Interactive documentary and the reinvention of digital journalism, 2015–2020

Interactive documentary (i-docs), an innovative hybrid form at the intersection of film, journalism, and digital games, has matured beyond its first wave of experimentation, gaining distinction among the most highly evolved immersive media of the twenty-first century. The latest generation of i-docs is currently winning accolades at both major film festivals and game design summits. This study charts the evolutionary trajectory of North America’s most recent and influential wave of i-docs in works mostly appearing since 2015. It culturally situates i-docs as immersive media that extend experimentation with narrative journalism into the realm of fine art and social activism. Building on the foundation of activist, highly empathic news experiences established in the early 2010s, the most recent advances in i-docs range from live action VR to animated digital games. Such works include the Canadian National Film Board’s 2018 AR (augmented reality) experience East of the Rockies, Occupied’s 2019 Cannes entry The Holy City VR, Roger Ross Williams’ 2019 Tribeca debut Traveling While Black, and iNK Stories Verité VR Series’ 2017 Blindfold and Hero, winner of the prestigious Storyscapes Award at Tribeca in 2018. The vanguard of i-docs has expanded collaboration between film, news, and digital game industries to provide new forms of citizen engagement through advocacy journalism aimed at social and political change. Through the use of John Pavlik’s (2019) critical framework for understanding immersive journalism, this article examines the texts, producers, and industrial contexts of the most recent and influential North American i-docs, as one branch of the form defined by Gaudenzi, Aston, and Rose. Principles of transparency, social responsibility, and a commitment to veracity in i-docs epitomize the esthetic and political potential of digital journalism as an empathic alternative to traditional news coverage.

Transformative Journalisms: How the ecological crisis is transforming journalism

Growing awareness of global ecological crises has provoked a set of new practices in journalism that we suggest labelling transformative journalisms. The term encompasses a diversity of new role conceptions and practices that converge around an explicit and transparent commitment to contribute to the social-ecological transformation of societies by doing journalism. It is thus a form of advocacy journalism that is special in being dedicated to the most common of common goods, preserving the eco-systems and natural resources of the planet. Transformative journalism challenges some aspects of objectivity, such as the idea of the neutral, distanced observer. Instead, it emphasizes the elements of relevant and factually correct coverage as well as values such as transparency about values and moderating the debates that enable society to develop more sustainable ways of life. While the tension between the poles of being a critical, independent observer and sharing a mission of ecological transformation is the source of criticism by proponents of more traditional role conceptions, we also see this tension as a productive source for creativity, complementing traditional journalism with new forms of content, production, and interactions audiences as well as increased awareness of the ecological footprint of doing journalism.

Advocacy journalism in the 21st century: Rethinking entertainment in digital Black press outlets

The Black press is often conceptualized as an advocacy press, but in the current digital environment, in which there are numerous entertainment-focused outlets, what exactly constitutes advocacy is fraught. Perceptions of advocacy, which have previously been associated with hard news content, are broadening to accommodate the entertainment content on Black news websites. Informed by interviews with journalists and focus groups with readers, this research finds that there are two different categorizations of advocacy journalism – hard advocacy and soft advocacy. Some editors and consumers believe the Black press should contain hard advocacy content, such as political activism coverage, while others perceive entertainment in the Black press, which provides positive coverage of African Americans and additional representation of Black life, as soft advocacy. Expanding advocacy conceptions provides further nuance and insight into how the Black press functions in the new media age.

EXPLORING NEWS EDITORS’ ADVOCACY ON SOOT AND WASTE DISPOSAL IN PORT HARCOURT NIGERIA

This study was undertaken to explore the practice of advocacy journalism among news editors in Port Harcourt on the menace of environmental challenges of soot and solid waste disposal in the Rivers State metropolis. News editors of 13 private radio stations in Port Harcourt formed the population for the study. The research instrument was an interview that was based on structured questions framed to extract primary data from the population.The qualitative method was adopted in analysing the data. Among other findings, the study unravelled that the practice of advocacy journalism among news editors on soot and indiscriminate dumping of solid waste is weak in Port Harcourt. More so, the study ascertained that none of the news editors adopted news commentary as an approach in the advocacy on soot and indiscriminate disposal of solid waste in Port Harcourt. Given the findings, it is recommended that news reports on soot and indiscriminate disposal of solid waste in Port Harcourt should be done regularly to strengthen the advocacy and contribute to change of attitudes of the masses toward the environment. It is also recommended, among others that news commentary should be adopted by news editors in Port Harcourt as part of the strategies to advance advocacy on soot menace and indiscriminate disposal of solid waste in that city, due to the educative, expository and detailed nature of the commentary.

Extra-Parliamentary Reporting: The Under-Reported Life of the Working Class

This chapter will explore the range of periodical publications that have engaged with politics on a regional or national level without an overemphasis on the workings of the Westminster parliament. These might be serving geographically distinct communities or they may be circulating among politically disaffected with radical aims. Some periodicals have taken advocacy journalism to petition for causes and movements outside the normal mechanics of the Westminster cycle such as the publications fighting for women’s rights from Votes for Women in 1907 to Spare Rib from 1972. Specific campaigns and causes have been facilitated through such as the pacifist Peace News in 1936 and the New Internationalist which started to encourage greater awareness of overseas development issues in 1973. Other peridocials have addressed a particular political community, for example the Socialist Labour Press out of the Red Clydeside era, the left-wing Irish Republican, An Phoblacht from 1906 and other constituencies have more recently drawn upon publications such as Living Marxism, Schnews, Class War.

The Origins of Bearing Witness While Black

Chapter 2 traces the genealogy of black witnesses through three overlapping eras of domestic terrorism against African Americans: slavery, lynching, and police brutality. Black storytellers in each of these timeframes leveraged the technologies of their day to produce emancipatory news. In this manner, advocacy journalism has remained a central component of black liberation for more than 200 years—from slave narratives to smartphones.