Media Witnessing: Testimony in the Age of Mass Communication

239 Pages·2009·1.087 MB·English

by  Paul Frosh, Amit Pinchevski (eds.)

Media Witnessing
AlsobyPaulFrosh
THEIMAGEFACTORY:ConsumerCulture,PhotographyandtheVisualContent
Industry(2003)
MEETINGTHEENEMYINTHELIVINGROOM:TerrorismandCommunication
intheContemporaryEra(withTamarLiebes,2006)
AlsobyAmitPinchevski
BYWAYOFINTERRUPTION:LevinasandtheEthicsofCommunication(2005)
Media Witnessing
Testimony in the Age of Mass
Communication
Editedby
Paul Frosh
SeniorLecturer,DepartmentofCommunicationsandJournalism,
TheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,Israel
and
Amit Pinchevski
Lecturer,DepartmentofCommunicationsandJournalism,
TheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,Israel
Introduction,selectionandeditorialmatter©PaulFroshand
AmitPinchevski2009
Individualchapters©contributors2009
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-55149-7
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Frosh,Paul.
Mediawitnessing:testimonyintheageofmasscommunication/Paul
FroshandAmitPinchevski.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Massmedia—Influence. 2.Reportersandreporting. 3.Mass
media—Audiences. I.Pinchevski,Amit,1971– II.Title.
P94.F762009
302.23—dc22 2008029917
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
NotesontheContributors viii
Introduction:WhyMediaWitnessing?WhyNow? 1
PaulFroshandAmitPinchevski
PartI PerspectivesonMediaWitnessing
1 Witnessing 23
JohnDurhamPeters
AnAfterword:TorchlightRedonSweatyFaces 42
JohnDurhamPeters
2 TellingPresences:Witnessing,MassMedia,andthe
ImaginedLivesofStrangers 49
PaulFrosh
3 MundaneWitness 73
JohnEllis
4 Witness as a Cultural Form of Communication: Historical
Roots,StructuralDynamics,andCurrentAppearances 89
GünterThomas
5 ArchaicWitnessingandContemporaryNewsMedia 112
MenahemBlondheimandTamarLiebes
PartII PerformancesofMediaWitnessing
6 WitnessingasaField 133
TamarAshuriandAmitPinchevski
7 FromDangertoTrauma:AffectiveLaborandtheJournalistic
DiscourseofWitnessing 158
CarrieRentschler
v
vi Contents
8 ScientificWitness,Testimony,andMediation 182
JoanLeach
9 WitnessingTraumaonFilm 198
RoyBrand
Index 216
Acknowledgments
This project has been long in the making, emerging from intermittent
but continuous discussions (and disputations!) between the individual
authors and many other scholars at a number of different gatherings
overseveralyears.Therearemanytothankfortheir(sometimesunwit-
ting) contributions to the spirit, if not the letter, of this project; those
who,whiletheyhavenotcontributedessaystothisvolume,havekept
us enthused and intellectually alert to the many dimensions of media
witnessing and who have read and responded to previous versions of
the work presented here: Elihu Katz, Daniel Dayan, Paddy Scannell,
Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Zohar Kampf, Eva Illouz, Sandrine Boudana,
Tally Gross, Louise Bethlehem, and Nick Couldry, to name only a few.
In addition we would like to thank Becky Feinberg for her diligence,
efficiency, and heroic meticulousness in preparing the manuscript for
publication. The Hebrew University Authority for Research and Devel-
opment and the Smart Family Foundation Communications Institute
bothmadegenerousfinancialcontributionstowardsoureditorialcosts.
Finally,wewouldliketothankSagePublicationsLtd.forpermissionto
reprintJohnDurhamPeters’sarticle‘Witnessing’fromMedia,Culture&
Society, Volume 23, Issue 6, pp. 707–23, 2001, and Taylor and Francis
Ltd.forpermissiontoreprintPaulFrosh’sarticle‘TellingPresences:Wit-
nessing,MassMedia,andtheImaginedLivesofStrangers’fromCritical
Studies in Media Communication, Volume 23, Issue 4, pp. 265–84, 2006
(www.informaworld.com).
Pauldedicatesthisbooktohisparents,SidneyFroshandthelateRuth
Frosh.
Amitdedicatesthisbooktothenewfamily,toIrisandIlai.
vii
Notes on the Contributors
Tamar Ashuri is a Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University’s Department of
CommunicationStudiesandintheSchoolofCommunicationsatSapir
Academic College, Israel. The Arab Israeli Conflict in the Media is forth-
