Media Witnessing: Testimony in the Age of Mass Communication

by P. Frosh (Editor), A. Pinchevski (Editor)

Overview

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'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230301351
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	11/27/2008
Edition description:	2009
Pages:	231
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

TAMAR ASHURI Lecturer in the Department of Communication Studies at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and in the School of Communications at Sapir Academic College, Israel
MENAHEM BLONDHEIM Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism and the Department of American Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
ROY BRAND Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College, USA
JOHN ELLIS Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
ELIHU KATZ Trustee Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Scientific Director of the Guttman Institute of Applied Social Research, Israel
JOAN LEACH Convenor of the Science Communication Programme at the University of Queensland, Australia
TAMAR LIEBES Professor of Media and Journalism and holder of the Carl and Matilda Newhouse Chair in Communication at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
JOHN DURHAM PETERS F.Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, USA
CARRIE A. RENTSCHLER Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University, Canada
G?NTER THOMAS Professor of Protestant Theology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Why Media Witnessing? Why Now? PART I: PERSPECTIVES ON MEDIA WITNESSING Witnessing: An Afterword: Torchlight Red on Sweaty Faces; J.D.Peters Telling Presences: Witnessing, Mass Media, and the Imagined Lives of Strangers; P.Frosh Mundane Witness; J.Ellis Witness as a Cultural Form of Communication: Historical Roots, Structural Dynamics and Current Appearances; G.Thomas Archaic Witnessing and Contemporary News Media; M.Blondheim& T.Liebes PART II: PERFORMANCES OF MEDIA WITNESSING Witnessing as a Field; T.Ashuri and A.Pinchevski From Danger to Trauma: Affective Labour and the Journalistic Discourse of Witnessing; C.Rentschler Scientific Witness, Testimony, and Mediation; J.Leach Witnesses or Bystanders: What Models are Appropriate in Understanding the Media Act of Witnessing? Witnessing Trauma on Film; R.Brand Index

Editorial Reviews

'Why are witnesses to salient socio-political events so important in our age of global media reporting? Testimonies are sometimes the only chance to arrive at more information which would, otherwise, have been swept under the carpet. This excellent book elaborates on, and challenges, the complex and difficult roles of eye witnesses and of the media in truly innovative interdisciplinary ways. Everybody who deals with media in their everyday lives will be able to gain new insights.' - Professor Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University, UK

'This is a most valuable collection of essays. Innovative, engrossing and rewarding, it provides an excellent exploration of media witnessing and is definitely to be recommended.'

- European Journal of Communication

From the Publisher