Commissioned Programmes as Ethnography

Maclean, Diane

Abstract

This paper takes as its object of study issues emerging from the synthesis of documentary practice and theoretical discourse. Its context is formed by the production of four published works commissioned and broadcast by the BBC in 2011/2012. These comprise: a drama-documentary, an observational documentary and two radio programmes. The programmes gathered ethnographic information, archival and recorded memories and oral histories from Scarp, a small, now abandoned, island off the coast of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, whose oral history and memories are in danger of being lost forever.

The paper argues for the acknowledgment of the 'situatedness' of the producer by exploring background, cultural positioning and professional training, specifically within the context of Gaelic culture and broadcasting. It makes the specific claim that the published works and research associated with these documentary films, in combination with a self-reflexive interrogation of the practice, make an important contribution to our understanding and ethnographic knowledge of island cultures on the west coast of Scotland.

Through a cross-disciplinary engagement with debates within documentary, ethnography and oral history, I will demonstrate that narrative, subjectivity, generic delivery, commissioning constraints and intervention need not exclude broadcast programmes, and the research produced to create them, from containing valuable ethnographic information that (under academic analysis) makes a contribution to our understanding of culture. A self-reflexive methodology reveals the extent to which the producer intervenes in, changes, and brings their own subjective perspective to, any work of ethnographic data gathering, and how this research is constrained by the commissioner. I will further suggests ways in which this self-reflexivity can be used in visual ethnography.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Visual Methods and Ethnography
• Start Date: May 12, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 26, 2023