The Power of Participant-Made Videos: intimacy and engagement with corporate ethnographic video

Alexandra Zafiroglu, Susan Faulkner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Participant-generated, self-made videos engender powerful, often highly emotional, reactions from viewers who experience a stronger connection and identification with participants and their experiences than we have ever achieved with researcher-shot footage. Reactions have ranged from shock, discomfort, and offers of Freudian psychological analyses to laughter, immediate recognition and discovery. Through several video examples from recent fieldwork we explore the reasons for this heightened reaction, and raise questions related to representation, authenticity, intimacy and the role of the ethnographer in the age of YouTube, social networking sites, and reality TV. What is the ethnographer's role when participants share their lives in videos we request that are stylistically similar to online user-generated content? What is that ethnographer's ‘Do’, and what role does she play in editing, framing and presenting these videos? How do participants conceptualize what they are creating?
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEthnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings
Pages113-121
Number of pages9
Volume2010
Edition1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 16 Nov 2010
Externally publishedYes

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