The same news over and over again.
Politicians doing this, politicians doing that. The economy doing this, the economy doing that.
The same materials are being regurgitated and sold to the people of this country as “breaking news.”
This no longer has to be the case, as a new reporting television channel called Viceland is on the rise with a different perspective on news.
Vice was founded as a Canadian magazine in 1994, and from then on it expanded into Vice Media and even started a news website, Vice News. As of 2016, Vice has expanded even further and launched a new television channel known as Viceland.
Viceland essentially combines all that Vice was known for before into one channel. Its extraordinary documentary series on HBO and its various subsections covering news and music are joined through several series that cover a variety of different topics.
One of these series is “Noisey,” which explores different music cultures around the world. In one episode that I found particularly fascinating, one Viceland reporter investigated the Baile Funk music community within the favelas, or slums on the outskirts of Brazilian towns.
The report started out much like any common report, but as it progressed, it quickly deviated from the regular formula and became something else entirely, something truly unique in the realm of reporting.
Originally, I thought that the report was only going to cover Baile Funk; while the report did explore Baile Funk, it did so in a way that I did not expect at all.
The report did not present just one story, but rather a multitude of stories intertwined together into one harsh reality about the violence and oppression that lies at the roots of the Baile Funk community. Interviewing the police, the people, and even the criminals who are hailed as protectors by the community, Viceland provided a truly striking report.
Still, this is just one of the series that is being featured on Viceland. Another series is “Gaycation,” which follows famous actress Ellen Page and her best friend Ian Daniel on a journey through the world’s LGBTQ communities.
This series, much like the last, provides detailed and breathtaking insight into what is really happening throughout the world.
What drives this unique style of reporting is ultimately the sheer passion of its reporters. Devoting months of their time and even endangering their own lives, these people have set an all-new standard for everything that journalism should strive to be.
Spikey Jones, the famous creator of movies like “Her,” is Viceland’s creative director. Jones said, “We wanted Viceland to be different, to feel like everything on there has a reason to exist and a strong point of view. It’s us trying to understand the world we live in by producing pieces about things we’re curious about or confused about or that we think are funny.”
That is exactly what Viceland has managed to achieve and why it has everything that common news and reporting are lacking.
Viceland is available on the following channels:
DISH: 121
DTV: 271
AT&T: 257
Verizon: 127
Comcast: 805