Production of the Revealed Program - Essay Example

? ‘Revealed’ reflective eassay Reflective essay Among many services that are offered by the British Broadcasting corporation is the television broadcast services, which specializes in both domestic as well as international channels. Among other distinctive features that distinguish the domestic BBC television services and the international services is that the domestic services lack commercial advertising and this has a wide viewership of over 30% of UK viewership. The channel one has a specialization of newscasts, which is segmented into two; the main local news as well as regional news, which are locally produced, within various local stations. The target and choice of the channel for the ‘revealed’ program is explained by the wide viewership that the channel receives especially by the locals interested in current matters as presented within the newscasts. The idea to the production of this program was informed by a series of informative telecast that is aired in a western African news reporter through the nation news corporation network. The production covers most current issues within the society and especially with political line of specialization. I have been keen to follow some past productions among which was an exposition of the internally organized malicious drug business that involved great political figures and which resulted to serial killings of all investigating teams in bid to conceal important information gotten through such investigations. The series ran in three parts and was broadcasted at the end of news coverage and showed how that government of the country impounded on lump sum drugs being shipped into the country for the local market from an oversea source. The confiscation of the cache at the seaport elicited heated discussions on which the owner(s) were and how the franchise would such a huge amount of drugs be shipped into the country with the customs authorities without knowing. Moreover, the investigations commenced after the confiscation of the drugs ran for years without the report on findings being brought out to the public, which elicited reactions from the public. An investigation into such reactions by the public into the matter led to the production of the series, which revealed among other things the many deaths that occurred especially for investigating officers who established any crucial information in the matter. Assassinations had become regular and many to security agents were targets to specialized forces who were working for the government, which was directly involved in the drug business. In fact, the investigative series would reveal linked mysteries that the public had once experienced such as presence of some foreign drug specialists who had gotten into the country under cover and received state security only to be exposed as mercenaries hired by the government to ‘rescue’ the impounded drugs from some particular security agencies within the government. The shocking revelations from the series were how ‘inside the government’ deals resulted to great loses and deaths to innocent investigators and which would only be stage managed. Though the airing of the series by the television elicited great reactions by the government officials interdicted along the chain of activities in such drug cases, the public through advocacy groups would rise to the rescue of the investigative teams and the public become more aware of the heinous activities that prevail under the coverage of the governments. Besides the drug menace exposure by the series, other major controversies within the nation were revealed to the amazement of the public. The main motive of the program was to empower the civilians in understanding the kind of institutional regimes under which they were governed. This would be instrumental in empowering the civilians in participation on democratic decisions such as in elections (Ferraz and Finan, 2007, p. 1-3). The African revelations are not the only of their kind in the world as is revealed by such other movie productions as the “Inside job”. This serial production informed this idea of such a production that would investigate historical occurrences within the larger UK. The modern day governments take precedence from the previous regimes where perpetrations of human rights are common practices with the state cover with people within the government being blamed on series of crime and such atrocities. For instance, the US produced documentary on Inside job as quoted reveals how the global economic crises that hit the entire globe was a direct causation of the country’s authorities through stealing from the public and such atrocities. While many aspects may be described to constitute the meaning of ‘corruption’, a general approach would clearly depict any act of moral or ethical indignation and that deviates from the ideal to refer to corruption. In general analysis, bribery and embezzlement of public resources would to a large extent describe high degrees of corruption within the public domain. Morality and ethics teaches us to be true and take what is legally ours and thus any act that goes beyond the interest of the public and concentrates at harming other people for one’s own gain depicts immoral and unethical code of conduct (Lambsdorff, 2001, p. 1). Nevertheless, how much would the world’s financial crisis be explained through corruption? Could one person’s gluttony collapse a whole structure of an economy as was suffered within the economic crisis? In addition, was the American system of financial services all corrupt? These are among other questions that are critically evaluated as they are depicted in the documentary ‘inside job’ as revealed by Ferguson. The looting of the public domain by the leaders or large corporate has had untold repercussions, not only to individual citizens of a country but also to the entire global economy (Reavis, 2012, p. 1-3; Merrouche and Nier 2010, p. 2). Absolute deprivation of moral ethics and pervasion of integrity are some of the common practices that describe corrupt activities (Heywood, 1997, p. 417-435). Corruption has been seen to thrive within many systems of governance for decades; however, no major consequence has been suffered by the perpetrators of these crimes to serve as warnings to other people. Bribes have been seen to thrive well even within the public justice systems through which one is expected to have these vices corrected. As indicated by the documentary, the great world economic crisis that loomed through 2008 and 2009 resulted from acts of corruption and unethical behaviors through the financial systems of the United States of America. The problem was however, of global repercussion and the American economy just served to show the point of bursting of the bubble (Ferguson 1-5). Though many would reason that the collapse of financial system in the world would have been unprecedented, it is notable that economists who cautioned the bankers from engaging into the perilous activities of extreme lending and other universal risks (‘International Labour Organization, 2011, p. 1-5) had forewarned the looming crises. The outcomes of corruption within government systems are great poverty-wealth gaps with high rates of