While the documentary aims to challenge institutions by questioning government health advice, a closer analysis reveals it confirms Marxist readings. Interviews featured mostly white, middle-class subjects, reinforcing power structures. Renata's story of using commercial weight-loss schemes to feel empowered actually distracts from true needs. The documentary ultimately relies on privileged voices to relay its message, not challenging power dynamics as intended.

1. FAT U A L
APPLYING A MARXIST READING
TO OUR DOCUMENTARY

2. CHALLENGES
On the surface, our production seems to challenge a Marxist reading
through the deconstruction of powerful institutions. This is done
through our questioning of the wisdom of government approved
health advice.
Furthermore, we have interviewed children for our Vox Pops who
refer to the government as ‘he’, which undermines the legitimacy of
their advice, presenting a parody and mockery of established
institutions in power, such as the health service and government.
The title of ‘Fatual’ deliberately suggests the deconstruction of the
facts which are fed to us by the government. This relates to key
hegemonic idea of those lower down in society accepting every
idea which they are told in order to keep those at the top in power, and
gives viewers the opportunity to challenge such ideologies.

3. CONFIRMS
However, if we look deeper, our documentary in fact confirms a
Marxist reading, through reaffirming the positions of institutions in
power. Although we questioned the wisdom of government advice, we
still interviewed an educated doctor who is part of a hegemonic
organisation.
While he was not white (which he would traditionally have been to
reinforce hegemonic ideologies), he was still male and middle-
class which reaffirm the idea of privileged groups feeding information
to those lower down to keep them in power.
In learning of his high up position, the audience are encouraged to
trust him, which seems like common sense as surely he will know
what he is talking about, but in doing so, we submit to his superiority,
confirming a Marxist reading of our documentary.

4. CONFIRMS
Our documentary further adheres to a Marxist reading
when we look at the reinforcement of capitalism and the
importance of the free market.
This is depicted through Renata talking about how she
chose to use the ‘Slimming World’ over
‘Weightwatchers’ in our documentary, which reaffirms
Capitalist ideologies, as she puts money into these
schemes to gain a sense of worth, and feels happier as a
result.

5. CONFIRMS
Adorno suggests that “That is the triumph of advertising in the
culture industry: the compulsive imitation by consumers of
cultural commodities which, at the same time, they recognize as
false”.
We can apply this to Renata’s buying into the ‘Slimming
World’ scheme as she is distracted by the superficial needs
forced onto her by culture, society and advertising through
the Culmination theory, which have suppressed her true
needs for creativity and passion etc.
Renata refused to give us permission to use a photograph
within our documentary from before she lost weight, which
confirms the fact that she has prioritised her false need to feel
good about her appearance over her intrinsic need to share
her story.

6. CONFIRMS
Renata’s mention of choosing Slimming World over other
methods such as Weightwatchers also suggests
Adorno’s identification of pseudo-individualisation. This
is because Renata is under the illusion that she has the
power to make an active choice, when in fact all of the
schemes are the same in essence, but the allusion of
power distracts her from the fact that she actually has no
power.
Again, Adorno would suggest that she is distracted from
her true needs through buying into products which
concentrate on her superficial needs.

7. CONFIRMS
If we look at the Two Step Flow audience theory,
Renata, having been influenced by the mass
media into thinking that she must buy into such
schemes to look and feel good through the
Culmination Theory, and therefore acts as an
Opinion Leader, encouraging the audience to
think the same, and buy into similar hegemonic
schemes.

8. CONFIRMS
Another way in which our documentary can be read as confirming a
Marxist reading is through analysing our Vox Pop interviewees, the
majority of which were white, middle-class, and living in an
expensive part of London (Hampstead).
There are even white children included in the Vox Pop interviews,
which suggests that we even interviewed a young white child over an
older, poorer, lower income bracket, black woman, which reaffirms
the hegemonic concept of keeping those traditionally at the top (in
this case, those who are white), in power.
Many of the interviewees said that they were aware of the faults within
the system, indicating their allusion of power, however the fact that
they only said so when probed by us reiterates the lack of power
which they truly hold, and that there is nothing that they can do to
upturn the hegemonic conventions.

9. CONFIRMS
Furthermore, all of those who we interviewed suggested that they had
an element of choice in the matter – one said she wasn’t confused
by the government health advice because she had no idea what it
was.
The idea of the middle-class woman having a choice about whether
to engage or not insinuates her talking down to a less sophisticated,
minority audience with a superior voice.
Similarly in our radio advert, we have used the voiceover of a middle-
class female with a clear, articulate accent, aswell as a middle-class
male wearing a suit in our poster.
Again, here is the suggestion of using people higher up in society to
preach the message of our documentary implies that those further
down should submit to their superiority.
However, the audience is too distracted by the interesting and
seemingly controversial topic to notice this, and so the documentary
succeeds in relaying the message.

10. CONFIRMS
The title of ‘Fatual’ is close to the word ‘Fatuous’, which suggests
something immaterial.
This would suggest that our documentary actually has a strong focus
on spending money to look good to gain empowerment, rather than
actual, true empowerment in gaining knowledge about the
government health advice.
This reading is reinforced by the use of Renata telling her cliché story
about weight loss through buying into schemes.

11. CONFIRMS
Perhaps as a point of evaluation, our documentary might
have been more challenging, and would have conveyed
our intended message better of challenging government
health advice had we not used such a cliché slimming
story, which rendered our documentary less probing, and
seemingly slight in comparison to our topic.

12. CONCLUSION
Although on the surface our documentary seems to
challenge a Marxist reading, under closer observation,
there is in fact a lot more evidence to suggest that it
confirms a Marxist reading.
If we had done more research on this before our
production, it might have been more appropriate to
choose a more passive, less sophisticated target
audience. This is because although the audience are
under the impression that they are being active, they are
in fact being fed hegemonic ideologies through the use
of predominately white, middle-class cast members.