actuality

actual +‎ -ity

• (television): Influenced by French actualité.

• IPA^(key): /ˌækt͡ʃuˈælɪti/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

actuality (countable and uncountable, plural actualities)

1. The state of existing; existence.
2. An instance or quality of being actual or factual; fact.
3. (television) Live reporting on current affairs.
   • 1964, European Broadcasting Union, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 83, page 22:

     A cabled despatch is better than nothing, but a voicecast of tolerable quality is preferable, and in certain types of story a voicecast with live or recorded actuality is best of all. Correspondents all have portable tape recorders.

   • 2005, Alan R. Stephenson, David E. Reese, Mary E. Beadle, Broadcast Announcing Worktext, page 164:

     This is a news report from the scene of the event. When a voicer and an actuality are combined into one complete story, it's known as a wrap.

4. (historical, film) A short early motion picture.
   • 1999, “The Variety Stage collection”, in Selected Materials from the Library of Congress‎:

     By 1903, the actuality film had reached its peak; in 1903, the Edison and Biograph companies, combined, registered three hundred fifty one actuality films for copyright protection. By 1908 that number had dropped to two.