From Webdoc to Social Engagement: Exploring Empathetic Responses and Prosocial Behaviour in the Context of Humans of New York: The Series

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From Webdoc to Social Engagement

Exploring Empathetic Responses and Prosocial Behaviour in the Context of

Humans of New York: The Series

Name: Ellen van Duijnen

Date of completion: 29 June 2018

Supervisor: Dr. M.A.M.B. Lous Baronian Second reader: Dr. E.S. Martens

Program: MA Film Studies (Media Studies) University of Amsterdam

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Abstract

Keywords: webdocs, social engagement, empathy, social media, archive, alternative media

In contemporary, Western society, prejudices abound and a sense of community is fad-ing. In this societal context, how can the media phenomenon of webdocs play a role in stimulating social engagement and persuading people to employ prosocial behaviour? This research focuses on Humans of New York: The Series (2017) as case-study: a web-doc and alternative media outlet that uses a seemingly unique approach to the aim for increasing social engagement. I argue that HoNY aims for empathetic and/or sympathet-ic spectator responses as a stepping stone to social engagement. The formal qualities of

HoNY are to some extent designed to support the stimulation of an empathetic and/or

sympathetic spectator’s response and HoNY is filled with haptic visuals that make the interviews feel intimate and immersive. HoNY’s format and distribution platform are interactive, allowing everybody, including minorities, the opportunity to challenge prej-udices. The resulting mass of stories constitutes an archive of human experiences.

HoNY clearly maintains an alternative media identity, prioritizing the political and

so-cial function of HoNY over profit. In conclusion, I contend that webdocs like HoNY are highly suitable for stimulating social engagement and prosocial behaviour in the society of today.

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Marie-Aude Baronian for supporting me throughout the process of writing this thesis and providing me with useful feedback and tips. I would also like to thank Tjerk Venema for proofreading my thesis and correcting grammatical inadequacies. Lastly, I would also like to thank my family and friends for their continual support in everything I do.

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Introduction

This made me cry. I felt so bad for the lonely man who pays for the phone that doesn’t ring, the retired soldier who’s still trapped in the combat zone, the beautiful older guy who misses his mama and wants to go home, and the young wom-an still struggling with the loss of a father she didn’t quite know. I want to give them all a hug. This makes me want to be that much more kinder to strangers. Thank you for another great episode HONY. (a comment on episode 3 of HoNY:

The Series)

Social engagement is ever so important in today’s society. While the contemporary (Western) capitalist society is becoming increasingly techno-savvy and influenced by all forms of consumerism, there seems to be less and less time and space for conversations with others outside of one’s own bubble (Lane, Putnam, Kasser and Ryan). While the total amount of people is increasing, feelings of community are decreasing, and few encounters with people outside of one’s own everyday life may lead to the development of prejudices and a decrease in prosocial behaviour1 (Hooghe). The society we live in is fast-paced and increasingly believed to become more and more individualised. In that global context, how can the media phenomenon of webdocs play a role in stimulating social engagement and persuading people to employ prosocial behaviour?

This thesis focuses specifically on the web documentary series Humans of New

York: The Series (2017), an initiative derived from the photojournalistic blog Humans of New York. In 2010, Brandon Stanton started the photojournalistic project that was to

become HoNY. The initial idea was to photograph ten thousand inhabitants of New York City and plot the pictures on an interactive map, together with some brief thoughts from Stanton on each encounter. Along the way, Stanton started a blog on Facebook and his content gradually changed. He began interviewing his subjects and posted quotes about their life accompanying the portraits he took. Stanton also stopped focus-sing on people wearing attention-grabbing outfits and started asking everyone, including ‘normal-looking’ people, for a story (Mann). As of today, HoNY garnered 18 million followers from around the world and multiple copycat projects popped up. The format

1_{I define prosocial behaviour as voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another (helping, sharing,}

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of HoNY focusses on the stories of random, ‘ordinary’ people and Stanton himself dis-appeared to the background, on which he says:

If you look at the last few years, you don’t find my voice. I’m in every single one of those interactions, but the other person is always primary. It’s always about the other people. I call it ‘work without a motive’. You’re primary purpose is just to tell the stories of these other people, not to sell anything. (CreativeLive)

In this quote, Stanton stresses that his purpose is to tell the stories of other people. The stories that Stanton publishes are from people who differ not only in age, gender, class, race, religious affiliations and nationality, but also in their opinions and in the realities they might face. Some stories are about unimaginable events, while other stories link back to universal experiences such as love and loss. Still, all stories fall within universal themes and emotions: things everybody experiences in one way or another. The stories are characterised by their intimacy and honesty, as Stanton developed the skill to talk about things with his subjects “they might not have told their closest friends” (Creative-Live). HoNY seems to aspire to an idea of universal humanity and is seen by many as a “movement” (CreateLive). During an interview with Stanton, Chase Jarvis describes his experience of HoNY as follows: “[As a fan] it makes me feel like I am interested in hu-manity. And that is a primary interest that transcends a lot of personal needs and inter-ests. It feels good, it feels like something to be thankful for” (CreativeLive). Through sharing the intimate and emotional stories of random people on the streets, HoNY en-courages its followers to spend more time paying attention to others and undertaking social actions. HoNY aspires to persuade its audience to change their behaviour to pro-social behaviour. A quick overview of the comment section on Facebook indicates that

HoNY is at least partially successful in reaching this aim. For instance, someone

com-mented the following on the story of a blind woman in New York: “@humansofnew-york how can I get her info? I would love to explore the city with her. Please help me find her. I work in Manhattan. This is so beautiful yet so sad.” Various people ‘bumped’ this comment, to help the commenter reach Stanton. Examples like these suggest that people do feel stimulated by HoNY to adopt prosocial behaviour.

In 2017, Stanton took a next step and published a web documentary series on Facebook Watch, called Humans of New York: The Series. Brandon Stanton worked together with cinematographer Michael Crommett and together they spent four years

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gathering twelve hundred interviews. On its Facebook page, HoNY: The Series is de-scribed as follows: “Watch people from all walks of life tell stories of life, love, and everything else in between” (Stanton). The documentary series consists of thirteen epi-sodes, each between fifteen and twenty minutes long. Each episode has a particular ic like “money” or “time” and features stories of diverse people that connect to this top-ic. This ‘webdoc’, in line with the photojournalistic blog, aims for inspiring its specta-tors to be socially engaged and change their behaviour to prosocial behaviour.

In this thesis, I aim for a better understanding of how HoNY: The Series tries to inspire its spectators to become socially engaged. I contend that HoNY: The Series tries to reach an empathetic and/or sympathetic spectator’s response, as a stepping stone to prosocial behaviour and social engagement. The viewing experience of HoNY: The

Se-ries is influenced by both the episodes themselves as well as the viewing context,

con-stituted by the distribution platform. I will concentrate only on HoNY: The Series and not on the photojournalistic page of HoNY. The photojournalistic page has already been the subject of multiple articles (Roberts, Erdener, Wheeler and Quinn, Wang et al.) while HoNY’s webdoc has not been examined, as of yet. For the sake of readership, I will refer to HoNY: The Series as HoNY from this point onward.

