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Streaming Documentaries: Changing the Channel, Changing the World

  • Writer: Kelly Hendrick
    Kelly Hendrick
  • Jun 23, 2024
  • 3 min read

Updated: Jul 6, 2024




There is certainly no shortage of documentaries found on streaming services nowadays. What used to be a collection of educational videos about the sea floor or the Punic War has evolved into a plethora of entertainment series, from cults to serial killers to failed celebrity music festivals. But these streaming services have also introduced documentaries that change how society absorbs social issues, such as the documentary 13th, which explains how the thirteenth amendment has created a prison system with a disproportionate number of African Americans. They also affect our social culture by changing how society responds to these social issues, as seen from how the film Super Size Me, which showed the drastic health effects stemming from the McDonald's portion size, influencing the fast-food chain to discontinue the size altogether.




New Societal Expectations

Gone are the days of media consumption solely through the Sunday morning paper, the nightly news on broadcast TV, and the sensationalized cable networks. Streaming services have ushered in a new era in many capacities, and the delivery of news is a big one. We spend more time than ever on our digital devices, which means news needs to be portable, and our attention span seems to be shrinking, which means it has to be entertaining. Thanks to streaming platforms, both the sheer number of them and their extensive library, portable + entertaining is possible. (Both Hulu and Netflix developed a documentary about the disastrous Fyre Fest, for example. Do we need two separate documentaries on a festival for the elite? No, but it doesn’t mean the world didn’t watch both of them anyway.)


But documentaries are more than that; they can be meaningful, offer a deeper impact, and provide much-needed context. Mainstream media might tell the broad story of injustice and tragedy, but documentaries have the power to provide the perspective of those most impacted, giving victims a voice and agency (Carter et al., 2022). Our evolving society relies on the medium of documentaries and its delivery method of the streaming platform as a way to dive deep into current affairs, like climate change or refugee struggles, in a way older generations relied on Walter Cronkite.





A Cultural Shift

While the aforementioned Fyre Festival documentaries seem to be simply schadenfreude fodder, documentaries focusing on the complexities of human suffering can lead to real change. Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix, in addition to many other platforms, have found ways to address social issues, especially through promoted collections. In February, Black voices are explicitly highlighted; in March, women’s; In May, AAPI; and in June, LQBTQ. Through these collections, viewers can watch a myriad of documentaries—some sensationalized but others informational—meant to elicit a visceral reaction. They provide alternative viewpoints, challenge our inherent biases, and motivate us to alter preconceived assumptions (Roy, 2012), which can then lead to tangible action.


Case in point: after a yearly documentary festival in Canada, attendees had a range of responses: passive activism (a woman who ultimately accepted her daughter’s sexual orientation), forged connections (a woman who befriended an inmate featured in a film), political activism (writing letters to public officials), and financial donations (aid to sexual assault victims in the Congo) (Roy, 2012). And the library just keeps growing. Netflix isn’t removing documentaries from five years ago, but they are continually adding more, which means society has more and more access to this alternate method of news consumption, hopefully inspiring more and more change.


The question is: which one should I watch next?





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