Docudrama as 'histotainment': repackaging family history in the digital age

With the proliferation of digital technologies and the resulting democratisation of historical records the past is more accessible to consumers than ever before. This has propelled the rapid evolution of what is now the multi-billion-dollar family history industry. Proclaimed an 'epidemic', genealogy and family history research has become 'the fastest growing hobby in both Britain and America as well as mainland Europe, Canada and Australia'. Indeed, after pornography, family history is the second most accessed website genre currently accessed daily across the globe. Accompanying internet interest in family history research, there has been an explosion of family history themed media productions such as documentaries, docudramas and reality TV shows.