Issues In Factual Programming.

Accuracy

Accuracy is to make sure your audience trusts you and your stories, if you consistently make mistakes and provide wrong information your audience will lose interest and your trust will be gone and they wont want to return. Factual programmes need to be accurate as they are required to give out correct information to viewers to ensure that they will not be misled. Its best to get the right information if lots of research has be done before hand, this cant always be done if something needs to be reported on right away.

Balance

Balance is keeping factual programmes fair to both sides of the topic its discussing. What this is, is when something is kept equal on both sides, by this I mean that factual programmes have to portray both sides of a story or news report. An example of this is when a factual programme has a story involving witnesses a witness would be needed for both perspectives and view points. This is done so that it doesn't seem biased. If things or view points are ignored then its classed as being biased.

Representation

This is how something is portrayed or the stereotype of a certain thing. Representation can be done in different ways for example if a documentary is being filmed and the main person who is being filmed is supposed to be portrayed as a good or friendly guy when viewers will be shown footage of him smiling, laughing and other things like that but if people wanted them to be portrayed as a bad guy then footage would be filmed of him in a bad mood, bad lighting and not any footage of him smiling and things like that. Representations is just making someone look how ever people creating a factual program wants them to look.

Privacy

Privacy is a major issue in TV programming because people have the right of privacy and to be in a state of being free from the public attention, although the media have a right to freedom of expression and often argue over the fact that they should be able to develop/ produce anything they believe is in the public's best interest.

Contract with viewer 

Is where  you have made a pact with viewers to give them with the information you said you would, as well as it being precise, accurate and interesting along with the truth. Programmes also have to be true to what you are portraying like for instance if you were to make a program all about sea monster then the viewers are expecting a show about that topic and not something completely different.