Issue 7 【INTO THE FIRE】 by xiaoy

xiaoy~UID: 2603913

"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."

With the progress of science and technology, a lot of technology products come into our lives and change our lives. One of them is video cameras, which can record the contemporary life in an accurate and convincing way, and many people think that compared with written records it’s more convenient, then it becomes a more important form of documentation. But I think it also can’t completely replace written records.

Video is an electronical technology, which can capture, record, process, store, transmit, and reconstruct a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. It has a big merit that it provides an accurate record of physical life without any misunderstanding which is often met when people are reading some written records because it can’t be watched and different reader has different realizations. Video can give a reproduction of the scene, by which the person who never experiences the thing also can know the situation at that time.

But “the big merit” of video also shows that video can only record the façade of the thing, then it becomes the shortcoming. Video cannot competently provide insight into the mind while documents carry both cultural significance and metaphoric significance. Written records can describe inner world of the people. Sometimes we need to understand something through the imaginations. Like reading novels, different people will have different understand, and can realize different details while video often astricts the thought of the people. For example, now many successful novels are adapted as films. If you watch the film before reading the book, it will be difficult to get some new imaginations or some fancy thoughts about the story and its dramatis personaes beyond the film. Then the value of watching the success has been discounted.
And video also lacks the deepness of thoughts or profoundity that like the connotative clou of a sentence written into a paper.

Written records are more authoritative and can be saved for a longer time. So

when we want to record the history or clauses in law, we often write them down into the paper and save them as books or documents.

In addition, video cameras are not used as frequently as written records. Firstly, they are too expensive for most people, especially in developing nations. Secondly compared with paper video cameras are not convenient to carry with. The way to use them is more complex than writing words on the papers at any rate. In a public realm video records often course the problem about people’s intimate things as it is too accurate and too truthful.

Whereas the written records have its steady status which can never replace by video, we shouldn’t ignore the merit of the video. If we can make good use of technology without abandoning traditional methods, these two media can build upon one another, resulting in a multimedia testimony to modern life.