9 Visual Anthropology Review Notes on Human Rights Media

"Amnesty International USA relies on reliance on 'documentary rhetoric'—realist forms of representation… "[It] presents information as if it is simply factual and transparent…to appear credible (and their information objective)...[to] legitimize their assertions about the need for human norms" (McLagan 606). 'thick rivers of fact' were circulated to governments and the press as evidence of their claims" (McLagan 606).

However it presents a problem in that abuses are never clear cut" (McLagan 606). 

"[Human rights media] defends itself from what Susan Moeller (1999) describes as 'compassion fatigue by a call to change. Resignation comes from a feeling of helplessness" 

"In other words, human rights activists make ethical claims through media, and these media operate by making ethical claims on us by putting us in subject position that implies responsibility for the suffering of others. In this sense, human rights images make ethical claims on viewers and cultivate potential actors in the global arena" (McLagan 609).

"WITNESS, a New York-based human rights media organization" (McLagan 607).

FICTION

Human rights activists and organizations are first and foremost 'collectors, filterers, translators, and presenters of information regarding human rights violations'" (Keck and Sikkink qtd. in McLagan 606).

Carl Williams: "If you want to use the marketing term 'branding'—to get a person's name out there makes it much more difficult to torture or kill that person" (qtd. in McLagan 610).

"Yet the way in which they are represented, through the techniques of celebrity and advertising transforms...an 'aestheticization of politics' strikes another...as a new way to reconcile political goals and capitalist aims through a pervasive and influential medium" (McLagan 610).

"Similarly, by focusing a campaign on individual sufferers of human rights abuses who have been branded in a certain way on these sites, activists run the risk of freeing certain people but not necessarily achieving the long-term effect they desire. For example, in recent years China has released several of the most well-known Drapchi prisoners on condition that they leave the country...enables the government to quiet Western criticism...without actually having to make major changes" (McLagan 610).

"If the individual is the 'indivisible unit of symbolic currency' in contemporary human rights discourse...then individual bodily suffering is the indivisible unit of symbolic currency in human rights media" (McLagan 608).

"Human rights activism has always exhibited a strong 'documentary impulse' like that demonstrated in Testimony" (McLagan 608).

"The Rodney King video proves, even raw footage does not guarantee a particular meaning" (McLagan 608).

"Human rights documentaries, with their heavy reliance on realist 'cine testimonials'" (McLagan 608).

Nichols writes, "'which makes it easy to forget we are dealing with a sign system rather than a direct, unmediated duplication of reality. The result, he suggests, is a constant oscillation between 'the duplication of reality and the reality of the duplication. The tendency to forget that the filmic reality remains a construct, an approximation and a re-presentation of a profilmic reality" (McLagan 608).

"Suspension of disbelief" (McLagan 608).

"Human rights abuses are not usually witnessed and do not take place on camera. Though we are rarely witnesses to atrocity, we are witnesses to stories of atrocities by their survivors" (McLagan 609).

"Testimony is premised on the belief that pain is universal, that it crosses all boundaries" (McLagan 609).

"This belief in the universality of pain and its effectiveness as a tool for creating solidarity is underscored by researchers who have found that torture is the easiest human rights issue to campaign around" (McLagan 609).

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Introduction to Human Rights and Media in Anthropology

• The international human rights regime emerged post-World War II and the Holocaust, aiming to protect individuals from abuse and oppression.

• Early skepticism from U.S. anthropologists towards human rights concepts, as noted in a statement by Melville Herskovitz (American Anthropological Association 1947).

• Initial anthropological criticism of rights as ethnocentric extensions of European individualistic concepts.

Evolving Perspectives in Anthropology

• Shift from criticism to contribution, with anthropologists reformulating their stance to reconcile human rights universalism with cultural relativism.

• Recognition of the "right to difference" entails acknowledging universal human capacities alongside specific cultural differences.

• Current ethnographic research often focuses on indigenous groups' cultural assertions and the role of rights in sociopolitical transitions (e.g., in postconflict settings).

Media's Role in Human Rights

• Despite acknowledgement of the critical role of media in diffusing human rights norms, insufficient analysis exists on its impact in crafting contemporary human rights claims.

• Two main neglect points:

  • Treating human rights as static concepts rather than flexible categories for political claims.

  • Viewing media merely as conduits rather than as entities with the power to shape thought and identity.

Transformation of Activism through Digital Technologies

• The rise of digital technologies has changed how social movements engage with publicity, leading to the significance of "image politics."

• Human rights activists are pioneering innovative media activism, integrating various media forms from traditional print to digital formats.

• New organizational structures have emerged for training and distributing human rights media (e.g., hrconnection.org).

Analysis of Human Rights Media

• Human rights activists use media to incentivize social change, requiring analysis that transcends mere aesthetics and looks at how images engage and mobilize action.

• Activists serve as collectors and presenters of information regarding human rights abuses, with the belief that disseminating this information spurs political action.

• Historical reliance on factual documentation has met challenges when the reality of human rights abuses proves complex and contradictory.

Types of Media used in Human Rights Advocacy

• Activists formulate reports using universal discourses and journalistic realism to enhance credibility.

• Emotional appeal through imagery and stories targeted at creating moral engagement with viewers.

• Encountering issues like "compassion fatigue" in audiences due to overwhelming volumes of suffering images.

The Impact of Documentaries in Human Rights Media

• Documentaries (e.g., Consuming Hunger, Seeing Is Believing) serves to engage viewers by presenting suffering and fostering empathy and motivation towards action.

• Testimony as a cultural form connects individuals across diverse backgrounds, making personal narratives a powerful tool for mobilization.

• Documentary engagement extends beyond viewing, encouraging viewers to become active participants in social change.

Challenges in Modern Human Rights Activism

• The branding of human rights organizations and individual cases follows a strategy used in commercial marketing, aiming to increase visibility but potentially trivializing complex issues.

• Critique of brand-based activism shows risks of focusing on individual cases rather than sustained systemic change.

Conclusion

• Activists deploy varied forms of mediation to construct political issues, each form reaching distinct audiences and existing on a continuum of effectiveness.

• The changing landscape of digital activism and media reshapes identities and actions available to advocates.

References

• Hirschkovitz, Melville. 1947. Statement on Human Rights. American Anthropologist.

• Various authors discussing the evolution of human rights discourse and media strategies across contemporary studies.