Guide to Tags
This page explains the tag system used in this project. The annotations identify important moments in the To Tell the Truthsegment featuring Charles Hickson and the Pascagoula UFO incident. Tags help viewers navigate the video by theme, structure, speaker, and audiovisual detail.
The project uses tags to show how the segment turns a witness account into a televised credibility test. Some tags describe the structure of the program, such as the opening, signed statement, panel questioning, voting, and reveal. Other tags identify references to the UFO event itself. A third group of tags focuses on performance: gaze, facial expression, posture, humor, hesitation, and the ways panelists judge who seems truthful.
The tag names are intentionally simple. They use only words and spaces so they can work cleanly in AVAnnotate.
Structure Tags
Structure tags mark the major parts of the video.
Opening Used for the beginning of the segment, including the host’s introduction and the entrance of the contestants.
Signed Statement Used when the host reads the written statement attributed to Charles Hickson. This tag is important because the statement is presented as Hickson’s account, but it is voiced by the host.
Panel Questioning Used for the section where the panelists ask questions to the three contestants.
Voting Used when panelists explain which contestant they believe is the real Charles Hickson.
Reveal Used when the real Charles Hickson is asked to stand up.
Post Reveal Interview Used for the short follow up conversation with Hickson after his identity is revealed.
Closing Used for the end of the segment, when the host thanks Hickson and the impostors.
Event Tags
Event tags identify parts of the video that describe the Pascagoula UFO incident.
Event Description Used for general descriptions of the reported UFO encounter.
Craft Description Used when the statement or questions describe the UFO craft, including its light, shape, landing, or opening.
Being Description Used when the statement describes the beings, including their appearance, height, skin, ears, or claws.
Abduction Claim Used when the segment refers to Hickson being lifted, taken into the craft, examined, or returned.
Calvin Parker Used when the video refers to Hickson’s young friend, Calvin Parker, who was present during the reported event.
Examination Used for references to the examination aboard the craft, including the “large menacing eye.”
Evidence Claim Used for references to hypnosis, lie detector tests, scientific examination, or attempts to substantiate the account.
Interaction Tags
Interaction tags describe the questions, answers, and exchanges between the host, panelists, and contestants.
Factual Question Used when a panelist asks for basic information, such as location, color, sequence, or physical details.
Skeptical Question Used when a question challenges the plausibility, truth, or evidence of the account.
Humorous Question Used when a question is framed as a joke or comic comment.
Clarifying Question Used when a speaker asks for more detail or asks a contestant to explain something more clearly.
Short Answer Used when a contestant gives a brief or minimal answer.
Hesitation Used when a contestant pauses, delays, self corrects, or sounds uncertain.
Certainty Claim Used when a contestant presents the story as true, firm, or unshakable.
Credibility Tags
Credibility tags identify moments where truthfulness is performed, questioned, or judged.
Credibility Performance Used when a contestant appears to perform believability through tone, seriousness, directness, or composure.
Impostor Performance Used when one of the impostors answers as if he were Charles Hickson.
Truth Test Used for moments when the program tests who appears to be the real witness.
Belief Truth Used for moments that separate believing something from proving that it is objectively true, especially the discussion of the polygraph test.
Authority Reference Used when the segment refers to police, experts, hypnosis, lie detector tests, science, or people “of authority.”
True Believer Used when a panelist describes a contestant as sincere or convinced.
Sobered Appearance Used when a panelist judges a contestant as looking changed, serious, or marked by the experience.
Media Tags
Media tags describe how the television format shapes the testimony.
Game Show Format Used when the rules, staging, voting, or reveal structure of To Tell the Truth shape the meaning of the segment.
Entertainment Framing Used when music, applause, jokes, performance, or theatrical staging turn the testimony into entertainment.
Mediated Testimony Used when Hickson’s account is filtered through the host’s reading, the written statement, the show format, or the presence of impostors.
Compression Used when a complex event is reduced into a short television statement or brief question and answer exchange.
Public Judgment Used when the panel or audience is invited to judge who appears credible.
Humor Disbelief Used when humor expresses doubt, skepticism, or playful disbelief toward the UFO claim.
Applause Music Used when music, applause, or other studio sounds shape the tone of the segment.
People Tags
People tags identify important participants in the segment.
Bill Cullen Used for the host’s introduction, reading of the statement, and post reveal questions.
Charles Hickson Used for the real Charles Hickson, especially after the reveal.
Contestant One Used when referring to contestant number one before the reveal.
Contestant Two Used when referring to contestant number two before the reveal.
Contestant Three Used when referring to contestant number three before the reveal.
Orson Bean Used for Orson Bean’s questions and vote explanation.
Peggy Cass Used for Peggy Cass’s questions and vote explanation.
Nipsey Russell Used for Nipsey Russell’s questions and vote explanation.
Kitty Carlisle Used for Kitty Carlisle’s questions and vote explanation.
Gaze Tags
Gaze tags identify visible eye direction or eye movement. These tags are used only when the behavior can be seen in the video.
Direct Gaze Used when a speaker looks directly toward the host, a panelist, another contestant, the audience, or the camera.
Averted Gaze Used when a speaker looks away, down, or to the side.
Eye Movement Used for noticeable changes in eye direction.
Blink Used for visible blinking when it is analytically relevant.
Face Tags
Face tags identify facial expression and small facial movements.
Smile Used when a contestant or panelist smiles.
No Smile Used when a lack of smiling is important, especially because Peggy Cass refers to contestant number two as someone who “never smiled.”
Facial Seriousness Used when a person appears solemn, tense, controlled, or serious.
Lip Movement Used for visible lip movement, such as licking lips or pressing lips together.
Laughter Used for visible or audible laughter.
Body Tags
Body tags identify posture, movement, and gesture.
Posture Used when a person’s seated position, stillness, leaning, or body orientation matters.
Head Movement Used for nodding, turning, tilting, or other visible head movement.
Hand Position Used when a person’s hands are visible and their placement or movement is relevant.
Gesture Used for expressive body movement, including hand gestures or body shifts.
How to Read the Tags
Most annotations use more than one tag. For example, a short skeptical joke by a panelist might include Humorous Question, Skeptical Question, Humor Disbelief, and Entertainment Framing. A moment where the host reads Hickson’s signed statement might include Signed Statement, Mediated Testimony, and Bill Cullen.
The tags are not meant to decide whether Hickson’s account is true or false. Instead, they help viewers observe how credibility is created, questioned, and performed in the video. They also help separate what is said from how it is staged: the spoken testimony, the television format, the contestants’ behavior, and the panelists’ judgments all work together to shape the audience’s understanding of the segment.