Committed Documentary Practices in Digital Media Cultures

Committed documentary practices designed with and for marginalized people and those affected by social problems have a long tradition. Digital media cultures seem to offer new opportunities for participation and community building along with new forms of expression that can potentially create cultural visibility for marginalized positions on a global level. This contribution argues that in engaged interactive documentary projects on the web (i-docs), communal experiences and counterpublics that respond to social and cultural exclusion mechanisms are closely related. The focus is on projects that offer space for dialog and are also called “open space documentaries” (Zimmermann/de Michiel 2018). To collectively demand one's participation in the public sphere and dominant culture through DOING documentary can foster the feeling of being part of a (virtual) community. Emerging ‘we-groups’ with democratic goals articulate marginalized positions in the form of counterpublics and seek to address an outside audience with their counterpublic discourses. However, the shared aesthetic practices and communicative narrative processes that form the basis of communal experiences are not always conducive to cultural participation and democratic participation in the public sphere. This presentation examines the relationship between demanding one's socio-cultural participation and community experiences in committed participatory i-docs. The hypothesis is that group-specific goals are difficult to reconcile with promoting the cultural and democratic participation of those affected by social problems – meaning cultural forms of democracy. The theoretical framework first discusses the prerequisites for cultural participation and participation in the public sphere, including media-philosophical approaches such as those of Jacques Rancière (2010) or Michaela Ott (2018) and theories of democracy and the public sphere such as those of Chantal Mouffe (2013) and Nancy Fraser (1990). In addition, the contribution clarifies what distinguishes a (virtual) community from communal experiences (Deterding 2009). Then, three committed i-docs that promote communal experiences and try to challenge dominant cultural and societal structures serve as examples in this media studies investigation: Dadaab Stories (2013), Question Bridge: Black Males (2012), The G Word: Transforming Gender Norms, One Story at a Time (2015). The study uses media-aesthetic and content analyses of the i-docs as well as praxeological analyses of their processes conducted based on paratexts and interviews to examine communal experiences and to identify the potential for counter-narratives that deconstruct stereotypes and disseminate positions that are culturally almost invisible. The three i-docs show that the self-representation of marginalized participants and sharing their experiences can be useful for a sense of community but are not always sufficient for challenging dominant images and identity attributions. The presentation argues that an unreflected handling of stereotypical self-images, for example, prevents the promotion of participation. People affected by social problems are usually not in the position to reflect on their representation on a meta-level. A conclusion regarding further research suggests differentiating between forms of active media participation and passive cultural or democratic participation or participation in a (virtual) community instead of euphorically equating these forms by hastily ascribing political potential to the act of taking part in a media project.

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