Chapter 1 encompasses my theoretical framework, in which I will discuss the various research areas that relate to my project and position myself within these fields. Documentary’s persuasive ability to influence people’s thoughts and opinions will be addressed. Then, I will explore webdocs and their accredited ability to fulfil a social and political function, touching upon the field of alternative media and expounding the vari-ous reasons suggested for webdocs’ social and political potential. Subsequently, I will focus on the suggestion of emotion and an empathetic spectator response. Lastly, the concept of archive will be related to HoNY and I will take into account the phenomeno-logical approach as defined by film scholar Vivian Sobchack, which I will consider in my analysis.

In chapter 2, I will close read and analyse the episodes of HoNY, focusing on my personal emotional experience. Various aspects that play a role in evoking an empathet-ic spectator response will be explored: rhythm, dramatempathet-ic structure, musempathet-ic and audio, colour and composition, haptic visuality, the spontaneous nature of the interviews, and political statements made in the series. In this chapter, I will argue that not only an em-pathetic, but also a sympathetic spectator response can be politically and socially useful by playing a role in stimulating social engagement and prosocial behaviour.

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In chapter 3, I will focus on how the viewing/browsing context of HoNY, pro-vided by Facebook as distribution platform, can play a part in evoking empathetic spec-tator experiences and in stimulating social engagement and prosocial behaviour. This chapter is twofold: firstly, I will examine the archival dynamic of HoNY, and secondly, I will look into HoNY from the perspective of alternative media. The interaction provided by HoNY’s comment section and the participatory nature of HoNY will be discussed in both sections. I will argue that HoNY can be understood as an archive of human experi-ences, which coaches spectators to listen to others and refute prejudices. Encouraging this behaviour in a micro-sphere like HoNY can possibly lead to the spectator taking on this form of prosocial behaviour in larger society.

Ultimately, the aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how HoNY can stimulate so-cial engagement and inspire its audience to change their behaviour to prososo-cial behav-iour. Through evoking empathetic and sympathetic spectator responses, HoNY facili-tates a better understanding of others and a lessening of the amount of prejudices. This may lead, in some way, to societal change, although further reception research is obvi-ously needed to substantiate such a claim. Other webdocs with similar aims for societal change could assimilate aspects of HoNY or gain inspiration from HoNY’s approach.

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Chapter 1 Webdocs and the aim for social engagement

In this chapter, I will outline the various fields relating to my research and position my-self within these areas of research. First I will address the subject of documentary, fo-cussing on the aim for persuasion in documentary. Then I will discuss webdocs and their social function and touch upon the field of alternative media. Next, the notion of empathy within the spectator’s experience will be considered, and the concept of ar-chive will be related to HoNY. Finally, I will discuss the phenomenological approach as defined by film scholar Vivian Sobchack, which I will consider in my analysis in chap-ter 2.

1.1 Documentary and persuasion

In order to stimulate ideals like prosocial behaviour and social engagement in society, documentary makers may try to persuade their audience to take on their thoughts and opinions. In the case of HoNY, Stanton tries to persuade his audience to see the world as he sees it and promote his values, like helping others, listening to others and not being prejudiced. By persuading his audience that these values are important, he tries to change his audience’s behaviour to prosocial behaviour. This aim for persuasion, for changing people’s behaviour and thoughts, is identified by multiple scholars in docu-mentary. According to Bill Nichols, documentaries routinely address debated concepts over which there is social concern (102). Furthermore, Nichols states that documentary activates our social consciousness and makes an effort “to convince, persuade, or pre-dispose us to a particular view of the world we have in common” (104). Even if docu-mentary may entertain, it does so “in relation to a rhetorical or persuasive effort aimed at the existing social world” (Nichols 104). According to Paul Rotha, amusement per se is indeed not the enemy of social consciousness among the people, but Rotha argued that documentary is mainly characterized by its ability to act as a reflective bystander to showcase events and people, as well as their reality and problems (31).

John Grierson, who is deemed to have coined the term ‘documentary’, saw the cinema as a pulpit (Hardy 16). While cinema can have many functions, cinema can be easily made persuasive and lends itself to rhetoric: “for no form of description can add nobility to a simple observation so readily as a camera set low, or a sequence cut to a

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time-beat” (Hardy 16). Michael Renov distinguishes four fundamental tendencies of documentary: to record, to persuade, to analyse and to express (25-35). The tendency to persuade cannot be fully separated from the other tendencies, because the power to per-suade is based on the indexical sign-status of documentary and documentary’s expres-sive potency (Renov 29).

While Renov argues that the ‘truth claim’ of a documentary is the foundation for persuasion, he still makes the following statement on the relationship between reality and representation in documentary:

Our attempts to ‘fix’ on celluloid what lies before the camera – ourselves or members of other cultures – are fragile if not altogether insincere efforts. Always issues of selection in-trude (which angle, take, camera stock will serve best); the results are indeed mediated, the result of multiple interven-tions that necessarily come between the cinematic sign (what we see on the screen) and its referent (what existed in the world). (26)

In this quote, Renov argues that the dialectical relationship between reality and repre-sentation is a problematic one. Erik Barnouw also states that some documentarists’ claims to be objective are meaningless since the intervention of a camera necessarily distorts and alters situations and filmmakers make choices that express their own point of view (287). Stella Bruzzi nuances Renov and Barnouw’s statements, stressing that “the dialectical relationship between reality and representation does not need to be in-stinctively treated with distrust” (5). Bruzzi insists that the overemphasized focus on the complexity of the relationship between reality and representation in documentary is a relatively recent theoretical movement (7). Similarly, John Dovey and Mandy Rose ar-gue that the field of documentary has a “stubborn attachment to questions of the real and its representation” (374). Bruzzi wants to return to a more fluid definition of docu-mentary that does not expect docudocu-mentary to give an undistorted picture of reality (9). Following writings by Noël Caroll and Dai Vaughan, Bruzzi argues that filmmakers and spectators understand the difficulties with representation in documentaries but that this understanding does not discredit the documentary pursuit (7). Therefore, Bruzzi uses Judith Butler’s term ‘performativity’ as a new way of understanding documentary. Per-formativity, as used by Butler in the area of gender studies, refers to the idea that there is no pre-existing subject before an act or expression: “there is no gender identity be-hind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very

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‘expressions’ that are said to be its result” (33). Subsequently, Bruzzi uses the term ‘performativity’ to define documentaries as: “performative acts whose truth comes into being only at the moment of filming” (10). Documentaries cannot show what might have happened if the camera was not present; a documentary is what happens in an en-counter between subjects, filmmakers and spectators. I agree with Bruzzi’s definition, since it especially works well in relation to HoNY, which is composed of encounters between the filmmaker and subjects and, after releasing the series on Facebook, specta-tors who can add their own stories in the comment section. The stories of the subjects and spectators are told in this way because of the intrusion of the filmmaker, but this does not make the stories less ‘real’.

