The mediation of distant suffering: An empirical contribution beyond television news texts

Scott, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6744-443X (2014) The mediation of distant suffering: An empirical contribution beyond television news texts. Media, Culture & Society, 36 (1). pp. 3-19. ISSN 1460-3675

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Abstract

This article draws on the results of a large-scale audience study to examine how audiences respond to mediated encounters with distant suffering on UK television. The research involved two phases of focus groups separated by a two-month diary study. Research participants’ mediated experiences of distant suffering were generally characterised by indifference and solitary enjoyment, with respect to distant and dehumanised distant others. However, the results also signal that, in various ways, non-news factual television programming offers spectators a more proximate, active and complex mediated experience of distant suffering than television news.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	analytics of mediation,audiences,distant suffering,documentaries,mediation,television news
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > The State, Governance and Conflict Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cultural Politics, Communications & Media
Depositing User:	Julie Frith
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2013 13:51
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2022 00:04
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/40639
DOI:	10.1177/0163443713507811

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