ARTS / DESIGN INNOVATION
Report: How interactive documentaries represent a new form of innovation in digital journalism
From the advent of the printing press to the emergence of photography, radio, television, and now the Internet and mobile devices, journalists have always found ways to adapt to new technologies by changing the way they tell stories and reach audiences. Interactive and participatory documentaries offer a new opportunity in that development. They provide immersive, visual, and mobile-friendly storytelling techniques; provoke creative collaborations across institutions, "desks" and with publics; and stimulate the use of often overlooked assets such as archives. By so doing, they provide an array of solutions for journalistic institutions that wish to reach a new generation of users and make use of today’s technological developments.
These are the conclusions of a new MIT report — “Mapping the Intersection of Two Cultures: Interactive Documentary and Digital Journalism” — released this week by the MIT Open Documentary Lab and supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Drawing from case studies from The New York Times, The Guardian, National Public Radio, Frontline, and others, the report represents the first thorough mapping of the ongoing convergence between interactive and participatory practices within digital journalism.