Routledge Focus on Media and Cultural Studies- Documentary’s Transmedia Metamorphosis

This book interrogates how the documentary genre is transforming and adjusting its practices to adapt to shifting technologies and fragmented audiences. It will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students of media production, documentary, performance, journalism, communication studies, activism, and creative practice. Documentary’s Transmedia Metamorphosis interrogates how the documentary genre is transforming and adjusting its practices to adapt to shifting technologies and fragmented audiences. The book is both a critical and creative exploration of what it means to work across media for the purpose of storytelling, engagement, and social change. The core of this work’s reflexive analysis is the production and circulation of the author’s independent and transmedia documentary project Obrero (“worker”) that explores the conditions and context of the Filipino rebuild workers who migrated to Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake in 2011. Audiences of labour migration documentaries span a diverse set of publics – ranging from source to receiving countries. This volume, therefore, assumes a more sophisticated approach to audience engagement and storytelling, given the disparity of the target audience’s interest, stake in and position on, the subject matter. It then examines the various forms and iterations of contemporary documentaries through the use of multiple platforms and assesses their efficacy in this digital age. Combining theory with first-hand practical experience, this book will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students of media production, documentary, performance, journalism, communication studies, activism, and creative practice.