Dissolve
D-Notices See DA (Defence Advisory) Notices.
Documentary Any mode of communication
which, in addressing an audience, documents
events or situations – books, radio, theatre,
photography, fi lm or TV. Usually based upon
recorded or observable fact, the documentary
may aim for objectivity or propaganda; it may,
however, in terms of human documentation, be
highly subjective. ‘Even when temperate,’ writes
William Stott in Documentary Expression and
Th irties America (Oxford University Press, 1973),
‘a human document carries and communicates
feeling, the raw material of drama.’
British film director, producer and theorist
John Grierson (1898–1972) is thought to have
been the fi rst to use the word ‘documentary’, in a
New York Sun review (1926) of Robert Flaherty’s
film Moana, a study of the way of life of the
South Seas islanders. In fact, ‘documentary’ is
as old as the cinema itself. Louis Lumière’s early
short fi lms of 1895 – one showing the demolition
of a wall, another of a train coming into a station- can be described as documentaries.
The founding father of documentary film-
making in the UK and later in Canada, Grierson
never claimed scientific objectivity for such
fi lms. For him the documentary was far more
than a straightforward reconstruction on fi lm of
reality. He spoke of the ‘creative use of actuality’
in which the director re-formed fact in order
to reach towards an inner truth. Indeed when
documentarists have felt it necessary to get at
the truth of a subject as they perceive it, they
have not held back from fi ctionalization, often
using actors, often turning the real-life person
into an actor re-creating a scene.
In the 1930s, film documentary ran parallel
with radio documentary, the BBC showing
considerable innovative enterprise in this fi eld,
especially its Manchester studio. In the US many
publications combined documentary evidence
with outstanding photography. The themes
were often those of the Depression: concern
at the plight of the poor, the unemployed, the
alienated; and the mode was largely to have the
people speak for themselves rather than distance
the impact of their experience by using the
mediation of a commentator.
Th e documentary approach has been a recur-
ring feature in modern theatre, especially since
the 1960s. Historical or contemporary events on
stage are far from new: Aeschylus dramatized
the victory of Marathon (490 BC) and Shake-
speare reconstructed history, often to fit the
perceptions of the Tudor monarchy, in a third of
his output.
communication. See interpersonal commu-
nication.
Dissolve A process in camera-work by which one
picture fades out and the following scene fades
in on top of it. Also called a ‘mix’. See shot.
Dissonance Occurs when two cognitive
inputs to our mental processes are out of line.
Th e result is a certain amount of psychological
discomfort. Action is usually taken to resolve the
dissonance and restore balance. Several strate-
gies are commonly employed in order to achieve
this: downgrading the source of dissonance;
compliance with rather than acceptance of new
expectations and ideas; changing one’s previous
ideas and attitudes; and avoidance of the source
of dissonance.
All messages, particularly those conveyed to a
mass audience, are potentially a source of disso-
nance to someone. If they disturb the intended
receiver(s), then they may well be ignored or
rejected. Th e need for messages intended for a
mass audience to be successful, however, ensures
that such messages are often well ‘laundered’ in
order to reduce their potential off ensiveness. See
cognitive consistency theories; congru-
ence theory; newcomb’s abx model of
communication, 1953; selective exposure.
Distributed denial of service (DoS) Process by
which computer hackers use special software
to take control of other people’s computers: a
form of trespass or occupation in which endless
- and spurious – requests for information block
and disrupt the flow of genuine information
exchange. The practice of DoS has affected
the websites of individuals as well as those of
corporate giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and
Yahoo.
Diversifi cation In media terms, the spread of
ownership and control into a wide range of asso-
ciated, and often unassociated, products and
services. Th us newspapers have moved into TV
share-holding and online services; TV compa-
nies into set rentals, bingo and social clubs and
motorway catering services. In parallel, great
corporations have moved into media ownership - oil companies buying up newspaper chains
and investing in broadcasting interests, book
publishing, record production and internet
platforms (see myspace; youtube). The
result of diversifi cation is often, paradoxically,
concentration of control, and a real danger to a
newspaper, fi lm company or publishing house of
being just another ‘product’ on the shelf of the
multi-national conglomerate whose objective is
profi t maximization above all other consider-
ations. See conglomerates; digitization.