"Truth is the first casualty of a successful current affairs program.
Frontline is a behind-the-scene look at how current affair programs are constructed. It adopts the use of satire to expose the aspects of current affairs shows and their manipulation of truth and construction of mistruth. Stories on current affair programs are seen to be controversial, sensational and presented to be tackling real issues affecting real people.
Current affair programs often reflect a balance between dramatic events, events which are of social interest, human-interest stories and light-hearted or humorous items. This combination gives it variety to attract a wide range audience so that it contributes to good ratings. Frontline is a parody of such a program, usually shown on commercial channels straight after the nightly news. This scheduling tactic offers two major advantages; Firstly, that it is able to appeal to and maintain the audience from the News and secondly, being placed in the timeslot immediately after the News adds authenticity and credibility to the program as it gives the impression of being reported facts and responders perceive this as being subsequently true.
Truths by definition are facts that are accurate, honest, verifiable, correct and agreed perhaps even endorsed by all or almost all people. This makes truth synonymous with fact and thus undisputed. However, the majority of the public takes it for granted that everything we see and hear from the media and similar sources is true and untainted by external forces, which have political or commercial motives. In this belief, there is a certain fundamental trust in the ethics of what is being presented.
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The obvious concern of journalists is uncovering the truth, but recent trends in current affairs journalism clearly show that the journalists inspiration for the unrelenting and insensitive chasing of stories is to achieve good ratings even if this means that the presentation of the truth is a casualty.
