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Accepted Paper:

Interactive documentary and public anthropology: scholarship, social activism, or ethnographic entertainment?  
Kerric Harvey (George Washington University)

Paper short abstract:

A new online media format called “interactive documentary” is explored as a potential vehicle for extending anthropology’s reach beyond traditional academic and museum audiences and into online, broadcast, and mobile content distribution opportunities, with examples drawn from the Web and from the author’s own research on mobile phone filmmaking.

Paper long abstract:

The author explores the potential of a new online media format called "interactive documentary" as a vehicle for bringing "anthropology to the world" in an entirely new way by extending its reach beyond academic and traditional museum audiences and into online, broadcast, and mobile content distribution opportunities. Comparisons are made between this emerging media genre and traditional ethnographic film, with a brief review of the benefits and the disadvantages of adapting ethnographic visual material to this new type of media format. This is followed by a discussion of specific scholarly issues related to re-packaging ethnographic content for the interactive documentary genre, including the impact of very small screen and cell phone video capture technology ("pocket shooters") on traditional ethnographic film in general and on the documentary film genre, specifically.

The possible political implications of media products made possible by these low-cost, low-tech devices is discussed, and the ethical considerations of their likely migration to mainstream "docudrama" and "infotainment" commercial media outlets is examined. In addition, the author reports on her own research on the methodological usefulness and the ethical implications of re-purposing the kinds of video-capture technology usually found in social media situations to anthropological purposes, including the use of mobile phone video cameras and "Flip"-style point-and-shoot devices in field situations. Several versions of the "interactive documentary" genre will be discussed and screened, with examples taken directly from the Web.

Panel P02
Exhibiting anthropology
  Session 1