The persuasive ability of documentary also shines through the fact that forms of documentary storytelling are increasingly used in campaigns or strategic communica-tion projects that aim for a social impact. These strategic communicacommunica-tion projects are often cross-media and may involve online elements, written elements, forms of face-to-face communication and documentary projects (Nash and Corner 231). Caty Borum Chattoo and Lauren Feldman also observe that documentary storytelling is a contempo-rary approach for raising public attention for societal problems like poverty and for sup-porting public activism (679). While documentary’s accessibility is increased through digital means and while documentary is nowadays often used in social-issue advocacy campaigns, there is little to no evidence that explains how and why documentary story-telling might play a crucial role in creating public engagement (Chattoo and Feldman 680). In studying how narratives can be of social influence, Chattoo and Feldman exam-ine the mechanisms of transportation, identification, stimulating emotions and creating entertaining experiences (684). Transportation occurs when media audiences are tempo-rarily absorbed into an entertaining story and lose touch with their immediate surround-ings, resulting in a state of being with reduced cognitive resistance to persuasive mes-sages embedded within the narrative, hence the supposed change in the audiences’ knowledge, attitude and behaviour. Identification occurs when audiences connect with a character in a narrative, which helps overcome resistance to attitude and behaviour change through a process of social learning and empathic involvement. Emotion may also play an important role in persuasion, since both negative and positive feelings can drive participation, learning and discussion (Chattoo and Feldman 683-684). Paul Slovic et al. offer the concept of ‘affect heuristic’, which refers to the idea that decision-making is based to a great extent on rapid emotional cues, rather than cognitive

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es. In other words, emotional responses can have a large influence on decision-making and formulating judgments. So by aiming to elicit certain emotional responses in regard to particular topics (like positive feelings towards society and others), a documentary can influence the future decisions made by its spectators. Lastly, an entertaining story instead of a didactic story may have an effect on the creation of social engagement. Analyses showed that when an educative initiative is deemed to be fun, entertaining and enjoyable by the audience, it is more likely to foster engagement with the topics it ad-dresses (Chattoo and Feldman 683-684).

Like Chattoo and Feldman, Kate Nash and John Corner also state that there is little evidence that documentary can actually instigate social change (228). There is a heated debate on the question if documentary impact can be measured. Still, Nash and Corner argue that there is a belief in the ability of documentary to promote social change and that a direct connection between documentary films and specific social change has been widely claimed, although seldom been demonstrated (230). I would agree with this line of thinking: even if determining the impact of documentary is a very complex matter, a quick look at the comments on the Facebook page of HoNY already gives a sense that at least some spectators change their minds on social issues after watching (an episode of) HoNY.

1.2 The social function of web documentary

Similarly, many theorists believe in the ability of web documentaries to create social engagement. Nichols states that “documentary has become the flagship for a cinema of social engagement and distinctive vision” and that new documentary forms and distribu-tion methods give rise to a positive future for documentary (2). Since the development of ‘Web 2.0’, new documentary forms emerged on online documentary platforms (Dovey and Rose 366). These documentaries are often called webdocs (or ‘i-docs’) and are seen as documentary re-mediated for the internet age (Nash “Modes” 196). Accord-ing to Dovey and Rose, documentary production changed through new forms of collab-oration, the form of documentary changed through software design and interactivity, and the user experience of documentary changed through the new facility for participa-tion offered by online environments (366). Webdocs are still believed to be related to traditional documentary, since webdocs show continuities in the institutions and con-texts of production, in the textual and representational conventions, and in purpose, treatment and subject-matter (i.a. addressing social and political issues) (Nash “Modes”

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197, Nash “Goa Hippy Tribe 32). While the term ‘webdocs’ refers to all documentaries released on the internet as opposed to traditional broadcasting platforms, webdocs differ greatly in form. Webdocs can be, among other things, non-linear, multi-media, interac-tive, hybrid, cross-platform, convergent and/or virtual (Nash “Modes” 197).

Nash distinguishes three interactive structures in webdocs: the narrative, the cat-egorical and the collaborative (“Modes” 197). Non-linearity is a key characteristic of the narrative and categorical webdoc. Non-linear documentaries, often called database-documentaries, may lead to polyvocality, according to Dale Hudson (79). Instead of promoting one single voice, a non-linear documentary can combine multiple contesting perspectives and stories, having the potential to overcome the political and social ine-qualities that often characterize traditional documentary. Collaborative documentaries that allow the audience to be a ‘user’ with the ability to participate and contribute foot-age, information or stories to the existing documentary, also allow for multiple perspec-tives. Nash claims, focusing on the social dimension of interaction and participation, that “the ways in which documentary makers position and seek to engage audiences reflect the documentary drive to record, foster civic participation and persuade” (“What is Interactivity” 393).

While polyvocality, participation and non-linearity are often described as posi-tive developments, they also raise questions concerning authorship, the storytelling as-pect of webdocs and ‘voice’, a term proposed by Nichols. ‘Voice’ refers to the way a documentary expresses an argument about the world from a certain perspective (67). Originally, the voice of the documentary reflects the filmmaker’s point of view, but collaborative documentaries are not solely made by one filmmaker and other forms of webdocs also allow for multiple perspectives which can lead to narrative fragmentation. So while the potential for audiences to give their own perspective has been the reason for the enthusiasm surrounding interactive documentary, it may also chip away at a clear argument or perspective on the world. Still, the filmmaker’s main argument in a webdoc can be maintained, according to Nash. Nash suggests that interactivity does not inherently empower the audience, but can also reinforce an argument being made by the documentary maker: “user actions are prescribed to reinforce an argument being made by the documentary maker” (emphasis added, Nash “What is Interactivity” 386-387). In this way, documentary argument can be maintained while webdocs still give a new ex-perience to the audiences. Starting his article with doubts about the storytelling aspect

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of webdocs, in the end, Stuart Dinmore concludes that:

[…] the concept of a narrative structure is less important than allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions about the material that is presented to them. Database documen-taries allow, if the audience is prepared to explore, a deeper and potentially more considered understanding of the materi-al. (131)

Since the audience can achieve a deeper understanding of the material, as Dinmore puts it, the persuasive aspect or voice of the documentary does not have to be eliminated. I also think that the interactive, non-linear structure of webdocs and the actions granted to the users do not inherently weaken the argument of the filmmaker. In the case of HoNY, it is precisely the interactive interface in which audiences can add their stories that strengthen Stanton’s argument for prosocial behaviour.

