In the beginning, we’ve had interest on the online documentaries. Since then, none of our group members had clear understanding of what the online documentaries were. so starting from the question of “How has online documentary changed the forms of content and distribution?”. then we have came up with “How has new media changed the forms of documentary content and distribution, with a focus on online documentary?” ” which looks similar but the question itself is very different. and it shows a little more understanding of the documentary industry because it’s not the online documentaries changed the contents nor the distribution model but it’s another way of the distributing model, and the contents won’t be just changed because whether it’s online or not. (that’s my assumption still)
As more information we get and our research digs into the real industry of docomentaries, i guess the secondary questions could be constantly be changing.
- state your exact role in your research group
We didn’t allocate jobs or titles specifically, my role in the group is to research into the the question and parts and help the group to answer and complete the research question.
my initial question was “History of doco to contextualise the online documentary. How content of traditional doco differs in the model of online doco? What new voices emerge?”
and the question in focus that I have devided to is http://ehjenny.wordpress.com/2007/04/25/questions-in-focus/
when I started the research I have found that there is not so much relationship between the documentary being put online and the contents, but still.. while focusing on the development of the documentaries in Australia, I’ll be looking at the audiences reaction toward online documentaries VS traditional distibution model. (DVD, television, Cinema etc). and find out if the online documentaries were the new kind of media or was it just another way of distributing, (in a cheaper and a faster way…)
- the progress you have made so far ( what you have done)
I have started researching about the history of documentary by looking at various researches. coming up with some of the survey questions. and looking for some of the Australian documentary makers to do the interview. because my question is mostly about the history and developments, a lot of the research will be done on the existing and previous studies and statistics and so on. so for now, I’m looking to find interesting facts about Austrailan documentaries.
- what strategies you have utilised in your research?
mostly on-line, books, and I’m going to be involving interviews and surveys.
for online,
AFC had been helpful finding out about the Australian documentary market and the development.
there’re also many bloggers who had much knoledge and the information on Australian documentaries,
because my question is pretty much about the historical background, the research will be the matter of finding the right information and the skill of putting them together.
but, because I don’t want to just touch on the information that are already available to people.
I’ll be doing the survey and the interviews to create the new study.
-what problems you have encountered?
the depth of information that I had access with were just basic knowledges about documentaries, I wanted to find out something more eyecatching. and go beyond the current stats or studies. also, it had been hard finding about the individual documentary film maker so that my research is mostly, about the major broad casting stations like ABC SBS and so on.
- How you have resoved these?( or intend to resolve them)
by the survey and interview with people, I guess that’s one way of getting new information, not just another website introducing all the previous records. and there are I guess some of the association website with individual documentary film makers. so I might find them and get the interview or check them out.
- How you believe your project may connect and/or intesects with other research projects? (either in the course or elsewhere)
it will be a handy information for the documentary film makers if I could find out how audiences are experiencing with the documentaries online, it might will help them to think about their future projects???
Not sure about this question yet..
so overall, I’m still at the stage of gathering the information. haven’t created much from myself.
still getting the knowledge of the documentaries online, and trying to define “documentary” the word itself at the moment.
