Trust
Trailer and discussion is available after clicking on the link with program title
RED ROOM Friday 15th 9.00 – 13.00
Session Leader: Pál Sipos
(dialogue of a delegate and the session leader in front of the screening room)
-- What is this session about?
-- It’s about trust.
-- About trust??? What do you mean by that?
-- Just what it is: trust. Check out these definitions!
-- What is this session about?
-- It’s about trust.
-- About trust??? What do you mean by that?
-- Just what it is: trust. Check out these definitions!
▸ noun: of believing in the honesty and reliability of others ▸ noun: certainty based on past experience ▸ noun: complete confidence in a person or institution etc ▸ noun: a trustful relationship
-- Okay, that’s clear - but in what?
-- In television. We are attending INPUT so to be more precise: in public service television.
-- In our time??? When media hacks are so popular? When tabloid newspapers invent the news? When the internet is becoming more and more popular and widespread as the main source of our information and knowledge?
-- Yes. Because people in these days really need a reliable source of information on almost everything: on news, on culture, on values.
-- Come on, you are a dreamer!
-- Nope, I’m a shop steward! Okay, maybe I am a dreamer, but I really think public service television should build on trust. It must be trustworthy. So people can believe in its programs, so the viewers can rely on what it shows, so everyone can be confident that they are getting real value for their money.
-- So this session is really about trust?
-- Yes, but don’t look so sad. Trust me!
Throwing the Truth to the Wolves
Belgium / TV Specific – Investigative weekly / 55’
Shopsteward: Jihan El Tahri
Programme presenter: Phillip Lorsignol & Emmanuel Allaer
An entirely fabricated story of a Belgian child claiming she was Jewish and lived with wolves during the war years. It demonstrated the growing tendency of how money and audience ratings in public TV are opening the door to bogus stories...
How do the media allow the “unusual” to become
a central topic in prime time? How does sensationalism open door to manipulation? and the responsibility of public television? By using the Holocaust as a peg, knowing that this will open doors for sales? What happens after the broadcast once the fraud is revealed?
How do the media allow the “unusual” to become
a central topic in prime time? How does sensationalism open door to manipulation? and the responsibility of public television? By using the Holocaust as a peg, knowing that this will open doors for sales? What happens after the broadcast once the fraud is revealed?
The Miracle of Vienna
Austria / Fiction – Mockumentary / 55’
Shopsteward: Pál Sipos
Programme presenter: Not specified
All soccer fans know that the title of this television program is a paraphrase of a German expression: Das Wunder von Bern. It refers to the final game in the 1954 World Cup, in which the German (then West German) team won the championship beating the Hungarians. It was a real miracle, and its social and political effects were far more important than just a simple sports victory. For a moment it united East and West Germany, and gave the Germans a new start after the end of World War II.
In 2008, Austria and Switzerland jointly hosted the European Soccer Championship. Practically speaking, neither of the two countries had the slightest chance of winning the cup. So in a situation like that what could a public service broadcaster provide as a program for its public for the opening night? A real fantasy piece: how Austria won the championship that hadn’t even been played yet? Yes, this is a real miracle – from Vienna.
The Famine Scam
Norway / Documentary - Investigative journalism / 52’
Shopsteward: Pál Sipos
Programme presenter: Robert Reinlund & Per Christian Magnus
Statement Nr 1.: What we see in the evening news on television - is true. (That was a fundamental truth for decades.)
Statement Nr.2.: Public service broadcasters are among (the most) reliable sources of information. (That was also regarded as a true statement, many times supported by public opinion surveys.)
But what happens if one public service television reveals that another one was not cautious enough, and had broadcast something that is not true? Or at least not in the necessary depth. What if one television company shows something as a humanitarian catastrophe, while for the other it is an episode in a large scale political-economic plot that deserves to be fully uncovered. Whom do we trust – if we can trust at all?
Statement Nr.2.: Public service broadcasters are among (the most) reliable sources of information. (That was also regarded as a true statement, many times supported by public opinion surveys.)
But what happens if one public service television reveals that another one was not cautious enough, and had broadcast something that is not true? Or at least not in the necessary depth. What if one television company shows something as a humanitarian catastrophe, while for the other it is an episode in a large scale political-economic plot that deserves to be fully uncovered. Whom do we trust – if we can trust at all?
