Okay...
**breathes a bit**
Well I turned up with this, some more that needs refinement...and tomorrow I'll fix the rest...please give me some feedback; I'm so awful at writing essays which deal with concepts instead of pure texts...
There are always many different sides to a story, many perspectives it may be viewed from, and many different ways of retelling it. As a result, the truth behind any event, personality or situation is extremely fragile, and may be concealed, manipulated or even fabricated by those in power. Examples of these exploitations of the truth can be seen in Sitch et al's Frontline, a satirical television series about a fictional Current Affairs show. On a more serious note, Cruise and Wagner's Shattered Glass, a film based on a true story, presents a moving recount of the exposé of Stephen Glass, an ambitious young reporter who will go to any length for a good story.
While some believe that the concealment of the truth is not as serious as downright lying, Sitch et al, using visual constructs, demonstrate how a misleading image of the truth can generate sensationalism. In "The Siege", Marty's reports from outside the "five kilometre exclusion zone" gloss over many of the real elements of the story. His body language, which includes crouching and looking around as he speaks, his tone of voice – muted and solemn, and his prop of choice – "a flak jacket", encourage viewers to believe that that Marty is in a volatile situation. In addition, his language is full of emotive clichés such as "police fearing", "very real dangers", " he's heavily armed" which project an image of reporters putting their necks onto the "front line" in order to tell a story to the public. Marty's comment, "it's dark; who's gunna bloody know?" sums up the entire series, and its concealment of the truth – they readily take advantage of situations in which they can obscure facts to stir their audience.
Another "truth" which "Frontline" conceals and "The Siege" exposes is the personality of the host, Mike Moore. Although the opening of the on-air show shows Mike perfectly groomed, with immaculate hair and suit, his behind-the-scenes appearance after his interview with the gunman is drastically different. Mike's clothing – formal jacket and tie on his upper body and bright red go-carting pants on his bottom half – is a metaphor for the whole show, which shows false surface images of the personalities of its presenters. Mike's puerility is also apparent in his request to "stop at McDonalds" on his way to the gunman interview, and his involvement in the "games motif" throughout the show. Damien, Brian's son, plays a variety of games ranging from computer games to playing with the filming equipment. In one scene, where he is playing with a handheld video game, Mike sits down next to him and launches into a speech which indicates he himself is familiar with children's games ("watch out for those ones…"). During the on-air time, when Damien interferes with the scrolling script, Mike stutters, lacking any initiative. Thus, while Mike appears polished and professional on air, we can clearly see that off-air he lacks these qualities, and in fact is shallow, unimaginative and immature.
Similarly, in Shattered Glass, the audience can see that Steve Glass is hiding a troublesome personal life, with confusion about his sexuality, his parents demand that he go to law school despite his great journalistic achievements and a growing sense of injustice at the sacking of his first editor and friend, Michael Kelly. Steve attempts to "sweep under the carpet" all these personal problems, which can be seen through his avoidance techniques ("send it to my voicemail"), procrastination ("in a minute…") and walking away from confrontations, such as when his stories come under fire for being more fiction than fact. He also makes use of repetitive, rehearsed phrases such as his automatic "are you mad at me?" response, his constant denial of his talents with "it's horrible" and his unbelievable compliance ("of course!") all become more and more exasperating as the film progresses. Just like in Mike Moore in Frontline, Steve Glass leads a life which is far from perfect and displays an inability to use the skills which emerge in his stories (creativity, empathy, maturity) and childishly chooses to ignore his problems, preferring to give the impression that "everything's under control". Thus it can be seen that the real personalities of people often reside behind a more comfortable and attractive façade.
