I understand nonfiction to be a genre that involves any content that is factual or based on reality. Nonfiction media generally presents the truth in an informative manner; consumers of nonfiction media assume that they are being presented an authentic and accurate view. Documentaries, photographs and news reports are seen as popular forms of nonfiction media, which follow these conventions of presenting the truth. In contrast, fiction media deals with information, events, and characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary.

In the week 2 reading ‘Reality’  by David Shields, Shields explores the ideas of fiction and reality. He uses prose to illustrate how we interpret reality, stating: “The story’s not important, what’s important is the way the world looks. That’s what makes you feel stuff”, and, “All the best stories are true”. This implies that the author highly values the world in its authentic, raw form over representations or constructed images.

By noticing reality, we are able to document and create nonfiction media that depicts the world as we perceive it. Nonfiction is important as it allows us to learn more about the people, places and things that surround us, and strengthen our understanding of real world events.