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Collateral Emotions: Political Web Videos and Divergent Audience Responses

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Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film

Abstract

On the Internet, various new documentary forms emerge, and even traditional forms function differently. Particularly interesting is the case of political web videos and the diverging emotions they elicit. Many online videos address the concerns of conflicting social groups and trigger clashes between their collective emotions. On platforms like Facebook or YouTube, such responses become highly visible and politically influential. Turning to the example of WikiLeaks’ video Collateral Murder, this chapter explores the question of how divergent affective responses to documentary web videos can be explained. By considering the characteristics of the web video as a medium and documentary as a genre, and the interplay between film’s affective structures and viewers’ social dispositions, it suggests a new explanation of divergent affects and emotions in today’s media environments.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Katja Crone and the editors of this volume for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, Potsdam, Germany

    Jens Eder

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  1. Jens Eder
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of West London, London, United Kingdom

    Catalin Brylla

  2. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Mette Kramer

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Eder, J. (2018). Collateral Emotions: Political Web Videos and Divergent Audience Responses. In: Brylla, C., Kramer, M. (eds) Cognitive Theory and Documentary Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90332-3_11

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