Many webdocs have their own website, but social media networks can also func-tion as a platform for webdocs. In response to the problem of how to reconcile narrative fragmentation with making an argument about the world, Nash states that Facebook “has the potential to introduce collective knowledge creation and community in the documentary context” (“Goa Hippy Tribe” 31). Webdocs released on Facebook differ from other webdocs, according to Nash (“Goa Hippy Tribe” 33). Firstly, the documen-tary-maker has to use the generic interface of Facebook and secondly, social network documentaries focus more on the interactivity between users instead of interactivity between the user and the documentary itself than other webdocs (“Goa Hippy Tribe” 33). What is important to keep in mind while examining HoNY, a social network docu-mentary, is the fact that social media not only enable user activity but also steer and shape activity (Poell and Van Dijck 528). Thomas Poell and José van Dijck argue that contemporary activist communication on social network sites like Facebook does not only comprise social-cultural processes, but also techno-commercial processes (529). Although I do not focus on the underlying algorithms and business models of Facebook, it is important to keep in mind that these aspects influence the activity around and dis-tribution of HoNY for better or for worse.

HoNY can also be understood as an alternative media outlet. Alternative media

can be defined as “media forms that are on a smaller scale, more accessible and partici-patory, and less constrained by bureaucracy or commercial interests than the main-stream media and often in some way in explicit opposition to them” (Dowmunt and

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Coyer 1). In chapter 3, I will further elaborate on this definition of alternative media, since the term ‘alternative media’ can refer to diverse instances of media production. New media technologies like social media enable citizen journalists to circumvent the mainstream media which are deemed to only deliver audiences to advertisers and make profitable programming, blurring their social functions. Alternative media pursue a cul-tural and political function and often use alternative modes of production that are more participatory (Dowmunt and Coyer 3). Furthermore, Chris Atton and James F. Hamilton state that alternative journalism tends to explicitly foreground “the viewpoints of ‘ordi-nary’ people”, like activists, protesters or local residents (86). This is exactly what

HoNY aims to do: telling stories of citizens of New York City and providing space for

participatory interactions by using Facebook as distribution platform. HoNY also has a cultural and political function in trying to stimulate prosocial behaviour and social en-gagement. In this way, HoNY seems to be a form of alternative media production. HoNY aspires to provide its audience with information different from dominant media (stories of ‘ordinary’ people that he meets on the street) and Stanton does not advertise or earn any money with his project, aside from selling his books and giving speeches (Crea-tiveLive). In my view, HoNY can be considered an alternative media outlet with critical content and political and social aims. In chapter 3, I will return to HoNY’s identity as alternative media outlet.

In short, in contrast to documentary, webdocs are characterised by their often interactive, participatory and non-linear nature. I believe that these characteristics can enhance the ability of webdocs to persuade audiences and create social engagement. In the case of HoNY, its distribution platform also contributes to the ideal of social en-gagement, since Facebook is very suitable for creating a community and stimulating collective knowledge creation. In chapter 3, I will discuss Facebook as distribution plat-form and position HoNY in the field of alternative journalism. But first, I want to take a closer look at how the media text itself may influence its spectators.

1.3 Empathy and sympathy

Above, I already indicated Chattoo and Feldman’s possible reasons for why narratives can be of social influence: transportation, identification, stimulating emotions and creat-ing entertaincreat-ing experiences. Here, I want to focus on the aspect of emotion in creatcreat-ing social impact. Nash and Corner also state that emotion is seen as a way to build en-gagement using documentary (235). Furthermore, Doc Society, a non-profit founded in

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2005, also emphasizes emotion on their webpage called: “The Impact Field Guide & Toolkit”. This website aims to give “a set of tools and guides designed to help all of us who are working with film make even greater impact than we do already” (The Impact Field Guide & Toolkit). Doc Society distinguishes several reasons why documentary can cause change, influence people and lead them to new perspectives. Their first rea-son is that storytelling inspires change: “unlike shorter forms such as news and social media, long form documentary takes the time to build empathy more deeply, involving audiences directly and immersing them fully in the situation of others, prompting them to engage and act” (The Impact Field Guide & Toolkit). I want to look deeper into the ability of HoNY to connect audiences to social issues emotionally and create empathy. I contend that the creation of emotional responses leads to empathy, and that it functions here as a tool to make spectators become socially engaged, so emotion can be seen as both tool and aim.

Nash and Corner state that it “is not the specific empirical claim as much as the currency of the belief, within the impact sector, that emotion is a key catalyst of action” (235). According to Hannah Wheeler and Courtney Quinn, empathy can potentially function as a stepping stone to social engagement. They define empathy as “the reac-tions of one individual to the observed experiences of another” (2). In addition, Nichols lists emotion as one way of persuading audiences using documentary, drawing from Aristotle’s three types of artistic proof: ethos, pathos and logos (79).2

Nichols also states that:

Documentaries help us understand how others experience sit-uations and events that fall into familiar categories (family life, health care, sexual orientation, social justice, war, death, and so one). Documentaries offer an orientation to the expe-rience of others and, by extension, to the social practices we share with them. (110)

Nichols mentions specifically experiences that fall into ‘familiar categories’. This no-tion corresponds with HoNY, since each episode focuses on a ‘familiar category’ which is named in the episodes’ titles: time, star (as in acquiring fame), home, relationships, purpose, mission, parenting, help, money, imagination, forgiveness, independence and connection. A look at the topics Stanton addresses in his documentary series makes

2_{Inartistic proof consists of facts, while artistic proof appeals to the feelings of the audience.}

Ethos refers to the ethical credibility of the filmmaker, pathos refers to an emotional appeal or a tug at the audience’s heartstrings, and logos refers to the impression of reasoning.

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Dovey and Rose’s warning feel appropriate. They argue that, with the emergence of webdocs, documentary makers might want to try representing everyone and everything in the spirit of global humanism: “attempts to say everything about everyone finish up saying nothing about anything” (34). Dovey and Rose contend for the idea of “staging a conversation”: filmmakers making webdocs should stage a conversation with a user community, research subjects, participants, co-producers and audiences (34-35). I be-lieve that HoNY does create this conversation through its interview format and through its use of Facebook as distribution platform, so after all, HoNY may not be addressed that much by Dovey and Rose’s critique.

Murray Smith conceptualizes the phenomenon of spectators emotionally re-sponding to or identifying with fictional characters (34). Although Smith focuses on fictional films, I still think that his conceptualizations are relevant in understanding how the audience responds to watching documentaries like HoNY. Smith describes the ‘structure of sympathy’ which comprises three levels of imaginative engagement with characters (35). These are different types of responses which are normally conflated under the term ‘identification’. The three levels are recognition, alignment and sympa-thetic or antipasympa-thetic allegiance (Smith 35). According to Smith, different cinematic techniques are used to create these different types of responses (35). In this sense, recognition, alignment and allegiance are spectators’ responses and textual systems in films: the concepts are “neither solely in the text nor solely in the spectator” (Smith 40). By creating this conceptualization, Smith attempts to understand “the ways in which texts produce or deny the conditions conducive to various levels of engagement, rather than the ways they enforce them” (4).

