In Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner, 2008), Robert Kenner criticizes the hidden practices of the food industry. Kenner focuses specifically on prominent food businesses like Tyson Foods and Monsanto Company that practice unfair business. These companies are able to curb the law and selfishly benefit at the expense of normal consumers. Through interviews and narration Kenner is able to strike a blow to the food industry. However, in doing so, Kenner violated many ethical standards, blurring the roles of victim and abuser. The documentary opens up with an introduction that foreshadows Kenner’s tenacity in exposing the food industry and in doing so, going too far. The introduction uses eerie background music along with a barrage of interviews to paint
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In other words, ethics stem from morals and it is hard to determine what is ethical or not. One common method to test whether treatment of a person is ethical is using “informed consent.” Nichols broadly defines informed consent: “This principle [of informed consent] … states that participants in a study should be told of the possible consequences of their participation” (37). While Nichols presents the big picture on informed consent, Calvin Pryluck goes more in depth in his article “Ultimately We Are All Outsiders: The Ethics of Documentary Filming.” Pryluck states that for informed consent to be valid, three conditions must be met: “1) It [consent] was made under conditions that were free of coercion and deception, 2) with full knowledge of the procedure and anticipated effects, 3) by someone competent to consent” (25). With the definitions of ethics and informed consent provided by Nichols and Pryluck, it seems that Food, Inc. breaks some of these …show more content…
Kenner visits Vince, a chicken farmer for Tyson Foods, and interviews him about the farm’s practices. Initially, it appears that Kenner would like to only see how the farm works. However, Kenner’s use of voice-of-God narration tells a different story. He is at the chicken farm to critique the practices within the farm and uses Vince as a pawn to prove his point. Kenner accomplishes this by using Vince’s voice-of-God narration while showing footage of the chicken coop. Vince narrates, “These chickens never see sunlight” over footage of the heavily covered chicken coop. Interestingly, this scene is set in a participatory mode as Kenner wants to illicit a certain response from Vince. Kenner asks leading questions in hopes of getting a negative response from Vince. Ultimately, in order to get a disparaging comment about Tyson Foods, Kenner edits two different segments of Vince’s interview to make it seem as if Vince had said something critical about Tyson Foods. Both segments seem to have been taken out of context as Vince’s vocal quality in the edited segment seems to fluctuate. In addition, there is a slight pause between the two fluctuations, which can suggest the merging of the two segments happened at the pause. The individual segments most likely portray Tyson Foods in a neutral or positive light as Vince would not want to endanger his job by speaking negatively about his employer. Kenner’s editing is
In other words, ethics stem from morals and it is hard to determine what is ethical or not. One common method to test whether treatment of a person is ethical is using “informed consent.” Nichols broadly defines informed consent: “This principle [of informed consent] … states that participants in a study should be told of the possible consequences of their participation” (37). While Nichols presents the big picture on informed consent, Calvin Pryluck goes more in depth in his article “Ultimately We Are All Outsiders: The Ethics of Documentary Filming.” Pryluck states that for informed consent to be valid, three conditions must be met: “1) It [consent] was made under conditions that were free of coercion and deception, 2) with full knowledge of the procedure and anticipated effects, 3) by someone competent to consent” (25). With the definitions of ethics and informed consent provided by Nichols and Pryluck, it seems that Food, Inc. breaks some of these …show more content…
Kenner visits Vince, a chicken farmer for Tyson Foods, and interviews him about the farm’s practices. Initially, it appears that Kenner would like to only see how the farm works. However, Kenner’s use of voice-of-God narration tells a different story. He is at the chicken farm to critique the practices within the farm and uses Vince as a pawn to prove his point. Kenner accomplishes this by using Vince’s voice-of-God narration while showing footage of the chicken coop. Vince narrates, “These chickens never see sunlight” over footage of the heavily covered chicken coop. Interestingly, this scene is set in a participatory mode as Kenner wants to illicit a certain response from Vince. Kenner asks leading questions in hopes of getting a negative response from Vince. Ultimately, in order to get a disparaging comment about Tyson Foods, Kenner edits two different segments of Vince’s interview to make it seem as if Vince had said something critical about Tyson Foods. Both segments seem to have been taken out of context as Vince’s vocal quality in the edited segment seems to fluctuate. In addition, there is a slight pause between the two fluctuations, which can suggest the merging of the two segments happened at the pause. The individual segments most likely portray Tyson Foods in a neutral or positive light as Vince would not want to endanger his job by speaking negatively about his employer. Kenner’s editing is