Participation without Guarantees: Documentary Ethics, Digital Media, and Hegemony

• In Event: Communication Ethics Division Top Three Papers

Abstract

The documentary film and video tradition has long been concerned with the imbalance of power between media producer and subject. Online media only transliterated these problems into a different sphere. We find that the traditional focus in documentary ethics on the interaction between documentarian and subject or the evaluation of the ethical qualities of the text are insufficient for a world where the roles of subject, producer, and viewer are permanently blurred.

Author

• William McClain, Univ of Southern California