State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Independent Voter Suppression Documentary Relies on Quirky Social Media Alchemy for Exposure

Governing: Robert Greenwald’s new film about voter suppression is politically urgent, but to get it noticed in the competitive world of guerrilla-style documentaries he must target audiences across Facebook, Twitter Instagram and video gamer sites.

The media landscape is atomized, and audiences with voracious, if fleeting, interests are forcing documentary filmmakers with tight budgets to be creative in cyberspace as well as in more traditional realms such as church congregations and independent bookstores. It is a marketing alchemy of feeds, hashtags, likes, favorites, hearts, @s, memes, soundbites and video clips, all edited, spliced and calibrated to grab attention in a hyperspeed world.

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