A Comparative Analysis of Reality Construction Models in Short Documentary Films Based on The New York Times Op-Docs and Azattyq materials

Abstract

This article examines how social reality is constructed in short-form documentary films by comparing the materials of NYT Op-Docs and Azattyq. Contemporary digital platforms increasingly transform a documentary film into an epistemological media form that selects, organizes, and interprets public events. Existing studies on documentary film, narrative journalism, and visual framing have mainly focused on either Western media contexts, thematic representation, or aesthetic strategies. However, there is still limited comparative research on how institutionally and geographically different media platforms construct reality through distinct documentary logics. This study addresses that gap by analyzing short-form documentaries as platform-specific systems of knowledge production. The purpose of the article is to identify the mechanisms through which short documentary films organize social reality and to define the dominant epistemological models operating within two different media environments. The theoretical framework combines framing theory, narrative journalism, and multimodal discourse analysis. The empirical corpus consists of ten short documentary films selected through purposive sampling: five films from NYT Op-Docs and five films from Azattyq. The films were divided into 45 narrative segments and analyzed through qualitative content analysis and multimodal analysis. The coding scheme included five categories: narrative structure, type of evidence, visual mode, institutional visibility, and affective organization. The findings demonstrate two contrasting models of documentary reality construction. NYT Op-Docs primarily operates through a narrative-affective model, in which social reality is organized around personal experience, character-centered storytelling, aesthetic visual composition, and emotional reflection. Azattyq, by contrast, follows an evidentiary-testimonial model, where reality is constructed through witness accounts, factual evidence, raw visual material, and explicit institutional responsibility. The article contributes to framing theory by extending it beyond textual and news-based analysis and by showing how documentary meaning is produced through the interaction of narrative, visual, evidentiary, institutional, and affective elements. The study also demonstrates that short-form documentary films should be analyzed not only as journalistic products, but as epistemological mechanisms that shape public understanding of social reality.