I don't think that going back to redfining journalists (instead of
journalism) first is picky at all -- now I think I see where you are
coming from, I think.
 
It seems to me that a journalist has as much a role in the content of
the document/fiction as do the other participants of the film.  Can the
journalist/documentarist control what is presented? no.  I agree that
the participants are as much creating the film as the filmmaker, perhaps
that is how the subjectivity of the thing builds toward an objective
representation.  In other words, the more the subjectivity is spread
around (between the filmmaker(s), and the participants of the film
contents) and then collected together into one "story" the more
objective it might become.  Then again, we have to remember how we all
present ourselves and view each other in different settings and under
various circumstances.  The minute one realizes they are being filmed,
they act differently than they would if the filmming were candid.  What
is a journalist?  Maybe little more than a kind of voyeur.
 
Carol Robinson
Gallaudet University