Dialogism and mockumentary in contemporary media

Dialogism and Mokumentary

There are different genres of art and entertainment such as dialogism and mokumentary. The paper will compare and contrast these two genres with a critical or theoretical reading as well as examples for the discussion. We will first contrast these two genres in terms of their definitions.

Dialogism is used to denote the quality of an instance of discourse which acknowledges explicitly that it is defined by its relationship to other instances which are both in the past to which it responds to and also the future whereby the response is anticipated. Dialogism is usually associated in the accounts of literary theory as well as narrator especially with the works of Baxtin the Russian thinker and the Baxtin Circle. Dialogism therefore is a representation of the thoughts of an author through his use of dialogue between two or more characters. Dialogic work normally carries a continual dialogue with literature works and also other authors. Dialogism does not apply to literature alone according to Bakhtin, all languages; all thoughts often appear as dialogical. This implies that everything one says always exists as a result of a response to things that have been previously said as well as in anticipation to other things that will be said as a response.in other words people do not speak in vacuum as all languages as well as the ideas communicated and contained in languages is relational, dynamic and engaged in a process of descriptions of the world that are endless (Shepherd, 2011).

Mokumentary on the other hand is a type of television show or film whereby fictional events are presented in a sort of documentary in order to create a parody. This genre is commonly used for analysis or commentary of current issues through the use of a fictional setting or even parody the document form. These can be in dramatic, or comedic form however the most common mockumentaries are comedy ones. They are often presented as historical documentaries with talking heads and B. rolls discussing events that have taken place in the past or cinema verite pieces that follow people as they go through events in their lives. They are partly or wholly improvised as unscripted actin g styles which assist in maintaining pretense of reality. The comedic mockumentaries rarely contain laugh tracks so as to sustain the atmosphere though there are some exceptions of this.

Similarities

Literary theory

Both mockumentary and dialogism are literary forms that can be used for various purposes. They are therefore literature forms that are used to put across different ideas. These two are both forms of fictional narratives one being in dialogue for one in an acted form.

Expression

Both mockumentary and dialogism can be expressed through acting out. Mockumenatries appear in the form of television shows or films therefore implying that these are events that have been acted out. On the other hand dialogism can take many forms including being expressed through acting with dialogues that have been scripted out for the cast. Mockumenatries are mostly in films, television shows or radio shows. Dialogism is often in literary works or by authors in their books or novels ( Shepherd,2011).

Contrast

These two genres are different in different aspects due to their structures and the purpose they are intended for.

Structure

Dialogism and mokumentary take different structures and forms. For mockumentaries they are fictional events that are presented in the firm of a documentary.in other words mockumentaries are acted as films or television shows. On the other hand dialogism takes the form of language whereby there is continuous dialogue with other authors and literature works. Dialogism therefore takes the form of real life conversations between people and how each of them expresses themselves within the dialogue on a particular subject matter ( Jones, 2003).

Purpose

The intended purposes of these two literature genres are very different. The purpose of mockumenatries is to carry out some analysis or give commentaries on certain issues with the use of a fictional setting. This means that there are some issues which can be best expressed if they acted out in order to make people understand the seriousness or impact of a particular issue. Therefore mockumenatries can be used to drive a point home and emphasis through film or television shows. There are several examples of mockumentaries such as CSA; Confederate States of America a 2004 mockumentary that presented an alternate history whereby confederacy won the America civil war. Another example Thomas, which is a German, shot mocklumentary about city archivist Wolfgang Weber who proves that a director of Ayuredic clinic is a reincarnation of an Irish mining pioneer. These two examples depict a certain historical event that is expressed through the mockumentaries. The mockumentaries in both cases are used as away of expressing these events through film (Jones, 2003