Interactive Web Documentaries: A Case Study of Audience Reception and User Engagement on iOtok

Interactive web documentaries have the potential to engage people with important topics through innovative storytelling approaches. Understanding how users interact with web documentaries and to what extent they consume their content can help documentary filmmakers reach a broader or more engaged audience. In this article, we provide an in-depth and quantitative analysis of an interactive web documentary called iOtok. The 13 episodes of iOtok were launched on an online portal showcasing a variety of features (chat, souvenirs, animated 360 panoramas, etc.), on a weekly basis. Through the analysis of more than 20 000 sessions, newsletter statistics and one online questionnaire, we discuss the impact of serialization and interactivity on audience reception and user engagement. Data show that in the case of iOtok, serialization had a positive impact (large number of sessions over time, long time on site). However, and somehow unexpectedly, every click led to a considerable amount of users dropping off and quitting the web portal before reaching the core videos. This article also addresses other aspects of web documentaries, such as the efficiency of various media to reach and engage users over time and differences in behaviors between registered and unregistered users.