Smith’s first level ‘recognition’ describes the spectator’s understanding of char-acters in film as human agents (Smith 40). This understanding stems from our knowledge about humans in the real world. The spectator alters this common under-standing when the textual elements in the film change, e.g. the character has superpow-ers. Alignment is the process by which spectators can get access to the actions of the characters and to their inner knowledge and feelings (Smith 41). Based on Gérard Ge-nette’s literary term ‘focalization’, Smith distinguishes between two functions: spatial attachment and subjective access. Spatial attachment refers to the “capacity of the narra-tion to restrict itself to the acnarra-tions of a single character or to move more freely among the spatio-temporal paths of two or more characters”. Subjective access refers to the degree of access the spectator has to the inner subjectivity of characters. Lastly,

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giance refers to the spectator morally and ideologically evaluating the characters based on the accessible information (Smith 41). This can either turn out to be sympathetic allegiance or antipathetic allegiance.

Smith stresses the difference between sympathy and empathy (39). Therefore, he uses the terms ‘central imagining’ and ‘acentral imagining’. Central imagining occurs when the spectator imagines being the protagonist, being in that situation (38). An em-pathic reaction is a form of central imagining. However, the structure of sympathy is based on acentral imaginative experiences (39). This means that, to be sympathetic, the spectator only has to understand the narrative situation, including the interests, traits and states of the characters (42). Such a form of understanding is not a requirement for an empathic emotional response (Smith 42). In spite of this difference, the structure of sympathy draws on various phenomena which are forms of central imagining or empa-thy (Smith 39). Smith lists empathic phenomena like emotional simulation, motor and affective mimicry, and autonomic reactions like the startle response (39). These phe-nomena work together with cognitive processes (perception, inference, schematic pro-cessing) in the structure of sympathy (Smith 39). In this way, information provided by central imagining can mesh with the structure of sympathy, illustrating that empathy and sympathy are not easily distinguishable from each other in spectators’ responses.

Carl Plantinga examines how film is able to evoke a compelling, emotional ex-perience for spectators (5). While Plantinga focuses on mainstream American narrative fiction films or Hollywood cinema, he argues that his research is in part a general theory of emotion elicitation in film and may be of use in the study of affect in documentary (6). According to Plantinga, strong emotions can make a mark and leave lasting impres-sions that “transform our psyches and imprint our memories” (2). He argues that the emotional response of the spectators is often ignored in an academic ‘reading’ of the film, in which abstract themes and hidden meanings are teased out of the film (3). Plant-inga emphasizes that elicitation of emotion is central to the film experience, as he writes: “emotion and affect are fundamental to what makes films artistically successful, rhetorically powerful, and culturally influential” (5).

Plantinga lists several ways in which emotion functions in film. First of all, emo-tion is one of the reasons people are motivated to go watch movies (5). Second, emoemo-tion assists in the comprehension and interpretation of the narrative. Third, the aesthetic ex-cellence of a film or the amount of entertainment it can offer is partly determined by its ability to evoke emotions (6). Fourth, emotion makes film both culturally and

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ally memorable. And fifth, emotion can be tied to rhetorical purposes. People turn to their feelings for guidance when making judgments and in this way film-elicited emo-tion may help create new templates for thinking and behaviour (6, 200). And he adds: “sympathetic responses to characters – pity and compassion, for example – may lead spectators to form generalized beliefs about types of people in types of situations, ex-tending responses of film viewing to extra-filmic reality” (218).

Plantinga proposes his ‘cognitive-perceptual’ theory, which comprises not only conscious cognitive processes in affective experience, but also nonconscious spectator responses (8). Plantinga notes his personal responses to the film in addition to the reac-tions of other (hypothetical) spectators. Furthermore, he uses psychological theories and philosophical understandings of the nature of human affect in response to film (11). In doing so, he encourages other academics to undertake similar analyses in regard to other types of filmmaking (11, 224). Plantinga’s statements about emotion in film are relevant to my research as I aim to contribute to the understanding of how emotion in web doc-umentary can lead to empathetic and sympathetic emotional responses, and persuade people to take on certain beliefs and ideals.

Alison Landsberg’s theories on empathy and ‘prosthetic memory’ are especially useful in my research. Landsberg claims that mass-media productions like film and tel-evision have a strong social and political function because they can create awareness among its spectators for historical events that spectators did not live through them-selves. According to her, this awareness can be defined as a new form of memory, which she calls ‘prosthetic memory’ (2). Landsberg coins the term ‘prosthetic memory’ for four reasons. Firstly, these memories are not natural or ‘organic’ since they are not the product of the spectator’s own personal experience, but instead derived from repre-sentations of historical events in mass media. Secondly, these memories are sensuous and worn on the body, like an artificial limb. Landsberg’s case-studies also mainly con-cern traumatic events, reinforcing the connection to an artificial limb, which also often marks a trauma. Thirdly, these memories are interchangeable and exchangeable, like artificial limbs which can be attached and removed, and these memories are presented to spectators in commodified form (20). Lastly, the term ‘prosthetic’ is used to emphasize the usefulness of these memories, because they help to shape a spectator’s thoughts on the world and on their own subjectivity, and could prove useful in articulating an ethical relation to the other (Landsberg 21).

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Landsberg argues against Adorno and Horkheimer’s critical concept of the ‘cul-ture industry’, in which mass cul‘cul-ture is understood “as a site of domination, deception and brainwashing of the masses” (21). Because, as she demonstrates, technologies of mass culture and commodification have made it possible to make a group’s private memory available to a broader public, increasing its chances of attaining social and po-litical recognition. Prosthetic memories do not erase differences and, while people feel a connection to a historical event, they do remember their own position in the contempo-rary moment (Landsberg 9). Yet, prosthetic memories “might serve as the grounds for unexpected alliances across chasms of difference” (Landsberg 3). Prosthetic memories encourage people to feel connected to the other, while still recognizing the alterity of the other (9). It is precisely for this reason that prosthetic memories can produce empa-thy and social responsibility (21). The difference between sympaempa-thy and empaempa-thy, ac-cording to Landsberg, is that sympathy starts from an alikeness between subjects, while empathy starts from a position of difference (135). Empathy is “a way of both feeling for and feeling different from the subject of inquiry” (135). Landsberg states that it is on empathy that prosthetic memories can be based, teaching the spectator to think ethically (24, 135).

