"Reality TV has had a very bad effect on documentaries"

Article: 5th February 2012

The documentary 'Protecting Our Children', which is about a team of social workers dealing with sensitive cases, raised as many questions about responsible, meaningful film-making as it did about the rights and wrongs of the decisions made by social workers. It was almost shockingly nuanced compared to those TV offerings billed as "documentary" which offer very little more than voyeurism. The series has now sparked a debate about the future of the documentary. Are audiences now so used to documentaries with ironic voice overs that they prefer "staged reality" to morally complicated real-life stories?
Nick Broomfield said reality television was "like fast food - it's junk and rots people's brains." "Reality TV has had a very bad effect on documentaries."
Many believe 'Protecting Our Children' points to a revival of traditional film-making. Few documentaries like this even exist because they take so long to make and their outcome is unpredictable.
Sacha Mirzoeff, director of 'Protecting Our Children' said "Documentary-making is about being able to make open-ended stories."
'Protecting Our Children' drew an audience of 1.86m compared with 3.6m for the recent final of 'Celebrity Big Brother', this is seen as a small triumph for quality, non-fiction programming.
ITV had started to invest in documentary and in the end the audience will win and get the documentaries they deserve.