Between journalism and activism: Interactive documentary as a means of affective mobilization on gender issues

Abstract

This paper explores the boundaries between journalism and activism through the analysis of two interactive documentaries, focused on the representation of women's violence: Mujeres en Venta (2014), denouncing women's trafficking for sexual exploitation, and Artigo 170 (2019), focused on testimonies of women victims of sexual harassment in different contexts. Through a methodological articulation of content analysis, discourse analysis and multimodal analysis of both documentaries we argue that the interactive documentary, based on the heritage of the most activist documentary practices, works as a structuring device for denouncing gender issues and provides a multifaceted affective encounter with a variety of powerful testimonies. This way of representing social issues, according to this research, blurs the boundaries between journalism and social activism, while enhances the affective engagement and mobilization of the audience.