Confession and the Unbearable Lightness of Factual

Abstract

This paper examines the changes in contemporary documentary practices, in particular the shift to a ‘first-person media’. By looking at certain types of first-person and confessional speech forms in factual television, I hope to offer a case study in how we might continue to distinguish between different kinds of program and to determine their relationship to the public sphere. The rise of first-person media can be seen as a response to the need for a public space in which ‘life world politics' and ‘emotional deomcracy’ are fundamental. The dispersal of intimate speech and confessional discourse is an expression of the changes that have occurred in our social and economic lives. This paper explores documentary and factul television's role in this process.