unemployment. Moreover, corruption deprives the people of a nation access to justice system, which is a key pillar to prosperity and success. Two wrongs can never make a right and this was the fact that was revealed when prior corruption activities that were witnessed were corrected through further corruption. The public in general had no such capacity to discern while these atrocities to their property was happening and even if they had little knowledge as ascertained by the corrective voices aired, the entire system of administration was corrupt and thus no corrective measure would ensue. The above analysis in a thematic concern well developed within the documentary confirms the truth of the adverse effects that are resultant of corrupt activities. The overall outcome of corruption in the American case was collapsing the world economy as revealed by the documentary by Ferguson. Using this as the blueprint to my production, the ‘revealed’ series would concentrate on the UK scene where there are many foregone issues of public uncertainty, which the governments would promise the public to act accordingly but on the contrary, fail to ever reveal the mysteries. The 21st freedom of media and the technological advancement are the main strengths that the effectiveness of the program on BBC would rely on (‘Opportunities and threats for press freedom and democratization’, 2008, p. 4-8; Karlekar and Dunham, 2012, p. 1). Besides, the public through such institutions as the media are in a position to act as watchdogs to the government operations in order to stop the perpetration of social injustices as have been in the past. This therefore informs the source of the idea to have such a TV program, which would have factual revelations on many of such mysteries as have been experienced in the United Kingdom in the past. The audience target informs the choice of the broadcasting time where the night newscasts often receive the highest viewership because many people are at home from work and weekends are not as busy as the weekdays based on work schedules. This therefore would be a good way to target all segments of the population where the broadcast would be revealing such mysteries that have in the past been assumed or left to occupy the dirty shelves of the government libraries (Steemers, 2009, p. 53-55; Miller C. 2006, p. 240). In conclusion, the leadership and institutional controversies involving the governments in the world are common and often experienced within other countries with United Kingdom being not an exception (Amundsen, 1999, p. 1-5). The perpetration of corruption and unethical behavior by individual persons or government agencies in the country would be associated with great losses suffered corporately by the citizens and the government (Mauro, 1998, p. 263-264). The government is known to institute investigations after every such an occurrence where the findings are never acted upon or even brought to public domains. Just as is the case with many other countries, the governments inherit such structures successively from preceding governments and this perpetuates the vices in the society. The weakness in public institutional capacity to probe investigative reports that are often piled on shelves of government or public libraries without being acted upon despite the utilization of great resources from the public to investigate the issues. The media empowerment in the 21st century has increasingly enabled the revisiting of such injustices through media production, which empowers public reaction through such agencies as the human rights agencies. This therefore informs the idea behind the production of the program ‘revealed’ as explained in the essay. Much of the public works are concealed by corruption, which perpetrates such vices in the society. There is therefore the need to expose to the public such issues that have remained mysterious throughout in UK. The investigative team would present information in the program, which would be effective to build on public confidence towards the program. The assumptions in the program is that the freedom of media as have been cultivated through legal frameworks especially in the 21st century would not be infringed by the government after the commencement of this program. It is also the assumption of the essay that government agencies, corporations as well as individual persons with relevant information would raise to the occasion in availing such information as needed for the comprehensive coverage of events and occurrences in the country through ‘revealed’ program on BBC channel 1. Bibliography Amundsen I. 1999. Political Corruption: An Introduction to the Issues. Available at:< http://www.cmi.no/publications/1999/wp/wp1999-7.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Ferraz C. and Finan F., 2007. Electoral Accountability and Corruption in Local Governments: Evidence from Audit Reports. Available at:< http://ftp.iza.org/dp2843.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Heywood P., 1997. Political Corruption: Problems and Perspectives Available at:< http://ebour.com.ar/pdfs/Political_corruption.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) ‘International Labour Organization’, 2011. The global crisis Causes, responses and challenges. Available at:< http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_155824.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Karlekar K. D. and Dunham J., 2012. Freedom of the Press 2012. Available at:< http://www.freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/Booklet%20for%20Website.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Lambsdorff J. G., 2001. How Corruption in Government Affects Public Welfare—A Review of Theories. Available at:< http://www.icgg.org/downloads/contribution08_lambsdorff.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Mauro P., 1998. Corruption and the composition of government Expenditure. Journal of Public Economics 69, 263–279 Miller C. 2006. Jeanette Steemers, Selling Television: British Television in the Global Marketplace. London: British Film Institute, 2004. 240. Available at:< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23724517> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Merrouche O. and Nier E. 2010. What Caused the Global Financial Crisis?—Evidence on the Drivers of Financial Imbalances 1999–2007. IMF working paper. Available at:< http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2010/wp10265.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) ‘Opportunities and threats for press freedom and democratization’, 2008. Conference report. Available at:< http://www.i-m-s.dk/files/publications/Conf.report.final.low.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Reavis C., 2012. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008: The Role of Greed, Fear, and Oligarchs. Available at:< https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/CaseDocs/09-093%20The%20Financial%20Crisis%20of%202008.Rev.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Steemers J., 2009. The thin line between market and quality. Research. Available at:< http://www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/english/publication/televizion/22_2009_E/steemers.pdf> (Accessed on 3 December 2013) Read More