From the Holocaust to 9/11, modern communications systems have incessantly exposed us to reports of distant and horrifying events, experienced by strangers, and brought to us through media technologies. In this book leading scholars explore key questions concerning the truth status and broader implications of ‘media witnessing’.
Author(s): Paul Frosh, Amit Pinchevski
Edition: First Edition
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 256
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 8
Notes on the Contributors......Page 9
Introduction: Why Media Witnessing? Why Now?......Page 12
Part I: Perspectives on Media Witnessing......Page 32
1 Witnessing......Page 34
An Afterword: Torchlight Red on Sweaty Faces......Page 53
2 Telling Presences: Witnessing, Mass Media, and the Imagined Lives of Strangers......Page 60
3 Mundane Witness......Page 84
4 Witness as a Cultural Form of Communication: Historical Roots, Structural Dynamics, and Current Appearances......Page 100
5 Archaic Witnessing and Contemporary News Media......Page 123
Part II: Performances of Media Witnessing......Page 142
6 Witnessing as a Field......Page 144
7 From Danger to Trauma: Affective Labor and the Journalistic Discourse of Witnessing......Page 169
8 Scientific Witness, Testimony, and Mediation......Page 193
9 Witnessing Trauma on Film......Page 209
B......Page 227
C......Page 228
D......Page 230
E......Page 231
H......Page 232
K......Page 233
M......Page 234
N......Page 235
P......Page 236
S......Page 237
T......Page 238
W......Page 240
Z......Page 242
