Witnessing War: Economies of Regulation in Reporting War and Conflict

The Gaza war controversy over positions of showing ('hill of shame' vs. 'Gaza street' views) throws into relief the moralizing power of a particular way of seeing, witnessing, that organizes Western war and conflict reporting around demands for pity about human suffering rather than demands for justice over the causes of war. Insofar as witnessing functions as the key mode of seeing in Western media, this article argues, it becomes responsible for reproducing hierarchies of place and human life that prioritise Western over non-Western suffering as a cause of emotion and action for media publics.