ABSTRACT
Two strong forces have had a clear impact on contemporary documentary film and television, as well as our societies and cultures in general, especially since the 1990s: mediatization through digital technologies and globalization. Mediatization refers to a situation in which media systems have been imbedded so deeply in our society, culture, and everyday life that they create a new logic of communication and interaction. The media become important and powerful institutions in themselves, influencing the way institutions and social, cultural, and political spheres function and communicate (Hjarvard 2013: 17). Mediatization gained prominence in the analogue era within national contexts, in which news, documentaries, and fiction were instrumental in nation building and the creation of an imagined community (Anderson 1983). Even with their origins within national contexts, media and documentary forms dealt with transnational issues and circulated within a global media culture. The combination, however, of mediatization on a larger scale, the rise of digital networks and platforms, and the intensified structures of globalization have profoundly influenced contemporary documentary culture.