coming from I.B. Tauris in 2008, and her new book on the history of
mediatechnologieswillbepublishedin2009.
Menahem Blondheim is a Professor in the Department of Communi-
cationandJournalismandtheDepartmentofAmericanStudiesatThe
HebrewUniversityofJerusalem.HeservesasDirectoroftheSmartFam-
ilyFoundationCommunicationInstitute.Hisresearchinterestsinclude
thehistoryofcommunicationandcommunicationinhistoryandcom-
municationtechnologies,oldandnew.AmonghispublicationsareNews
over the Wires (1994); Copperhead Gore (2006); and The Toronto School of
CommunicationTheory(2007),avolumeeditedwithRitaWatson.
RoyBrandisanAssistantProfessorintheDepartmentofPhilosophyat
Sarah LawrenceCollege, USA. His main areas ofinterest includemedia
studies, critical theory, and contemporary European philosophy. Cur-
rently,heisworkingonabookentitledTheArtofExperience:Filmsand
NewMedia.
John Ellis is a Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University
of London. He is the author of Seeing Things (2000) and Visible Fictions
(1984) and has recently contributed to New Directions in Documentary
(eds. J. Corner & A. Rosenthal, 2004) and The Television Studies Reader
(eds.R.Allen&A.Hill,2004).Between1982and1999herantheinde-
pendent company Large Door Productions, making documentaries for
BritishTV.Heiscurrentlyworkingonthehistoryoftelevisionandthe
natureofthepresentmoment.
Paul Frosh is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Communica-
tion and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
His research interests include visual culture, consumer culture, media
and nationhood, and communication theory. The Image Factory: Con-
sumer Culture, Photography and the Visual Content Industry was pub-
lished in 2003, and Meeting the Enemy in the Living Room: Terrorism
viii
NotesontheContributors ix
andCommunicationintheContemporaryEra(withTamarLiebes)appeared
in2006.
Joan Leach is currently convener of the science communication pro-
gram at the University of Queensland, Australia. She has taught at
Imperial College, University of London, and the University of Pitts-
burgh.Sheiseditoroftheinterdisciplinaryjournal,SocialEpistemology,
and has published on communication ethics, public scientific contro-
versies,andrhetoricaltheory.
Tamar Liebes is a Professor of Media and Journalism and holds the
Carl and Matilda Newhouse Chair in Communication at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem. Her books include American Dreams, Hebrew
Subtitles: Globalization at the Receiving End (2004); Reporting the Arab
IsraeliConflict:HowHegemonyWorks(1997);TheExportofMeaning:Cross
Cultural Readings of Dallas, with Elihu Katz (1992), and two edited
volumesMedia,Ritual,Identity(withJ.Curran,1998),andCanonicTexts
inMediaResearch:AreThereAny?ShouldThereBe?HowAboutThese(with
ElihuKatz,JohnDurhamPeters,andAvrilOrloff,2002).
JohnDurhamPetersisanF.WendellMillerDistinguishedProfessorof
CommunicationStudiesattheUniversityofIowa.Theauthorofnearly
50articlesandbookchaptersandoveradozenbookreviews,hisbooks
includeSpeakingintotheAir:AHistoryoftheIdeaofCommunication(1999)
andCourtingtheAbyss:FreeSpeechandtheLiberalTradition(2005).Heis
the co-editor of Canonic Texts in Media Research: Are There Any? Should
There Be? How About These? (with Elihu Katz, Tamar Liebes, and Avril
Orloff,2002)andMassCommunicationandAmericanSocialThought:Key
Texts,1919–1968(withPeterSimonson,2004).
AmitPinchevskiisaLecturer(AssistantProfessor)intheDepartmentof
CommunicationandJournalismatTheHebrewUniversityofJerusalem,
Israel.Hisresearchinterestsincludecommunicationtheory,philosophy,
and ethics. His book By Way of Interruption: Levinas and the Ethics of
Communicationwaspublishedin2005.
Carrie Rentschler is an Assistant Professor of Communication Stud-
ies in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at
McGillUniversity.ShehaspublishedonmediaactivismintheU.S.vic-
tims’ rights movement, feminist self-defense, the gendering of public
safety campaigns, private security industries, and models of injury in