Perception of a Documentary - Essay Example

The audience gets to know that Al Jazeera is only trying to arouse the emotions of the Arab people against the atrocities they are facing by telling them the truth. The theme is successfully delivered because of the portrayal of hierarchy in the documentary. The theme of the documentary was delivered to the audience in such a way that the arguments from both sides were given. In the end, it was the audience who had to decide as to which side was right and which was wrong. The attack on the media was also shown in the documentary to prove the evidence against the US government. It showed that the media was being controlled by both sides or perhaps was being tried to be controlled. The power of the media is analyzed in the documentary and the message has been given to the audience.

The documentary can have a great impact on my perception regarding the Iraq war. The casualties that I saw in the media previously raised my sentiments for the Iraqi citizens. But the documentary portrays that media itself is being controlled by the sides hence it would change my view regarding these sentiments. I would have a balanced view of the Iraqi people because the US soldiers being attacked and tortured were not shown much in the videos shown in the media. The war on Iraq however was waged so that the regime of Saddam Hussein could be ended and the people of Iraq be helped. The documentary raises a question for me “Was this objective achieved? I believe that it was not and hence the war in Iraq was a waste of time and resources for the United States which could have been spent in a much better way. The documentary shows the real side of the media and how they were being controlled. After watching the documentary I can say that I have balanced views regarding the war but the casualties in the war did affect the Americans in a bad way.

The video had some strengths and weaknesses which made it worth watching. Firstly it does not conclude everything on itself but rather leaves it to the audience to decide as to which side they should choose. The strength of the video is that it involves the real people of Al Jazeera who talk about the whole situation themselves. Thus the audience can be assured that this documentary is not fake or lying about things. The series of incidents that happened in the Iraq war are shown in the documentary such that it gives an overall view of the situation of war to the audience. It uses different real events to show how television was being blamed for the incidents that occurred during the war. Al Jazeera was being targeted by US officials and footage of that target has been shown in the documentary. The attacks on the television office have also been shown in the documentary to provide evidence to the viewers regarding the story that the movie is providing the audience with. This evidence proves to be one of the strengths of the video and helps the audience to understand the politics that was being worked out against the media.