dr. B. (Berber) Hagedoorn

My research revolves around two lines of investigation. The first is the development of screen cultures in national and international contexts, more particular the development of television in the multi-platform age (its representations and crossmedia storytelling practices). This research line starts from my personal fascination with television as a storyteller and teacher, and how this role has amplified across platforms and screens in the digital age. I study creative practices and interpretive processes of storytelling for television and audiovisual crossmedia culture, in the broadest sense. Right now, more data, people and digital tools than ever before are involved in processes of meaning-making with this cross-platform culture, reflecting national and global identities and cultures. Importantly, this can include representations and strategies of inclusion and empowerment. I am keen for my research to contribute to a specific part of the struggles that current media generations face, namely understanding awareness of transparency, selection and bias in contemporary media contexts.

The second research line investigates how audiovisual cultural memory in Europe is shared, represented and instrumentalised in online and offline contexts. To broaden understanding of the relations between audiovisual memory and the digital, I study televisual cultures of production and storytelling since the rapid development of digital technologies, as well as audiovisual archival practices and novel ways of understanding of what can count as archival practices: from vlogging cultures on YouTube to mobile applications as new forms of collecting and storing data, and connected phenomena not immediately thought of as archives (human bodies, urban and natural environments, artistic objects and exhibitions) that are mediated with the help of new technologies. By building a conceptual bridge between practices of archiving, media and memory – and studying motivations behind audiovisual media creation, innovation and dissemination (e.g. by means of production studies and user studies, textual analysis and platform analysis) – I seek to understand the new high political and societal relevance of these practices to today’s societies and communities.

Therefore, by means of collaboration in large-scale Dutch and European best practice projects on digital audio-visual heritage and cultural memory representation, I organize cooperation for European research and education into television’s history and its future as a multi-platform storytelling practice.