than five times, this is due to the channel’s traditions and the awareness that abandoning these practices would impact the level of quality. The same is true of video clips, titles, lines, colours and even the news tick- ers at the bottom of the screen, which should not exceed twelve words or eighty characters per item. These are all measurable standards that were reached by agreement between the relevant production teams, and positively affect the network’s quality of service. These standards are the basis of written reports and research evaluations, with care taken to simplify discussions on editorial standards in design and craftsmanship; and within that framework, the values of ethical standards such as accu- racy and credibility are applied. One of these editorial challenges was the path of creating an ed- itorial guide for programmes and documentary films. This guide re- quired monumental effort for a number of reasons, because most of the information regarding documentaries in the media market focused on production content that defined documentary art or contained training tips for interested parties. Creating documentary films is largely built on innovation and imagination, and there is a lot of contention within quality control discussions on the right balance between regulations and innovation, in such a manner that prevents innovative language from completely obliterating regulations, objectivity, accuracy and fairness. At the same time, these standards should not become a prison with no flexibility between journalistic innovation and programmes. For example, one of the quality control measures prevents the use of soundtracks in documentaries to direct and influence emotions or impose some type of emotions that were missing in the documenta- ry’s impact or expression. This is also applicable to re-enactments that are meant to complete elements of truth-building in a documentary programme, which should not, according to the standards, be used for entertainment but rather for truth-building. Media design is not drama work, and it cannot be allowed to overturn the truth (1) . Furthermore, quality standards in this regard include the appear- ance of journalists in investigative programmes. A journalist’s ap- pearance is not the goal in and of itself, but rather a partial element
(1) Morsi and Hussein, “Complementary Media Platforms”, Ibid.
123
EN2.indd 123
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter