Documentary Dialogues: Establishing a Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Documentary Fandom-Filmmaker Social Media Interaction
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DOCUMENTARY DIALOGUES: ESTABLISHING A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING DOCUMENTARY FANDOM-FILMMAKER SOCIAL MEDIA INTERACTION Julia E. Largent A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2017 Committee: Thomas Mascaro, Advisor Kristen D Rudisill Graduate Faculty Representative Louisa Ha Lara Martin Lengel © 2017 Julia E. Largent All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Thomas Mascaro, Advisor This dissertation looks at documentary and nonfiction fans: Who are they? Why do they watch? What types of conversations are held online? It provides a first step in building the foundation of nonfiction fandom scholarship, but also provides a step into the building of documentary scholarship. This project grows out of an interest in both nonfiction and documentary media studies as well as an interest in how people interact with their fandom and media series of choice. Preliminary research showed little attention to nonfiction fandoms and yielded virtually no research on the topic. Documentary and nonfiction fans are either forgotten or deemed as unimportant to those studying media fandoms. But this project argues it is crucial to remember and to study this group of fans. They are carrying out a dialogue from a nonfiction film, about a topic that the filmmaker deemed important enough to produce a film. If fans of fictional media are important for merchandising and advertisement, should fans of nonfictional media be important too? Should their desire to learn the truth and not just be entertained be remembered and studied? In the case of entertainment fare, programmers want to know about and stay connected with fans because of the commercial potential. Audience numbers equal ratings and affect ad rates. But what about nonfiction? Three different formats of documentaries, Serial (podcast), Audrie & Daisy (feature documentary, streaming), and FRONLTINE’S The Choice 2016 (televised documentary), offer three case studies consisting of interviews of filmmakers and content analysis of tweets from each of the documentaries. In addition, a survey of Serial fans iv was conducted to provide a deeper insight into one of the three case studies. These three case studies help identify how conversations from nonfiction fans vary across release platform and/or how multiple episodes might impact the interactivity of a fandom. This study carves out a new research agenda into fan studies related to nonfiction media; expand research in producer/creator-consumer/audience interactions; develop a more complete portrait of nonfiction audience studies, including through social media; and contribute specific case studies that will serve as models and springboards for future research. v This dissertation is dedicated to everyone who has supported me over the past 28 years, and to my cat, Jenkins. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation could not have been finished without the support of my family, friends, and the faculty who pushed me and advised me throughout the years. I thank you for listening to me ramble about countless documentaries over the years (and let’s be real here, that will continue). Thank you for hearing my complaints, rants, and for supporting me through this marathon, even if you had no idea what I was talking about. Thank you to the faculty at Manchester University, Ball State University, especially Ashley Donnelly, and Bowling Green State University for encouraging me to continue my education and for advice. Thank you to my BG family. You have been there when I needed you – in times of board games/DnD, election cycles, beers, and bouncing research ideas off each other. We’ve been through a lot together and I truly couldn’t have completed this degree without your support. A huge thank you to Shanna Gilkeson, who put up with my craziness during the coding process. Thank you for dedicating several hours of your winter break to reading and rereading tweets and coding them. You’re a rockstar. Thank you to my dissertation committee for reading, re-reading, and helping me form the study to best articulate my argument. Thank you to my advisor, Tom Mascaro, who has been a fantastic advisor. Thank you for working with each draft, not only improving my study, but improving my writing and me as a scholar. I’ve learned so much under your supervision. Thank you for encouraging me to attend BEA and to actually attend the sessions. It has become a favorite conference of mine. Thank you to my other committee members, Lara Martin Lengel, Louisa Ha, and Kristen Rudisill. You were all invaluable to the process and I enjoyed our conversations at the various vii junctures of the project. You were all so supportive of me and this project and for that I thank each one of you. This dissertation could not have been finished without the electricity, internet access, coffee, and food provided by Grounds for Thought, Flatlands, Panera (in Bowling Green), and The Caffeinery. Thank you to the owners of all these businesses for happy faces and lots of caffeine. I thank PBS and NPR for providing a space for fantastic media to air. Lastly, I thank those who are fans of documentary, for without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. Keep on consuming, creating, and talking about documentaries, for they are wonderful, and so are you. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGES THE DOCUMENTARY CONNECTION ..................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: FOUNDATIONAL LITERATURE AND SOCIAL MEDIA REVIEW ...... 9 Historical-Critical Documentary Literature ............................................................... 9 Literature on Documentary Audiences ...................................................................... 14 Fan and Fandom Literature ........................................................................................ 18 Documentary Fan Terminology ................................................................................. 26 Social Media Communities ........................................................................................ 27 Facebook ........................................................................................................ 29 Twitter. ........................................................................................................... 31 Tumblr. ........................................................................................................... 34 reddit ............................................................................................................ 41 Social Media and Documentary Dialogues ................................................................ 44 CHAPTER 3: WHERE TO START? DOCUMENTARY CASE STUDY SELECTION ... 45 FRONTLINE: The Choice 2016—A Broadcast Documentary .................................. 47 Serial—A Podcast Documentary ............................................................................... 51 Audrie & Daisy—A Netflix/Online Documentary .................................................... 57 Channels of Discourse ............................................................................................... 61 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS ............................................. 63 Research Methods ...................................................................................................... 64 Historical-Critical Analysis of Case Studies .................................................. 67 ix Content Analysis of Audience Reactions (Tweets): Coding Scheme. ........... 67 Codebook. ...................................................................................................... 68 Time Range ................................................................................................. 69 Data Collection .............................................................................................. 69 Coder Training and Intercoder Reliability. .................................................... 71 Procedure for Completing the Quantitative Content Analysis. ..................... 72 Emotional Coding Categories of Social Media Comments or Questions ... 73 Survey ........................................................................................................... 74 Filmmaker Interviews. ................................................................................... 76 Associating Research Questions and Methods. ............................................. 76 CHAPTER 5: CONTENT MATTERS: HISTORICAL-CRITICAL ANALYSES ............. 78 The Choice 2016 ........................................................................................................ 78 Serial ............................................................................................................ 81 Audrie & Daisy ......................................................................................................... 89 Chapter Conclusion ................................................................................................... 92 CHAPTER 6: THE FANS AND AUDIENCE SPEAK: ANALYSIS OF TWEETS ........... 93 FRONTLINE: The Choice 2016 ................................................................................. 94 Serial ............................................................................................................ 99 Audrie & Daisy ........................................................................................................