The Production Sociology of Documentary Filmmaking: The Distribution of Authorship, Power, and Responsibility in Television Documentary Production and Its Impact on Aesthetic and Semantic Decisions

Abstract

The study analyzes the transformation of the production sociology of documentary film and television in the context of global digitalization and the growing power of OTT platforms, addressing shifts not only in technological infrastructure but also in the institutional logic through which non-fiction content is produced. Central to the analysis is the position of the lead director as a pivotal node where authorship, authority, and responsibility are redistributed, making this role a sensitive indicator of structural change in media production.

Special attention is paid to the ways creative units intersect with bureaucratic circuits inside broadcasting organizations: regimes of coordination, approval, and control are described as setting the boundaries of permissible artistic decisions. In parallel, the influence of market determinants on the aesthetic and semantic configuration of the documentary product is traced, where artistic choice becomes entangled with platform distribution requirements, the competitive economy of attention, and performance metrics.

Drawing on statistical datasets from 2024–2025, a tendency toward the recentralization of managerial power around the “director–producer” dyad is identified; this dyad increasingly functions as the dominant axis for decision-making and resource allocation. Within the same frame, the penetration of artificial intelligence tools is examined as a factor capable of reassembling the boundaries of authorial control: algorithmic practices begin to shape selection, editing, packaging, and promotion, thereby altering established regimes of creative sovereignty.

As a conceptual outcome, a model of “experimental hierarchy” is proposed, designed to reconcile creative autonomy with industrial imperatives of productivity and controllability. Overall, the findings deepen understanding of contemporary media-production dynamics and may be applied in the calibration of managerial architectures within creative organizations, with the aim of strengthening the resilience of documentary practice as a socially significant institution under conditions of algorithmic curation.