My PhD initial proposal

User-generated Video as a New Genre of Independent Documentary


ABSTRACT


The focus of this study will be developing concepts to describe, conceptualize and analyze the emerging user-generated video as accidental record and to test the assumption that traditional documentary is vanishing with the proliferation of mobile films.


BACKGROUND


It is evident that one of the challenges that the independent documentary maker may face is the accessibility of filming area. However, the massive increase of camera phones has provided a platform of wider and faster access to previously hidden areas of public life.

Additionally, the availability of inexpensive video editing and publishing software has enabled and encouraged countless talents to make their own films independently. Neither financial boundaries nor editorial guidelines prevent them from expressing their arguments anymore.

This casual user-generated video production has obviously caught the attention of numerous broadcasters and film festivals around the world. In 2005, the first Mobile Film Festival was held in France and tens of similar festivals have followed.

When John Grierson coined the term ‘documentary’, he defined it as ‘the creative treatment of actuality’. According to this broad description, user-generated video which involves a minimum amount of creative effort can be seen as ‘documentary’. Although it is considered by traditionalists as ‘exploitative’ and as a corruption of the documentary tradition, there is no doubt that this new genre of documentary has been reflecting the changes of the world.


AIMS & QUESTIONS


In this study, characteristics and modes of user-generated video as a new genre of documentary will be explored and brought into a social, cultural and political context to examine its influences and ethics.
The key questions to be addressed in the proposed research may include:


- How does user-generated video represent new styles/modes/interests of documentary?
- How does high-access/low-quality user-generated video as a new genre of documentary affect the approved standards of broadcasting?
- How are the output of user-generated video as a new genre of documentary and its impact on the audience affected by the extreme access and lack of consent?


LITERATURE REVIEW


Since the term ‘user-generated video’ entered mainstream usage in 2005, there has been hardly any study taking into account the characteristics that have been shaping the user-generated video as a new genre of documentary. The limited studies that already exist touch on the area of distribution in a digital-connected marketplace (Louisa Ha, Richard J. Ganahl 2007; Tim Deal, Inc Pike and Fischer 2007; Sharon Badal 2008) as well as the development of mobile TV from a technical point of view (Sacha Wunsch-Vincent and Graham Vickery 2007).


CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE
This proposed study will contribute to the construction of new understandings of documentary in the digital age and how it is abandoning its classical standards for the sake of accessing more information.


RESEARCH APPROACH

The research will be practice-based as the contribution to knowledge is established through artistic conclusions in the form of an experimentally-made documentary film while the significance and context of the claims will be clarified in writing with direct reference to the conclusions. The targeted user-generated video productions will be analyzed using the Content Analysis methodology. Additionally, a survey with different categories of audiences, professional and nonprofessional filmmakers, program commissioners and politicians will be carried out.

July 2008