issue7

423165179UID: 2649312

TOPIC: 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."

Does the video camera play a more important role than written records? Since the use of videos camera gets wider and wider today, more and more people, as well as the author of this issue, came up with the idea. However I can hardly find my agreement towards this assumption.

It is well known that video camera has some spectaculars on several aspects. It can make a vivid reflection of our lives; it can provide an accurate record of historical events; it can help people's study through movies of popular science; it can make people happy by entertaining TV shows. It is so important that videos come to be an important part of our lives through the transforming means of TV shows, movies, or video tapes.

However the high rank it places in our society does not equal to that it is more important than written records. First, the value of cameras limits the popularize rate videos gain. According to a recent report in Tex state, from over two hundreds questioned families, only 47.3 percent families have one or more cameras and only another 12.5 percent families plan to buy one. The low rate shows the little ownership of camera among the people while written records, as a long-history and cheap means of recording, is far more popular among people. Consequently, the video camera cannot overtake the position of written records in our society.

In addition, it is not convenient to bring camera everywhere and to use it to record everything. No matter how small it can be product, it also needs to be charged, needs to pass records through tapes or through data transforming technology. I cannot image when I ask a receipt from a restaurant I have just had dinner and the waiter gives a tape instead of a receipt to me; I cannot image when a manager want to sign a document, he gives his subordinate a tape instead of a signed document. However important the video is, it cannot take place the written records.

Finally, paper records can records a person’s mental development concretely, and carry out both cultural significance and metaphoric significance of an event. However as videos can only record a thing from its outside appearance, people may misunderstood the meaning that the record wants to deliver through the outside phenomena. Written records can be a kind of art as well, we can be touched by the perfect description; we can be encouraged by the thoughts it passed. And these unparalleled functions of art make it unparalleled position among the documentation.

To sum up, although video cameras are very important nowadays, it cannot take place of the written records. We must combine these two means of recording, develop their advantages and avoid their shortcomings.