2021/1 - #Solidarity

Browsing 2021/1 - #Solidarity by Author "Gregory, Sam"

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  • Article
    Live-streaming for frontline and distant witnessing: A case study exploring mediated human rights experience, immersive witnessing, action, and solidarity in the Mobil-Eyes Us project
    Gregory, Sam (2021-06-06) , S. 145-171
    Rhetoric around live-streaming and immersive media and tech-nologies often focus on their ability to mobilise solidarity. Mobil-Eyes Us (2016-19) was a project focused on live-streamed witness-ing and meaningful solidarity in collaboration between the human rights organisation WITNESS and favela-based activists in Brazil. Contextualised in human rights witnessing and live-streaming re-search, this paper analyses usages of live-streams for human rights and learnings around the relationship between frontline and dis-tant witnesses. It discusses how relevant and structured live-streamed experiences as well as opportunities for action move viewers to appropriate solidarity. Data included over 100 live-streams by frontline witnesses, as well as project experimentation with content and strategies. Key research questions focused on more equitable relationships of ‘mediating distant suffering’ and asserting the agency of frontline community journalists and activ-ists, and on strategies for confronting patterns of denial that rights violations were occurring or patterns of audiences joining only for live-streamed violence. Understanding livestreaming also as a form of immersive witnessing, the project focused on avoiding perpetuating voyeuristic ‘improper distance’ between viewers and the streamers or neglecting intra-community participants joining via live-stream. The paper assesses how curation and intentional narrative arcs rather than singular events or a reliance on sponta-neity and simultaneity, as well as the inclusion of experiences of ordinary life and joy, help facilitate connection and solidarity. Fi-nally, it notes challenges encountered managing live-streamed simultaneity with escalating risks, and the opportunities for further research into co-present witnessing in new media formats.