documentarydriven
Documentarydriven is an adjective used to describe an approach that is guided by documentary evidence—records, reports, correspondence, archival materials, and other primary documents—rather than by theory, intuition, or solely quantitative data.
Common in documentary filmmaking, investigative journalism, archival research, and project documentation, the term signals a workflow
In filmmaking, a documentary-driven method prioritizes provenance and corroboration of sources, often foregrounding archival footage, official
In research and analysis, it means formulating hypotheses or interpretations after assembling relevant documents and tracing
Documentation-driven practice can improve transparency and accountability but may be resource-intensive and constrained by the availability,
Although closely related to data-driven approaches, documentary-driven work emphasizes qualitative evidence and source critique over numeric
See also: documentary evidence, archival research, evidence-based practice, investigative journalism, document management.