Interactive Documentary Narrative

Roland Barthes

Whitelaw (2002) argues that "new media forms pose a fundamental challenge to the principle of narrative coherence" which insinuates that interactive documentaries do indeed compete with the traditional style of imparted narrative. The shared 'experiencing' of the interactive documentary narrative and its requirement for user participation demonstrates a change in the conventional authorship of narrative. Although writing on the death of the literary author, Barthes (1978) challenged the conventional voice-of-god authority of the author stating that "the modern scriptor is born simultaneously with the text, is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing, is not the subject with the book as predicate; there is no other time than that of the enunciation and every text is eternally written here and now." 


Interactive documentary evokes a sense of progression with regard to this notion; as it asks the viewer of the text to become involved; "creating a visual and spatial record, is relatively open, [the] narrative is never overbearing" (Whitelaw, 2002). This draws attention to the question of whether or not a viewer should need a narrator in such instances.


 However, without a definite voice propelling an audience towards a certain key plot premise or point, the interactive documentary must exist outside of many of the constraints of conventional televisual viewing. The captivating effect of having interactive buttons and side-stories together with no clear indication of the longevity and breadth of the storyline would appear to coincide with Barthes' belief that the "birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author", the author being present to "impose a limit on that text" (Barthes, 1978). There is no dispute that there is an author existing behind a new-media text; rather a contradiction of the definition of "author" is found, it being farther removed from its original role as the controller of the narrative to more of a mediating role, creating the content, but not steering its order of consumption.