Today Tonight
Today Tonight The Current Affairs Program, “Today Tonight,” uses facts to create critical arguments inviting the viewers to draw conclusions on current social issues. In the segment involving NRMA/AIG dodgy car insurance agency, this is accomplished through the persuasion of the attitudes and values of the unfairness of trade, honesty, quality of products and services, and getting what you pay for. This is achieved by means of structure, selection of detail, use of language and film techniques. The purpose of Current Affair Programs is to educate the viewing audience on the facts of the corruption in the insurance industry.
This is done in a persuasive way, according to the point of view of the program. The encouraged viewer response is shock, anger and disbelief as the dishonest acts are continuously going unnoticed. Through film techniques, the Current Affair Program “Today Tonight,” presents facts to create critical arguments that persuade the viewer to draw conclusions on the issues of social concern. In the segment dealing with Adam Thomas revealing the secret, the viewer’s negative attitude towards NRMA is constructed when the viewer sees the admitter from a confronting camera shot, of conflicted payments of insurance.
In contrast, to the camera angle used when interviewing Adam Thomas a worker from the NRMA, the stationary, eye-level camera angle portrays a trustworthy, reliable and respectable person and a respectable point of view, which encourages the viewer to feel anger and is shocked towards the current social issue of unfair trade practises. There is also a camera shot of Mr Thomas at an extreme close up. This catches all of the emotive and guilty signs, and the negative attitude is reinforced in the social issue of unfair trade practises when the expressions of NRMA depicted an untrustworthy, lying and dishonest company.
The use of video evidence (advertisements) backs up the programs point of view as a form of proof and unreliabity. Music also plays a role in persuading the audience in their attitudes and values. In broad casting the video evidence, this creates a tense, suspicious and nervous atmosphere, which is successful in reinforcing the concerned issue of fairness of trade and getting what you paid for. Through the film techniques of camera angles, images, music and use of evidence in “Today Tonight,” the viewer draws negative conclusions towards NRMA and the confliction between fair trade.
The facts in “Today Tonight,” make the viewer draw conclusions on current social issues through the selection of detail. The viewer sees the story through the eyes of the victim. Comparisons are made between the other insurance repair agencies, and they also disagree in the matter. The viewer does see the side of the NRMA in this case, mainly due the appearance of the victim Mr Thomas. Mr Thomas is a typical repair man, and it does correspond to the persuasion of the admitting that they are bankrupting people in, ‘are you ready to blow the whistle? and viewer’s reinforced to the programs point of view on the issue of honesty in the industry. Interviews between NRMA are left out; the producers of Current Affair Programs only select the sections of the interview that support the programs point of view. The viewer is persuaded through the use of language. Throughout the segment voice overs are used when the viewer sees the advertisements. The tone of the speaker is strong and positive; this persuades the viewer towards the Current Affair Program’s point of view.
The language is very descriptive, therefore giving the viewer a sense of reassurance that the car insurance agency is dishonest, this also reassures the viewers that the program knows what they are talking about. Therefore the viewer is aware that the facts that the program are delivering are accurate and their argument is strengthened, reinforced and the viewer is successfully persuaded. The second segment is on Goat Race Outrage it’s billed as good, clean family entertainment, but animal welfare experts regard goat racing as a very cruel and dangerous sport. http://au. news. yahoo. com/today-tonight/video/watch/27024100/
