's’ reference to maps is that every area of the world is extremely complex and delicate.
Rwanda Maps is a documentary that belongs to the participatory mode. The documentary is constructed so that listeners hear an interview with one of the UN
Peacekeepers in the present, and then the narrative extends into the past. According to Nichols the “past” (Nichols 48) can be “reconstructed in the present by moving beyond interviews”
(Nichols 48) by having narrators give “visual interpretations of archival footage” (Nichols 48).
Subsequently, the viewer can feel the emotion of the narrator at the time.
In addition, this allows the documentary to “establish the genre of historical reconstruction” (Nichols 48) because the narrator is telling the audience their experience, instead of a “voice over commentary” (Nichols 48). In this documentary, “interviews” (Nichols
48) in an “interactive mode of representation” (Nichols 48) are used as “evidence” (Nichols 48) for an “argument” (Nichols 48) that is the result of the “interaction” (Nichols 48) between the filmmaker and the topic of the documentary. The interview in Rwanda Maps identifies the fragility of peace in Rwanda. This documentary has a “participatory dynamic” (Nichols 50) because the “social exchange (Nichols 50) ” between the “filmmaker and the subject” (Nichols
50) governs the entire work. 