Landsberg examines historical cases in which memory transmission was compli-cated: U.S. immigrants who were separated from their homeland, African Americans after slavery and the Holocaust which eradicated evidence of what really happened (2). In the case of HoNY, something similar occurs, albeit way less traumatic and slightly different: the contemporary (Western) society is increasingly believed to be more and more individualised. With technologies like the smartphone and constant newsfeeds that warn you for strangers, some people find it difficult to address others on the street. In addition, Western capitalist society is fast-paced and a large part of the population is mostly busy or in a hurry. This leads to few conversations with people from outside of one’s own bubble or everyday life, which can play into the creation of misunderstand-ings and prejudices. HoNY can play a role in offering alternatives to this societal issue, by making it possible to listen to stories from eight to twelve different people in around twenty minutes. These stories expand the spectator’s knowledge of and perspectives on the world and can even become, as it were, a prosthetic memory. Like a commenter writes to Brandon Stanton: “in an age where we are losing touch with one another you are piece by piece, person by person helping join communities back together. May this inspire us all to just stop for 5 minutes and ask someone that we don't know how their

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day is going.” Another commenter puts it in this way:

Brandon (HONY), you are doing what all of us should be do-ing: really paying attention to each other. Everything every-one ever wanted starts with the desire to be seen and heard. Clearly, your generosity of time to engage these people, cap-ture their stories and share them is a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you! (comment on episode 3)

This commenter clearly stresses that people should spend more time paying attention to others. He thanks Stanton for sharing the stories of others by means of his documentary series. This phenomenon connects to Landsberg’s argument that memories do not only belong to a specific group of people, but can be acquired by anyone through mass me-dia, regardless of ethnicity, gender, class, religious affiliation or age (2). This means that people who share little in cultural or ethnic background might come to share memories. I lastly want to point out Landsberg’s use of the term ‘archive’, when she argues that “the cinema offers spectators from diverse backgrounds and ancestries a shared archive of experience” (15). The archive is a useful term in describing the form and dy-namic of HoNY. The series is a collection of stories from people, categorized into topics and archived through filmic means and through posting the series on Facebook. Users or spectators can get access to the stories in the order they prefer and they can even add their own stories. This archive is dynamic, interactive and constantly remediated. As Jacques Derrida writes: “the archive is not simply a mass of facts, […] they are inter-preted facts” (7). HoNY collects facts or stories that are literally interinter-preted by the speakers, Stanton and the spectators. It is always possible to reinterpret the stories in the comment-section, which makes the structure of HoNY as archive “future-oriented” (Derrida 5). Derrida also states that an archive not just records an event, but produces the event. This is thus the performative dimension of the archive. In the case of HoNY, the stories that are told by speakers and spectators are defined and modified by the new technology of social media. Patricia Pisters uses the notion ‘open archive’: “open ar-chives […] are characterized by ongoing contestation and extension that is increasingly facilitated by different new media technologies” (222). Because of new media technolo-gies in the contemporary image culture, anything can be filmed at any time and upload-ed to the internet, which makes the internet an open archive or “viral archive” (Pisters 223). HoNY is an example of an open or viral archive, where data is constantly added, reused and mediated. I will come back to HoNY as an archival structure in chapter 3.

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To sum things up, the episodes of HoNY may use the elicitation of emotion to in-fluence spectators to take on the ideal of prosocial behaviour. Especially empathetic and sympathetic spectator responses to the social actors in HoNY may stimulate prosocial behaviour. In Smith’s terms, the spectator is encouraged to feel alignment because of the rather extensive access to the feelings and thoughts of the social actors through the heartfelt interviews. In addition, I think it is a credible assumption that the spectator will feel sympathetic allegiance to the social actors, in most cases, because of their vulnera-bility and honesty. Plantinga asserts that sympathetic responses may lead spectators to form beliefs about people and situations in real life, but I think empathy may also play a role in this. While, as I explained earlier, Smith uses central and acentral imagining to clearly distinguish sympathy and empathy from each other, there are also other beliefs about the difference between sympathy and empathy. Smith contends that empathy in-volves the imagination of being in a person’s situation and sympathy inin-volves only the understanding of the situation. Landsberg, however, claims the opposite, that empathy refers to understanding the situation of the other and sympathy is projecting your per-sonal experiences on the other. Thus, sympathy and empathy remain difficult to distin-guish from each other. I believe that both sympathy and empathy can play a role in stimulating prosocial behaviour and I will come back to this in chapter 2.

1.4 The phenomenological approach

In aiming for a better understanding of how the episodes of HoNY elicit emotion to cre-ate an empathetic and/or sympathetic spectator response, I will analyse HoNY using a combination of phenomenology, as proposed by Sobchack, and formal analysis, in chapter 2. The phenomenological method focusses not only on the cinematic text, but also on the cinematic experience (xvii Sobchack). In considering a phenomenological approach the first step is to describe what you see and experience, instead of immediate-ly explain it (Sobchack 48). Sobchack writes that the original power of the motion pic-ture lies in the experience it offers to the spectator, so as a film scholar it is key to re-flect on your subjective experience and become conscious of consciousness (3). There-fore, my analysis will emphasize my personal, emotional experience of HoNY episodes. By using the phenomenological approach to analyse my own subjective experience, I aim to discover how HoNY can stimulate an empathic and/or sympathetic reaction, which may lead to prosocial behaviour. In considering such an approach in the next chapter, I will focus mainly on the film text, but I do not mean to imply that the film

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text is the sole element that influences the spectator’s response. In the case of HoNY, the viewing context on Facebook creates an environment which also plays a role in eliciting empathy, sympathy and feelings of community. In chapter 3, I will examine the viewing context on Facebook and the archival dynamic of HoNY.

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Chapter 2 Elements of HoNY evoking empathy

I just realised that we’re all the same. I look at every last one of us and I can imagine his life and come close to being right, and hers, because we’re all the same. We all have the same needs and wants. (episode 5, 0:40)

At age 46, I finally learned that helping others is the most important thing in life. We’re all in a ratrace. Look at this, we’re in a ratrace. To go where? Why don’t you stop and look at the people around you and say: ‘can I help that per-son?’ It’s so important. That’s all. I’m done. (Episode 8, 0:00)

These quotes, taken from episodes of HoNY, embody the message that the series em-phasizes: behave socially and take a moment to listen to other people’s thoughts and sense their feelings. As I indicated in the previous chapter, the episodes of HoNY are designed to evoke an empathic reaction, as a stepping stone to prosocial behaviour. And according to Landsberg, prosthetic memory enables ethical thinking through facilitating the experience of empathy. Ethical thinking is defined as thinking “beyond the immedi-acy of one’s own wants and desires” (Landsberg 149). In order to understand how

HoNY evokes this empathic reaction in the spectator’s experience, I will consider the

phenomenological approach in analysing the episodes of HoNY. The following aspects that play a role in stimulating an empathic spectator response will be discussed: rhythm, dramatic structure, music and audio, colour and composition, haptic visuality, the spon-taneous nature of the interviews and political statements made in the series. But first, I will analyse the opening sequence from the first episode, in which various aspects I deem important come together.

