Complementary reading
One of the techniques most used by the bourgeois press consists of highlighting a single detail to give a completely different meaning to the news. Sometimes, the lack of a word or a phrase gives a particular slant to the reality presented; in this case the news is not false, it is incomplete, and, by this means, the way the news item will be received is adulterated, and reality is deformed, paradoxically, by means of genuine information.
A newspaper published information about Paraguay in its tourism section. Everything they printed there gave the impression that Paraguay was a land where all the people were happy, friendly etc. As for Paraguayan restaurants, the paper reported that ‘its beefsteaks are the bestin the world, not only in terms ofsize but also in their quality’. The item begged to be completed: ‘the steaks served in the main restaurants cost 15 dollars, while the monthly per capita income in this country is under 30 dollars. The beef may be the best in the world—this may be the truth butitis part of the truth, and therefore this partial presentation of the truth lied about reality. Paraguayan steaks are the best, but they are not the best for the Paraguayan people, who are prohibited from eating them.’
During the last election campaign, in which the life-president Stroessner tried to make believe that his country was a democracy; the dictator plastered the country with posters which read: ‘If you love liberty, vote for Stroessner’. And it was the truth, but only half of the truth and therefore it was mendacious. This advertisement lacked the complementary information which would have turned it into the whole truth. And so someone supplied it on a poster at Assunção Airport, by writing underneath: ‘because if you don’t, the police will come looking for you in your home’. This complementary annotation restored the truth of the advertisement: ‘if you love liberty, vote for the dictator, who has ways of knowing who each person votes for, and ways of incarcerating all those who do not agree.’ The prisons in Paraguay are full.
A Bolivian paper criticising the transitional regime in Chile, in Allende’s time, affirmed: ‘In Chile there are queues for everything; in Bolivia the shop windows are crammed’. And, in part, it was true. But it was necessary to complement this news: ‘Because in Chile, up until September 1973, the purchasing power of the people permitted them to eat, while in Bolivia the people, enslaved by their own oligarchy and by Brazilian sub-imperialism, are used to walking along the street without being able to afford to go into the shops—whose products thus stay in the window waiting for a rich man to pass. And that completes the news.
During the month of July (their Spring), and in the Summer months, the Rua Florida in Buenos Aires is packed with Brazilian tourists: these tourists are the middle and upper class of the few cities where the national wealth is concentrated. A shop in Rua Florida used to advertise the prices for Brazilians in cruzeiros. The advertisements demanded to be complemented: ‘A pullover for 50 cruzeiros, plus one person tortured by the Political Police, whose officers work on a 24-hour rota, in permanent teams of torturers, to ensure that the people accept low wages. The price of a pair of shoes is 80 cruzeiros (plus the censorship of the press); the price of a week in Bariloche is only 1,000 cruzeiros all inclusive, flight, breakfast and lunch, ski-ing lessons and, for sure, a national congress where anything can be discussed, except politics.’
The main idea of the complimentary reading is to add information left out in the news. It sounds rather simple, but if you pay closer attention, it turns out it might be one of the more complex techniques, at least the one that requires from the group and the facilitator the most knowledge and understanding about the subject. Unlike other techniques, that require you to look at what is there, play with it and re-interpret it, complimentary reading focuses on what is missing. And to chose appropriate aspects of what is missing from the text requires deep involvement with the subject. Because of that, complimentary reading is not necessary the best method for beginners and for groups that are only starting to explore the subject more closely, it should be aimed more at groups that are more experienced in the method, have a good critical understanding of the media, and are very familiar with the problem. On the other hand, because of that, when done well, complimentary reading can have a great effect on the audience. Audience gets exposed to the information that has deliberately been left out from the media, which means that it doesn’t make into the public debate as well.
A good example can be a newspaper article that is claiming that most Roma people in Croatia are living on social welfare. Statistics are clear – more than 50% of the Roma in Croatia are living from the social welfare – so the article is not false. What makes it false is the omission of fundamental conditions that are creating this: segregated settlements and schools, history of discrimination and genocide, strong anti-Roma discriminatory practices, etc etc. So when newpaper only publish facts (even if true), but omitt causes and conditions of those facts, the public debate quickly turns into blaming Roma for being lazy and wanting to work. This doesn’t necessarily need to be stated by the article itself, it can only provide the “objective” facts, but this type of article is complicit in reinforsing the narrative that caused the problem. Augusto Boal writes “The secondary objective [of newspaper theatre] is to attempt to demystify the pretended ‘objectivity’ of most journalism, to show that all news published in the paper is a work of fiction at the service of the dominant class. Even accurate news, where the facts are not mis-represented (a very rare thing), becomes fiction when published in a newspaper at the service of this class.” (emphasis ours). Complimentary reading is trying to combat this, and more the audience is exposed to practices of complimentary reading, the less they will take facts for granted.
In modern media landscape, in which video plays the pivotal role, complementary reading becomes extremely important. Video intuitively feels like the absolute and direct image of reality – unlike the text where we understand that there is interpretation involved. However, the framing theory clearly shows how this idea is far from the truth. With the choice of perspective, frame and editing video can show completely different stories of the same event. This is why the complimentary reading becomes even more important technique. It doesn’t have to be in the form of reading – the information can be added by providing a different shots of the same area, a re-editing of the existing material, adding text or images that are adding the information that was left-out. For example, the promotional video for tourism on Greek islands can be complemented with images of asylum seekers’ camps that are overcrowded and beneath human dignity. If you are creating a live performance, the missing information can be also played-out with the original video in the background.
To work with complimentary reading it is really important to know the topic you are working with in depth – this is the only way to even understand that there is missing information from the original.
On the other hand, complimentary reading doesn’t mean you are only allowed to add hard numbers, statistic etc – your task is only to widen the frame, to put in more information. It is ok if the resulting product is not comprehensive. The point of newspaper theatre is to dismantle the idea of objectivity of the news, not to claim that we are creating “objective” news. Our task is only to give an alternative narrative, and open possibilities for the audience to question the presumption that the story that is the product of the ruling class ideology is the only truth.