Cracking The Code
Four Corners Facebook Investigation
Four Corners is the longest running investigative broadcast documentary series in Australia. Based on BBC’s Panorama, the program addresses a single issue in depth each week, showing either a locally produced program or a relevant documentary from overseas.
Currently hosted by Sarah Ferguson, each episode runs for around forty-five minutes. Four Corners uses many traits of documentary to further its story’s by utilising multiple interviews and sometimes reenactments but instead of having a dramatic story driven narrative Four Corners instead uses the format to delve deeper into a current affairs news story, with the weekly shows most often being relevant to a recent or major news item.
In the episode ‘Cracking The Code’ journalist Peter Greste travelled to both Australia and the USA interviewing ex-hacker turned cyber security consultant, multiple digital media strategists, internet privacy advocate and an ex political prisoner that Greste shared a cell with. Greste conducts most interviews himself being a main feature on screen and heard asking some questions usually set in an informal manner such as a coffee shop or Greste sitting next to one interviewee. Other interviews where Greste is not featured keep to close up shots of the interviewee’s, usually in their work environment, and sometimes seem to have been done by an external crew with some interviews lacking similarities in style. Questions asked however seemed unique to each person and their personal roles or views on the topic.
Learning more about our lack of online privacy and the lengths the tracking goes to was definitely a great draw card but that soon was usurped by Greste’s personal story of how his supporters used Facebooks algorithms to help spread his own story to mass markets and help his case then shows extreme right wing supporters have found their place on Facebook using similar methods and how they skirt Facebooks tracking system. All of this felt absolutely muddled with the overall message informing the audience of how widespread and secretive Facebook is with tracking data but then offers vastly different points of views as to why this is both a good or bad thing but still paints Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the ultimate villain of this story.
As informative as this episode has been it left me feeling indifferent about the systems in place as it showed both awesome ways it can be utilised, such as the Egyptian revolution, but also that is has a huge deal of faults, mainly the uprising of organised racially charged groups.
