Essay Sample about Documentaries

Documentaries are a great way to connect with the information and fully understand what is being viewed. Unlike texts and books, a documentary allows the viewer to see the information and relate to it. Even with many different types of documentaries out there, most documentaries have a correlating pattern amongst them. No matter the topic of the documentary, they are very effective in informing the audience through verbal facts, narration, and visuals throughout. These factors are congruent with almost all forms of documentaries and help to bring awareness of the topic to the audience. Through the examination of the documentaries, Rick Steves Europe, World War II in Colour, and Explained, one can see that even though they are about very different things, the structure of these documentaries is more or less identical to one another. 

Analyzing different documentaries is key to understanding how similar each documentary is, but how unique they are at the same time. One can see this by first analyzing the very famous travel documentary, Rick Steves Europe. The rhetor is Rick Steves himself and the goal of this film is not only to show the audience but to tell them about the many different cultures, attractions, and sites throughout the continent of Europe. This narrative is intended for anyone who is interested in Europe and wants to learn more about it. Every documentary has its limitations or constraints, and one could say that a constraint here is time constraints for the viewer. It can’t be too long where people will get bored, but not too short to leave vital information out. Plus Rick Steves can only visit so much of a country before he has to move on to film other places as well. This documentary has similar diction to the other two films as each has a very formal narrator. This allows facts to be presented in a way the viewer can easily comprehend. The overall purpose of each documentary is the same as they each intend to inform the audience and provide knowledgeable information. Even though these films are about completely different things, by analyzing the genre of each, one begins to see how they are similar in structure to one another. 

One must be able to define a rhetorical situation to analyze these sources. According to Keith Grant-Davie, “we might define a rhetorical situation as a set of related factors whose interaction creates and controls a discourse”. Now knowing this and with further analysis, one can conclude that the rhetorical situation in all documentaries is simply informing the viewer. The point of any documentary is to educate the viewer through narration and the display of videos and pictures. This concept connects all documentaries, no matter what the film depicts. Most documentaries have some sort of narrator, they are informational as they provide facts throughout, often they have first-hand experiences through interviews, and are always  professional in their delivery. The narrator is very important as they are the ones conveying the information. Not all documentaries have first-hand interviews, but the ones that do can help the audience connect with what they are watching. The most important thing are the facts that are provided. Facts are the “meat and cheese” of any documentary. Without them, there is no film. The facts have to be informational, yet interesting for the viewers' sake. Using the content strategy as well allows the audience to stay connected to what they are watching. As stated above, no matter the genre, they all have a very similar structure to them that allows them to gain more viewers and keep those viewers interacting. Not only is the format the same, but the diction is the same in each documentary as well as it is mostly formal. This similar structure between all documentaries has made the industry a very successful and wealthy one.

All things considered, the rhetorical analysis of each of these documentaries has shown that it does not matter what the content of the documentary is about, all documentaries have the same structure, and this structure is what keeps the audience interested and connected to the film. This structure includes an enjoyable narrator, lots of informational and interesting facts, and first-hand interviews in some documentaries. The overall rhetorical situation of a documentary is to inform the viewer about whatever topic they are trying to convey. Through genre analysis, it becomes clear that despite the content of each documentary, they are all connected as they have analogous structures about them.