Issue7 spring小组 第九次作业

luckimonkeyUID: 2408088

ISSUE7、"The video camera provides such an accurate and convincing record of contemporary life that it has become a more important form of documentation than written records."
WORDS: 630    TIME: one hour   DATE 2007-11-22
Does the video camera have become a more important form of documentation than written records? The assertion believes so, however, in my point of view, the assertion amplifies the merits of video camera as a form for documentation while overlooking the irreplaceable advantages of written records.
   It is true that video camera transcends the written records as a form of documentation in many cases by providing vision information vividly and accurately.For example, what a person, who is willing to get some knowledge about the artwork in Louvre Palace, would prefer a video documentation presenting the artwork or some written record introducing them? Furthermore, comparing with the written records, video documentation involves less of the photographer’s subjective opinions, while written records inevitably conveys the writer’s point of views, which may contradict the crucial principle of documentation, to record objectively. Also, in the dissemination of the documentation, video documentation is superior to the written records because it can overcome the language barrier. No matter what language the watcher speaks, the vision information would never impedes their understanding of the video, while the written records can only be read by those who master the language of the writing. Taking all of the factors above, I concede with the assertion that video camera serving as a form of documentation has its distinct advantages, which makes it more important than written records to some extent and in some specific realm.

   Despite of the merits of the video documentation, it suffers from many defects stemming from its natural characteristics, which I will discuss as follows. First and foremost, it cost a higher price to record our life with a camera and then to preserve them than written records, especially for the developing countries. It is a well known fact that every nation needs to record their social life on the purpose to pass down their specific culture. For those destitute nations where quantities of people can not get sufficient food, warm clothing and safe shelters, the demand for a convincing and accurate video documentation pales in importance compared to those problems. What’s more, it sets higher requirement to preserve the video documentation such as suitable temperature, calculated humidity, and so forth, as a consequence the expense boosts. To the contrary, written records are not only easy but also cheap to make and preserve. Thus, to replace the written records with video camera as the major form of documentation is neither feasible nor necessary.
In the second place, video camera can only document the physical life and superficial phenomena but fails to provide the insight into mind, while written records can describe the human mental life which in turn provides a more comprehensive horizontal for the readers.
   In the third place, considering about the ultimate purpose to record our life, to pass down the human culture, written records are much more reliable than video. As is known to us all, nowadays we can still read books, if well preserved, dating from two thousand years ago to research the human culture, while as the invention of video camera only dates back to 19th century, we have no idea how long the video documentation can be preserved. From such aspect, the human culture inheritance may be put at risk if choosing the video camera as the only or major form of documentation. Therefore, as I see it, as a form of documentation, written records is indispensable and should never be abandoned.
   In the final analysis, we have to admit that, as different forms of documentation, video cameras and written records both have advantages and disadvantages. Only if we concrete both of their merits can we achieve the goal of documentation, to disseminate and pass down our culture, at a comparatively low cost.