Aligning Participation with Authorship

Abstract

The main contribution of this article is to describe how the concept of non-fiction transmedia has challenged the independent documentary film community in Norway. How the new possibilities afforded by web- and mobile media, with the potential of reconfiguring the current relation between author and audience, has been perceived and performed. Based on an extensive interview study and reflections on contributing to a non-fiction transmedia project, I argue that the emerging practice of making non-fiction transmedia face many of the same challenges as the participative documentary practice of the 70s, mainly that facilitation of real audience participation, requires a break from the broadcasting logic of the mainstream documentary film practice.