2.1 Opening sequence

The first episode of HoNY is titled ‘Time’. The episode starts with a two-minute long monologue from a middle-aged, black man. The first shot is a head-and-shoulder shot with a blurred background, which resembles an interview setting (see fig. 1). The man talks about what ‘sanity’ and ‘insanity’ mean to him, at first clearly talking to the inter-viewer. As the man goes on, his story begins to resemble a mantra or poem and he seems to sink deeper in his own thoughts. He does not seem to tell his story to the

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viewer anymore, but to the spectator. A full-body shot from the man sitting on a chair is followed by a slow-motion shot which focuses on the man’s face for a long time. As a spectator, I feel the camera’s presence, scanning the man’s face for clues about his background. Then the film cuts to a close-up, which also lingers on his face. The specta-tor is able to look closely in the man’s eyes and study every detail of his face. While listening to his story, I ponder on how the man’s monologue relates to his own life sto-ry. Then there is a cut to an extreme close-up of the man’s face with a blurry back-ground, which draws the spectator to observe the man’s wrinkles and the movement of his eyes while he talks. This is an example of haptic visuality, as I get a sense of what the man’s skin feels like and I can observe every pore and hair on his face. In section 2.6, I will clarify the concept of haptic visuality. The camera moves slowly to the man’s mouth. The spectator can now observe the man’s lips, encompassed by a black beard with a few grey hairs, as he pronounces his words. The man smiles bitterly, breathing out, before he finishes his story and the film cuts to the title. The small sigh is tangible because of the extreme close-up. Watched from a distance, the small movements of the man’s face would not really seem significant, but from up close, these movements stand out and show clear expressions of emotion. By moving the camera closer to the man’s face, the spectator senses that the story he tells relates in some way to his personal expe-riences, despite the fact that the man does not use the word ‘I’ a single time. Instead, he generalises his story, using the word ‘you’. This way of filming the social actor, show-ing the tiny details and focussshow-ing on his face, allows the spectator to be drawn into the man’s emotions. The sequence provides the spectator with a new mindset for the rest of the episode, namely to be open and curious about other people’s stories. This sequence seems to encourage the spectator to look at other people in a certain way: to be very attentive to details that give clues about their situation and be susceptible to other peo-ple’s emotions. This idea will be substantiated by the following analyses of various el-ements of the episodes of HoNY.

2.2 Rhythm

The episodes of HoNY consist roughly of two different types of footage: interviews and B-roll. The B-roll shows various views from New York City and functions as a bridge between interviews, allowing the spectator to process the information given. The epi-sodes start with morning shots and end with evening shots, giving the impression of ‘a day in New York City’. Time lapses are often used in the B-roll sequences and illustrate

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the chaos of an ordinary day in the city. The nature of the time-lapse sequences differs greatly from the atmosphere of the interview sequences. Most of the interview sequenc-es are calm and contemplative, like the opening sequence dsequenc-escribed above. Slow camera movements and slowly paced editing stimulate the spectator to adopt an attentive atti-tude. The spectator is encouraged to sense the emotion of the speaker and to scan the appearance of people for details as the camera closes in on them. Stanton also uses a lot of slow motion-shots of the speaker during interviews, which contrasts with the fast-paced time lapses.

For example, in episode 2 (10:43) there is a time lapse of a beach. Glimpses of people rush around the screen, distorted because of the motion blur (see fig. 2). The spectator’s eye darts around the screen, unable to focus on one point. Then the film cuts to a shot which depicts a building covered in vegetation. The camera moves slowly, introducing the new environment. Another stationary shot of the overgrown building follows, and a man starts speaking about failing in achieving his dream to become a movie director in Hollywood. A tranquil scene commences in which an older, white man ponders on his life, stating that he does not deserve to be remembered if he did not achieve his dream before he dies. I feel drawn into his moment of reflection, through the slow camera movements and calm atmosphere. It is as if the film pauses after the time lapse, which only shows glimpses of many people, to take a moment to pay close atten-tion to a single person’s story. During this scene, the film only focuses on this man and pays attention to every detail: close-ups show him nervously fidgeting with his keys or staring sadly while he contemplates. The editing also allows for moments of silence while the man thinks. This is what HoNY seems to teach the spectator: to pay more at-tention to the people around us instead of letting everything pass in a haze, like the time lapse illustrates. After the man finishes the story, another time lapse ensues and the film moves back to the rhythm of everyday life in a big city, until the film zooms in on an-other person’s story.

This contrast in rhythm enforces the emotional impact of people’s stories, allow-ing for a moment in which the spectator can focus on a sallow-ingle person and take the time to understand that person’s situation and emotions and raise empathy. The film turns glimpses of people into full-fledged persons, like the spectator him- or herself. A com-menter on Facebook said: “It feels like the city slowed down and got quiet so those people could speak, because we all needed to hear them. Beautiful people, beautiful

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stories, beautiful piece of art.” Another brief example is in episode 5, in which a boy struggles to muster up courage to continue studying math, because he did not do well on his last test and is intimidated by other students who get high grades without much ef-fort. The last shot (14:40) depicts the boy sitting on a park bench and the people who walk by are in slow motion. This shot illustrates a world slowing down in order to think and listen to this boy’s story.

2.3 Dramatic structure

The stories of the speakers are not told in the same chronological order as they were originally recorded. Through editing, a tension curve is created in which different parts of the stories are revealed in a particular order. In this way, the spectator is kept curious and the stories achieve the highest emotional impact.

For example, there is a segment in the first episode (15:00) in which a young car mechanic tells his story. He is introduced in a full shot in slow motion, showing him sitting on the curb while working on a car (see fig. 3). He tells about a recent positive change in his life and then reveals that someone (‘he’) is the cause of this change. Then it is revealed that this person is his son. The man’s story is intercut with close-ups from his hands holding mechanical components and from his face while he is fixing the car. Then the man says that someone told him ‘not to look it up on Google’ and he reveals that his son has a degenerative illness and is not able to use his legs and arms or hold up his head. While there is no cure yet and it is unlikely that the boy will live very long, the man tries to stay positive and find ways to fix it. Gesturing to the car components, he states: “because that’s what I do, I fix things.” Then there is a jump cut to the man re-trieving his son from the car. The son is finally revealed to the spectator and his appear-ance after the built-up curiousness and expectations elicits a great shock. The scrawny boy can indeed not keep his head up and is clearly in pain. The man carries the boy in-side, kindly greeting a perfectly healthy boy standing on the sidewalk, a coincidence which makes the story even more heartbreaking. The story ends with the man, sitting on the curb again, thinking about what his life will look like when his son dies. He insists that he tries not to think about it in order to stay positive, but when he tries to go back to work he seems to still be pondering the impending future.

