The form of the documentary has been around for quite a long time, but it was only a matter of time before it evolved. A new type of genre has emerged from the form that made Ken Burns millions of dollars. The mockmentary is a type of media that seeks to create meaning and knowledge out of revealing the dissonance and incongruities between real life and the imagined world. Since it is becoming more relevant to media today (with popular shows like "The Office" circulating our media sphere), it also become important for students to process the mockumenatry appropriately.
Lesson Plan:
1) First I would show case a mockumentary like "Best in Show" without any type of introduction or explanation
2) After viewing, I would begin to question the class on what they just saw. The important part of this is to ask leading questions to create analytical processing. Some of those questions would be: Is what you just saw real? What is the topic matter at hand? Can you relate to the topic matter? What kind of characters do we see here?
3) Then, we would break down each question to reasonings why we got to that answer. So, if we determined that, in fact, the media is not "real" then how did we come to that conclusion?
4) At this point, we should establish the fact that what we just saw was a mockumentary. From here, I would introduce the topic of the day to be "the mockumentary". This will be followed up with another film clip from a mockumentary.
5) More processing would occur through comparing the two clips and how they both conveyed a message. Some characteristics that should be mentioned are the fact that both clips attempted to achieve some kind of knowledge transfer or message, the usage of multiple characters, the use of prescribed reality, and how it compares to a documentary (a lead in to a future lesson plan or another topic of discussion).
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