COMM325

How do we tell stories about ourselves in the digital age? As new media technologies from Facebook to cellphone cameras to iPods change the way we tell the stories of our everyday lives, how does the role of the documentary photographer/filmmaker/storyteller change? This course examines the changing relationship between audience and subject, and between subject and storyteller. We will consider "small stories", "micro-documentaries", interactivity and Web 2.0, non-linearity, the impact of video games, issues of audience and distribution. We will start the course with a short history (including criticisms) of documentary practice, and examine the modern tools and circumstances that shape the ways documentaries will be made in the future. Students will develop and execute a documentary project over the course of the semester.