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What Difference Does it Make? The Importance of Documentary to Sustainable Development Goals in a Post-Truth World

In: The Mediation of Sustainability: Development Goals, Social Movements, and Public Dissent
Ben Harbisher (ed.)
Rowman & Littlefield (2023), pp. 117-136
"The landscape of documentaries has changed greatly in the twenty-first century. From a niche form, with few productions, to global distribution via social media. Post-truth documentaries largely have a sense of outsiders challenging the status quo, delivered by self-proclaimed experts with anecdote and emotions central to the power of message delivered on free online platforms. In a world of fake news and alternative facts the documentary can still be a device which highlights the SDG issues, engages audiences and promotes discussion. They can be part of a system of regaining the public trust to encourage the political will to continue the agenda and meet the goals. In a post-truth era maybe people need a different form of documentary, one that while continuing critical thinking and research, moves from the expository to other modes or hybrids to inform the debate on SDG’s. Documentaries that are more inclusive then ‘I speaking about us to you’, less patronising than ‘I speaking about them to you’." (Conclusion)