Documentary as Ethnographical Exploration: Exhuming Zombie Media Culture
Abstract
This non-traditional dissertation, “Dystopian Identities: Exhuming the World of Zombies through the Camera’s Eye: A Documentary” (Kimble, 2016) explored how engagement in zombie media culture helps its participants to develop identity, understand their place in society, and develop literacies that enable them to empower themselves through this interaction. This research utilizes documentary as a tool for inquiry for a qualitative analysis for not only the interviews, but also through the participants’ involvement in Live Action Role Playing activities associated with zombie culture. “Dystopian Identities: Zombie Culture” serves as a visual ethnography with the documentary as one product of the research, not the all-inclusive representation of the whole work. I will describe in this presentation my motives for this non-traditional dissertation and how documentary served my research purposes well in exploring this media culture. Whereas documentary requires that the viewer make assumptions about the content of the work, the transcripts and themes that emerged from the entire interviews, the theoretical base of examining the social issues of this zombie culture, and the educational context in which it found fertile ground to grow place this documentary into a different and more complete form of visual ethnography.
Presentation Description
This presentation includes a 30-minute documentary film “Dystopian Identities: Zombie Culture,” which explores zombie culture in the Southeast, from those who participate in the production end of media to zombie run participants and Walker Stalker Convention fans. The film, a portion of a completed dissertation discusses these questions: How do we engage in popular culture develop identity? What literacies do participants gain from this cultural experience? How do zombies help people to navigate their everyday fears? What do people learn about forming communities through engaging with zombie culture? The presenter will discuss her motives in using documentary in her research, its strengths and limitations, and her process in developing the film as part of her methodology.
Keywords
documentary, critical media literacy, visual ethnography, zombies
Location
Room C
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Kimble, Julie, "Documentary as Ethnographical Exploration: Exhuming Zombie Media Culture" (2018). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 6.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2018/2018/6
Documentary as Ethnographical Exploration: Exhuming Zombie Media Culture
Room C
This non-traditional dissertation, “Dystopian Identities: Exhuming the World of Zombies through the Camera’s Eye: A Documentary” (Kimble, 2016) explored how engagement in zombie media culture helps its participants to develop identity, understand their place in society, and develop literacies that enable them to empower themselves through this interaction. This research utilizes documentary as a tool for inquiry for a qualitative analysis for not only the interviews, but also through the participants’ involvement in Live Action Role Playing activities associated with zombie culture. “Dystopian Identities: Zombie Culture” serves as a visual ethnography with the documentary as one product of the research, not the all-inclusive representation of the whole work. I will describe in this presentation my motives for this non-traditional dissertation and how documentary served my research purposes well in exploring this media culture. Whereas documentary requires that the viewer make assumptions about the content of the work, the transcripts and themes that emerged from the entire interviews, the theoretical base of examining the social issues of this zombie culture, and the educational context in which it found fertile ground to grow place this documentary into a different and more complete form of visual ethnography.
