The article below is from the Video Ideas email list. This edition looks at social experiments can be used to make a point.
“Conflict leads to change” — that’s the shortest definition of “story” I’ve ever heard.
This formula also sums up a good social experiment: members of the public encounter a situation and in doing so learn and grow.
The results are dramatic, and if you can combine this approach with a political point, it can be very effective.
Guns With History | PreventGunViolence ⭐ — People looking to buy a gun are told the tragic histories behind each weapon
This is a clever idea and well-executed. I stole the idea of labels revealing a weapon’s tragic history for a sequence about guns in this New York Times film.
Liberals Shoot Guns For The 1st Time | Buzzfeed
I think this is a brave idea for Buzzfeed. There is something viscerally appealing to many Americans about owning a gun, which goes beyond abstract Second Amendment arguments. While many of the “liberals” in the film are not excited by firing a gun, some do enjoy it in a way that surprises them. While this makes it a less pointed film (compare to the first film in this list) it felt more journalistically curious.
The Holy Quran Experiment | Dit Is Normaal ⭐— People are asked to react to quotes from the Quran, which turn out to be quotes from the Bible.
Like the best ideas you wonder why no-one did it before.
No more boys and girls | BBC Two — People are invited to play with toddlers, who turn out to have been dressed in the clothes of the opposite gender.
This short film was part of a longer science documentary exploring how our ideas of gender are influenced by our environment.
Violence is Violence | Mankind — Two actors pretend to be a couple having a violent argument. At first the man is violent to the woman, and then the act is repeated with the positions reversed.
I’m including this film because it’s a good illustration of an approach where you repeat a situation but change one thing. For that reason I think it’s worth sharing here (though personally I have problems with the way it presents this issue).
A similar idea I’ve seen (though from a long time ago) is this video that shows a white actor pretending to steal a bike — with few reactions from people passing — followed by a black actor doing the same, resulting in much more fuss.
10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman | Robert Bliss Creative — A woman walks around New York and is subject to street harassment
I’m guessing you’ve probably seen this film (which has even inspired numerous spin-offs.) However one reason I wanted to include it is because it illustrates a different approach to many of the films above.
Usually social experiments are powerful because they involve ordinary people going through a change in perspective — whether it’s on guns, the Quran or something else. Here however, we don’t see any members of the public changing their mind. Instead the person who’s meant to change their perspective is you. In some social experiments the subject isn’t on film, it’s the person watching.
Two final thoughts on social experiments
I think it’s important, especially if you’re working in journalism, to remember that social experiments are not “real” experiments. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have journalistic merit.
First, alongside other evidence (studies, surveys, polls etc) a social experiment can be a way to illustrate how something might work. For example the gender film doesn’t prove that environment rather than genetics is the source of our gender-roles. But if other data did support that conclusion, this film might illustrate the “causal mechanism” by which it has an impact.
Second, social experiments can be a strong way to counter certain ideas without necessarily proving anything positive. For example the films above effectively counter the idea that “guns make you safer” and “violent religious verses make adherents violent”. However they don’t take on the larger task of what does really cause gun violence or Islamist terrorism. Often that’s where short films can be effective: you might not have the time for a full exploration of a topic, but you can blow-up some misconceptions.
A star (⭐) means particularly recommended. While all the films I include in these emails are worth knowing about for some reason, these are the ones you definitely don’t want to miss watching.