被异化的“原生态”:对视听传播真实性问题的历史考察与再反思

The Alienated“Original Ecology”:a Historical Examination and Rethinking of the Authenticity of Audiovisual Communication

在纪实领域,“真实性”问题始终是视听传播持续追问的基本命题。互联网时代,泛纪实类视听内容虚实边界消融,反映真实与制造真实的悖论催生出新一轮的真实性问题。本文在文化与技术双重视野下梳理了自上世纪八九十年代电影电视领域蔓延至互联网场域纵贯四十余年的纪实美学革命,试图呈现纪实文化与我国当代文化的互构历程。经“原生态”这一表层话语内涵、实践演变过程,来探查人们对于互联网视听内容真实性的理解、表达、概念是如何随着“原生态”一词的泛化而被改变的。本文认为,在平台与资本深度卷入下,视听传播中的“原生态”等概念在多方角力中被异化,纪实文化出现了从追求真实到体验“真实感”的转变,平台方通过算法成为定义“真实”、影响内容生产的结构性力量,通过景观的制造实现了对视觉传播“真实性”的统治。基于此,我们认为平台应协同参与重构关于“真实性”问题的边界意识。重启社会对纪实美学意义的再认识,才能抵达审美复归与价值纠偏的根本目的。

In the field of documentary, the question of “authenticity” has always been the basic proposition that audiovisual communication continues to pursue. In the Internet era, the boundary between non-fiction and fiction of pan-documentary audiovisual content has dissolved, and the paradox of reflecting the real and creating the real has given rise to a new round of authenticity issues. Under the double vision of culture and technology, this paper summarizes the revolution of documentary aesthetics from the 1980s and 1990s in the field of film and television to the field of the Internet, which has lasted for more than forty years, and tries to present the inter-constructive history of documentary culture and contemporary culture in China. The paper explores how people's understanding, expression, and conception of the authenticity of Internet audiovisual content have changed with the generalization of the term “original ecology” through the evolution of the connotation and practice of the superficial discourse of “original ecology”. This paper argues that under the deep involvement of platforms and capital, concepts such as “original ecology” in audiovisual communication have been alienated in the tug-of-war between multiple parties, and documentary culture has been transformed from pursuing the real to experiencing the “sense of reality”, and the platforms have become the most important players in defining “real” through the use of algorithm, and in the process of the evolution of practice. Through algorithms, platforms have become the structural force that defines “authenticity” and influences the production of content, realizing the domination over the authenticity of visual communication through the creation of landscapes. Based on this, we believe that platforms should be involved in the reconstruction of the boundaries of “authenticity”. It is only by reawakening society's understanding of the significance of documentary aesthetics that the fundamental purpose of aesthetic restoration and value correction can be achieved.