User-generated Video As a New Genre of Documentary Mohamed Said Mahfouz Media Arts Department, Royal Holloway, University of London Thesis submitted to the University of London For the degree of the Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Media Arts November 2012 1 Declaration of Authorship I (Mohamed Said Mahfouz) hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 Abstract This study analyses the behavior of Internet users interested in producing their own documentary videos and assesses the characteristics and techniques that govern the production of such videos. The development and global diffusion of Internet 2.0 technologies have facilitated a rapid proliferation of user-generated video, of varying quality and aesthetic seriousness, on the Internet in recent years. These videos are produced by amateur Internet users, and express the dominant social, cultural, and political trends of their respective milieux while also reflecting the new availability of affordable mobile cameras and editing software. These new tools are helping thousands of ordinary people to explore their political and artistic concerns in an unprecedented, public way. User-generated video is increasingly considered a valid source of information by mainstream media networks, to the point that it is even coming to occupy a central role in some forms of news broadcasting. This study raises an essential question: Can we view user-generated amateur video as a new form of documentary? From this question there derive other important questions about the various forms that these new videos take, the ways that they are produced, the expertise of the people who make them, the distinctive characteristics, if any, of their content, and the extent to which their makers comply with the ethical standards of professional documentary-making. The theoretical part of this study explains the concept of the professional documentary, its formal characteristics, modes, and ethical requirements, as well as highlighting the differences between documentary, news and reality TV. A working definition of user- generated video will then be proposed in light of developments in media studies and new media theory. 3 The practical part of the study centres on an e-workshop for non-professional documentary-makers in Egypt called egdoc. The workshop is set up in such a way as to allow the behavior of amateur users of the site to be analysed and ultimately compared with the behavior of professional documentary-makers. The launching of the egdoc website coincided with the aftermath of the revolution which began in Egypt on 25 January 2011. This dramatic context, and the unprecedented quantity of amateur video documenting revolutionary events, generated a healthy level of interest in the egdoc project and soon gave rise to an adequate sample of amateur video. The egdoc study also serves, in its own right, as a valuable snapshot of Egyptian public opinion in the historic period that it covers. The most important lesson gleaned from the egdoc experience was that the distinction between professional and user-generated amateur documentary is fast becoming blurred. Some of the users of egdoc can hardly be described as amateurs when you compare their final product with a professional production in terms of either content or form. In addition, the egdoc experience suggests that political and social circumstances may contribute to the development of new forms of non-professional documentary in the future. 4 Acknowledgment There is a revolution currently unfolding in my country, and despite my journalistic work and research activity, which both dictate being a neutral conveyor of the truth, I have been part of this revolution; I believe in its calls for the devolution of power, respect for human rights and equality between citizens, and participated in it because its aim is to establish a nation that is fit to compete with developed nations after decades of backwardness, corruption and tyranny. Being pro-revolution, in my view, represents maximum neutrality, and does not as such defy the norms of the journalistic profession or the standards of scientific research. The real betrayal would be to give the oppressor and the oppressed 'equal' treatment. When I left the Middle East for the UK in 2006, the signs of this revolution were looming. President Mubarak had just won a fifth term in rigged elections, his son held the keys to all decisions made through the so-called Policy Committee of the ruling party, and the distance between rich and poor had widened dramatically. On a personal note, I was dealing with the deaths of several colleagues during the occupation of Iraq, and was determined to find a path that would honor their memory. Fate responded with an MA scholarship awarded to me by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and, within a week, a contract to work with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) while pursuing my studies. This proved an ideal combination of theory and practice, and I remain grateful to both the FCO and BBC for the joint opportunity they gave me. Pulling myself out of Egypt at that time proved costly in more ways than one - some thought I was escaping, and others described me as selfish - but my mind was made up. I had the future - my own, and that of Egypt - in mind, and promised myself that I would 5 return home with an advanced degree in a field in which Egypt surely needed expertise: new media. The lack of commitment in mainstream media to any code of ethics, and the resulting loss of public confidence, led to the emergence of a uniquely fertile strand of citizen journalism, a phenomenon without which the 2011 revolution would have been impossible; but journalism remains a top-down profession, the impact of which is still scarcely felt in our poorest and least literate communities. Increasing social and political awareness, and fighting discrimination on the basis of sex, race and religion, remain collective challenges in post-revolutionary Egypt, and I believe that new media is capable of helping to cure them, if you equip citizens with even a basic understanding of the tools now at their disposal. Approximately 180 TV channels are broadcasting today from Egypt, a multi-billion- dollar industry benefitting only a minority of stakeholders while broad categories of the public complain about media exploitation of the revolution, deliberate misleading of viewers, and, last but not least, complicity with the former regime. At the same time, government media colleges are so overwhelmed with bureaucracy that they are prevented from keeping abreast of new media trends and developing the capacities of their students, let alone making developments in new media understandable for ordinary citizens. In order that the impact of this new and unique style of media be felt across all strata of our highly stratified society, and in order to compensate for deficiencies in the role of the traditional media, direct action was, and still is, needed. This is precisely the context in which my thesis was conceived. The three principal objectives were: (1) to understand the role of social media, and specifically user- generated video content, as a vehicle for social change; (2) to contextualize this phenomenon in light of ongoing developments in new media and citizen journalism; and (3) to show how these developments are being exploited by amateur documentary- 6 makers, and how these amateurs are challenging the role of the professional documentary industry and potentially redefining documentary itself. I am grateful to all those who pushed me even a small step along the road to completion of this thesis. I would like, however, to give special thanks to the following people: my supervisor Professor John Ellis, who provided me with consistently valuable advice, and without whom I would not have been able to make a meaningful contribution to the field; my friend the Egyptian diplomat Radwa Khalil, who first drew my attention to the Chevening scholarship in 2005 and encouraged me to apply; my MA tutor and PhD co- supervisor Victoria Mapplebeck, who helped me to a Distinction in 2007 qualifying me for a subsequent PhD scholarship from Royal Holloway; Matthew Eltringham, the former Editor of the BBC's UGC Hub, who welcomed me several times into his department and gave me all the help I needed and more; and my friend Jonathan Keir, who tirelessly proofread my many drafts. I would also like to offer a general thank-you to the academic and administrative staff of Royal Holloway University of London who made sure I understood what anthropological and ethnographic research, intellectual property, and the scientific method all entailed, and to the Training Department of the BBC World Service for their excellent training courses in the field of new media. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my mother and sister for the inspiration they have provided me. I could not have written this thesis without them. My mother has always been the strongest source of support and hope in my life. During my years in the UK, her prayers never failed to reach me through the telephone from Egypt, and ultimately gave me the strength to finish what I had started. To her and to Egypt I dedicate this thesis. 7 Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................14