Media witnessing: exploring the audience of distant suffering

Abstract

This article aims at demonstrating the relevance of the concept of ‘media witnessing’ as an analytical lens for the study of audience engagement with media reports of distant suffering. Drawing upon existing theoretical work on the concept, the article approaches media witnessing as a distinct modality of audience experience and constructs an analytical framework for its study. Applying this framework on an empirical study of Greek audiences, the article provides a typology of witnessing, consisting of four different types of audience engagement with media stories of human suffering. This typology illustrates the complexities inherent in the practice of watching suffering on television, as well as the limitations of mediated cosmopolitan imagination.

Sjeldenkonsumenter av nyheter: Holdning tilnyhetsmedier, medborgerskap og forklaringer på sjeldenkonsum blantunge voksne

“…Studier har vist at lidelse i nyhetsbildet kan ha negativ effekt på mennesker som lider av depresjoner (Potts & Sanchez, 1994, s. 87). Slike resultater beskrives også av Kyriakidou (2015) i hennes undersøkelse av ulike reaksjonsmønstre knyttet til mediert lidelse. I et av reaksjonsmønstrene, «affective witnessing», gjenga informantene lidelsen de hadde fått formidlet gjennom intense, følelsesmessige uttalelser.…”

The moral mechanism of counter accounts: The case of industrial animal production

“…In the domain cultural studies, such research can often be located under the rubric of 'audience witnessing' or, more mundanely, 'audience reactions' (see e.g Höijer, 2004;Kyriakidou, 2015;Seu, 2010)…”

Remembering Global Disasters and the Construction of Cosmopolitan Memory

“…The latter are described as global, because they are of a "much bigger scale." What renders the loss of the Russian submarine a global disaster, however, as described here by the participant, is the fact that, through its global broadcasting, it places viewers around the world into the position of witnesses (Kyriakidou, 2015). This sense of virtually unmediated witnessing is expressed through temporal and spatial deixis ("you have for entire days a submarine with people inside slowly dying," "and then it finally ends.…”

“…What is mostly interesting, however, is the distinction between disasters in the “broader sense” such as the loss of Kursk submarine and the Challenger space shuttle explosion and disasters such as environmental ones. The latter are described as global, because they are of a “much bigger scale.” What renders the loss of the Russian submarine a global disaster, however, as described here by the participant, is the fact that, through its global broadcasting, it places viewers around the world into the position of witnesses (Kyriakidou, ). This sense of virtually unmediated witnessing is expressed through temporal and spatial deixis (“you have for entire days a submarine with people inside slowly dying,” “and then it finally ends.”), as well as the sense of helplessness created by the spectacle of death (“you feel like you cannot help, you can't do anything”).…”