Charlotte Jenner. (2014). Navigating distant worlds: International development and social change in interactive web documentary [EBL Reader Version] Retrieved from http://130.241.16.45/ojs/index.php/gt/article/view/2870/2480
The article explores the key characteristics of interactive documentary and the audience engagement on the content. Jenner research examples on interactive documentary are based on social issues and conflict that is happening around the world. There are two case studies that were discussed; The Awra Amba Experience and Inside Disaster: Inside the Haiti Earthquake. It focuses on how the content of interactive documentary impacts the audiences. Jenner outlined the positive engagement into three modes which are active, emotional and critical engagement. However, the article raises some issues such as high expectations of interactivity, linear disruption, internet access and environment that the audience faces.
The article provides a useful analysis and results on the different age group of audience experiencing interactive documentary. The result supported statistically and feedbacks were given. The results were important to know how the audiences felt and which group of the audience was attracted to the interactive documentary. The findings also point out that the complexity in interactive documentary allows the user to experience the different pathways. Jenner concluded the various audience engagements through the three key modes that were developed through interacting international and social issues on the interactive documentary with limitations raised.
The article is useful in helping us understand how the audiences feel in engaging an interactive documentary and content that touches on world issues. It will give us a different perspective on how audiences interact with a documentary content than fiction content. This research will help the team decide which content will be more popular in the future.
