Intimate Documentary versus Political Re-mix Video

E-ISSN： 2327-1787|9|1|1-19

ISSN： 2326-9987

Source： The International Journal of New Media, Technology and the Arts, Vol.9, Iss.1, 2015-01, pp. : 1-19

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Abstract

This research examines the political implications of a new media genre which the author calls “intimate documentary,” which she theorizes is emerging as a below-the-radar ideological format for products of political culture, and compares it with the political re-mix video tradition. She describes the ways in which “intimate documentary,” combines the most effective traits of traditional visual story-telling with the almost ubiquitous accessibility of mobile and online communication, and explores the possibility that this new online genre is not just challenging conventional ideas about the role, structure, and content of the documentary format, per se, but is actually introducing an entirely new element into the anthropology of the Internet by personalising political issues as a new type of visual narrative which achieves widespread exposure through Web distribution. In particular, the author contrasts the storytelling dynamics of “intimate documentary” with those of another new media genre, the “political remix video” in terms of combating “echo chamber politics” in the era social media mentality.