Types of Audio Types of Audio DocumentariesDocumentariesFor Podcasting

SourceSource

Based on the concepts used for film documentaries

Bill Nichols books ◦Introduction to Documentary (2001) ◦Representing Reality (1991)

http://alexburtonjournal.blogspot.com/2007/11/documentary-form.html

What Documentaries AreWhat Documentaries Are

supposedly revealing reality impossible to truly re-present

reality construct a narrative - some

fictional elementschoices made in editing

When You Listen …When You Listen …

reality is edited, sometimes re-sequenced and artificially framed

identify podcaster’s purpose to decode ◦possibly a moral or political perspective?◦maybe just an event recorded?◦share information, demonstrate authority?◦sales pitch?

6 types – Bill Nichols

Types of DocumentariesTypes of Documentaries

Poetic documentaries Expository documentaries Observational documentaries Participatory documentaries Reflexive documentaries Performative documentaries

Poetic Documentaries Poetic Documentaries

Organized by associations and patterns

fragmentary, impressionistic, lyrical

Fragments aesthetically reconstituted

Expository Documentaries Expository Documentaries

speak directly to the listeneran authoritative commentary propose a strong argument &

point of view try to persuade seek to sound ‘objective’

Observational Observational Documentaries Documentaries Record lived life with minimum

interventionimmediacy, intimacy revelation of individual human

character in ordinary life situations

little or no music, sound effects, or technical alterations

Participatory Participatory Documentaries Documentaries emulate approach of

anthropologistsparticipant-observation recorder part of the recordingget a sense of how situations

affected or altered by recorder’s presence.

“truth of the encounter”

Reflexive DocumentariesReflexive Documentaries

draw attention to their own constructedness

most self-conscious of all the modes

highly skeptical of ‘realism’

Performative Performative Documentaries Documentaries subjective experience and

emotional response strongly personal,

unconventional, perhaps poetic and/or experimental

can have docudrama elementscan reveal marginalized group’s

experience

Examples of Types of Examples of Types of DocumentariesDocumentaries

Poetic documentaries ◦http://www.moreabouthenry.com

Expository documentaries ◦http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/rede

ye/2013/12/tips-simplifying-holiday-season

Observational documentaries Participatory documentaries Reflexive documentaries Performative documentaries