AI Generated Video Encounters Current Affairs Documentaries: A Focus on MBC's PD Notebook Episode #1447

This study examines the integration of generative AI video in the production of current affairs documentaries, focusing on MBC's PD Notebook Episode 1447, “Suspect of Insurrection, What Was He Aiming For?”, aired on January 7, 2025. This episode notably employed AI-generated footage to visualize hypothetical scenarios related to martial law, specifically exploring “what if” martial law had actually been implemented. The research analyzes how generative AI video, when introduced into current affairs documentary production, achieves narrative and aesthetic effects while simultaneously creating tensions with existing industry systems. To achieve this, the study conducted in-depth interviews with the MBC producer involved in the project and the CEO of MBC's AI strategy subsidiary responsible for AI video production. It also analyzed work materials used during the video production process. The findings reveal that while the production workflow shared similarities with traditional re-enactment, AI video's inability for partial modification necessitated iterative generation through prompt adjustments. Designers compensated for AI image limitations by utilizing post-production tools. This process often involved the labor-intensive decision-making of how to combine manual correction with AI generation at each stage. Through this collaborative process, the production team established unique evaluation criteria for AI video, centering on factual accuracy, consistency with physical and social reality, continuity, and cinematic intensity. These criteria reflected the constraints of the broadcasting environment, the requirements of the documentary genre, and the current state of AI technology. When these criteria were met, AI video was successfully applied to current affairs documentaries. Furthermore, AI video technology expands the narrative and aesthetic possibilities of documentaries. It allows for compellingly visualizing content previously difficult to portray in traditional documentaries, such as future disasters, dystopian scenarios, or alternative historical narratives. Moreover, it enables the depiction of physically inaccessible spatio-temporal settings, characters, and perspectives, thereby broadening the scope of documentary representation.