This example shows that the editor carefully selected the order in which the sto-ry unfolds. The spectator is kept curious throughout the entire stosto-ry. The stosto-ry starts on a positive note, as the man seems to be saved from his negative lifestyle by something

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or someone. Then the story evokes happy, universal associations about father-son rela-tionships and family life. The spectator is set up to have different expectations about the nature of the story, so that the unexpected turn for the negative creates maximum emo-tional impact. After the first turn, the spectator forms expectations about the son accord-ing to the descriptions, to be subsequently shocked by the reveal of the actual son. The story finishes with the emotional struggles of the father and his impending loss. This structure packs a greater emotional punch than a sequence that started with the disease or immediately revealed the child. Because of the universal start of the story, focusing on fatherhood, the film emphasizes that this could happen to anybody. Through the cre-ation of dramatic structures, HoNY harnesses the emotions of the social actors in such a way, that the spectator can get swept up easily and experience similar emotions.

The dramatic structure is often created in order to keep the spectator curious. Becoming curious about other people’s stories makes up a huge part of HoNY. A clear example of HoNY stimulating the audience to become curious, is the segment in episode 2 (12:16), in which an older woman who wears big sunglasses and who is dressed in fluorescent pink, refuses to tell her story. She asserts that she is not going to tell her story to anybody, since her life story is worth “thousands and thousands of dollars”. Shots of her sitting on a staircase leading to a house are intercut with close-ups from her lipstick pink bag and her necklaces (see fig. 4). The audience does not get to listen to her story, but I do feel stimulated to look for details that give me clues about this wom-an’s life.

Another example of the creation of a dramatic structure through editing is a se-quence in the second episode (4:00) in which a corpulent, middle-aged man dances in a free and easy way and shares with the spectator that other people call him the ‘diva’ of a particular beach. After a shot in which he dances without paying any attention to what people might think, even pouring beer on himself, the film cuts to a shot of a man look-ing flabbergasted, implylook-ing that he looks at the other man danclook-ing (see fig. 5). I doubt that there was an actual eyeline match between these two men; this is probably con-structed through editing. The creation of this dramatic structure makes the film more entertaining; the sequence grabs the spectator’s attention. It is also a funny sequence, because the man’s facial expression mirrored my initial reaction. These moments, in which reactions of social actors mirror the spectator’s reaction, can enforce the specta-tor’s connection with the video because it creates a feeling of understanding and com-munity.

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The overarching dramatic structure of the episodes themselves is also edited in a rather logical way. The interviews are often juxtaposed so that they connect or comment on each other. For example, in episode 7, titled ‘parents’, the interviews go subtly from baby to grown up and the different ages in between (toddler, teenager). The different relationships between the child and the parent are told in a more or less chronological way.

So, to round off, by editing the stories in a logical order and creating a tension curve, the stories can achieve maximum emotional impact and maintain the spectator’s attention. The emotional, dramatic sequences can subsequently lead to an empathic spectator response. The episodes’ appeal to curiousness can possibly inspire the specta-tor to also be curious about the people he/she meets in his/her everyday life. In this way, a behavioural pattern is stimulated by the episode that can extend to extra-filmic reality.

2.4 Music and audio

There are different types of music usage in HoNY. First of all, silence is often used, both during interviews and during B-roll sequences. Combined with the calm nature of the camera and editing during interview sequences, the spectator is able to pay full attention to the way speakers pick their words and tell their stories. For example, when a speak-er’s emotion shines through because of a voice crack (episode 1, 13:36, episode 11, 7:00) this is clearly audible. Secondly, diegetic sounds are made very audible, like the sounds of wind and leaves whispering (episode 5, 16:50) or the slobbering sound of a dog drinking water (episode 5, 10:00). These sounds make the film very immersive.

Furthermore, there are different genres of music featured in HoNY. Jazzy, funky music is used during some (often introductory) B-roll sequences. This neutral music seems to ‘cleanse the palate’ of the spectator when used between two different stories, like in episode 6 between the soldier’s story and the graduate’s story. This music also balances out the emotions and may prevent episodes from becoming too heavy. The upbeat, modern music also reflects the life in New York City. A different genre of mu-sic used in every episode is ambient, contemplative mumu-sic. When used in B-roll se-quences, this music carries emotions (often sadness) from one story to the next, rein-forcing the emotions in the process. The ambient music maintains a particular emotion evoked by a story, which is then enforced by the next story. Silence is also often used for this purpose. An example is an interview in episode 6 (12:30), in which a man tells about his son being missing. The man was shot when looking for his son and is now

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confined to a wheelchair, living a lonely life. Because of the emotion elicited in this interview, the following B-roll sequence features sad piano music that amplifies the emotion of the social actor.Episode 5 also ends with a boy feeling sad and the ending music that ensues is very subtle: high notes that sound like singing bowls. This music enhances the emotion of the interview and on these moments, I really felt the emotion sink in.

Lastly, music is sometimes used to directly comment on the story, often for the purpose of a joke. For example, in episode 5 (2:40), a man tells about how his eighteen-year-old self would have imagined his future: to be a very successful environmental lawyer. Superhero music plays while the man describes the epic accomplishments that he dreamed of, making the scene funny and touching at the same time. A different ex-ample is episode 7, titled ‘parents’, which starts with a lullaby while showing a baby. This use of music makes the scene instantly lighter, funny and touching. In these ways, music functions as a powerful tool in HoNY, to reinforce the appeals to the spectator’s emotions.

2.5 Colour and composition

The speakers are almost always situated in a matching environment, ranging from very subtle to quite obvious coordinated compositions. This is often done through the use of colour. In these shots, the colour matches function as a visual support for the claims made by the spectator. For example, in episode 8 (10:20) a girl and a man tell about how they connected through a community program, how they both love dancing and developed a strong friendship. The girl is holding a pink flower that matches the pink flowers on the collar of the older man’s shirt (see fig. 6). This composition visually sup-ports the girl’s and man’s claims of feeling a strong connection. Another example oc-curs in episode 11 (9:40), when a guy tells about how his belief in God pulled him through a dark time when he was young, despite him not believing in God anymore. The beige colour of his vest matches the beige stones of the church he is sitting in front of (see fig. 7). The visual match between him and the church supports his story.

Colour matches also make sure that the speakers fit in their environment in a visually pleasing way. For example, in episode 8 (2:40), a girl is wearing a blue sweater that matches exactly the blue hue of the wall she is standing in front of (see fig. 8). Al-so, the man who did not achieve his dream to become a movie director wears a green vest and a green shirt, corresponding with the colour of the staircase he is sitting on and

From Webdoc to Social Engagement: Exploring Empathetic Responses and Prosocial Behaviour in the Context of Humans of New York: The Series