Bearing Witness to Digital Death A Close Consideration of Recorded Injustice Aine Imbach Undergraduate Thesis Literature, Media, and Communication Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Anne Pollock April 28, 2017
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The implementation of online digital communication tools in our everyday exchange of information is persistent and growing. As internet accessibility becomes increasingly common through the introduction of relatively low-cost devices like smart phones and personal computers, our enduring social and cultural practices are digitally mediated in online forms.1 In addition to the extensive access to information granted by such innovations, the pervasiveness of user-generated content (UGC) granted by the capabilities of digital devices is optimistically linked to a democratization of online cultural production.2 At the center of this production are social-networking sites (SNS), which have become epicenters of widespread human interaction, wherein individual voices are given a platform to produce and distribute information. An analysis of these practices in context of the current social and political climate would be impossible without focusing on the recent increase in the circulation of viral footage depicting the deaths of innocent, unarmed civilians at the hands of law enforcement officers. Though such cases of police violence against black civilians is by no means a new occurrence, the exposure provided by usergenerated content (UGC) on social networking sites (SNS), combined with the widespread prevalence of smartphones or other easily accessible recording devices 1 Lisa Nakamura and Peter A. Chow-White discuss the ways that digital media “bursts the bounds of
the Internet and the personal computer” to inform, and replicate our social practices. They argue that with the constant introduction of new devices, platforms, and applications, the crossover between the digital and sociocultural practices is ever-changing and growing more apparent. 2 In contrast to traditional media, Anna Everett explains how UGC disrupts the notion of media as produced and controlled by large corporations. Instead, content generated by users in what Everett refers to as the “digital public sphere,” reassigns power in the users to broadcast truth in the world. While this assumption is optimistic in thinking that all users generate content on the basis that is it truthful, her analysis pertains to the content in this discussion, wherein the UGC is characterized by the truth that it attempts to reveal.
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has contributed to the current online cultural climate and its suitability for the viral dissemination and interaction with such media.3 At the core of my discussion is the question of if and how these videos provide us, the spectator, with an in-depth grasp of the tragedy that transpires within them. The impact of these videos as powerful digital artifacts is undeniable, demonstrated by their virality on SNS and seminal impact on the “viral civil rights” movements that have followed.4 Attempting to delve further into the semiotics of these digital artifacts, this exploration relies on an initial discussion of the ways we experience reproductions of reality, both generally and in the context of this project. Anchoring on Donna Haraway’s notion that reality is an effect that is “collectively, materially, and semiotically constructed,” I will attempt to develop a basis for understanding how we experience the examined footage as reproductions of the moments before, during, and after the deaths of the four victims.5 More specifically, I will examine the ways in which reality, or a technologically mediated form of reality, 3 Although statistical research documenting the inequities in cases of police brutality has become
more prevalent and extensive in recent years, the historical pattern of systemically inundated racialized violence is apparent. As a part of my research, I have considered other documented forms of such violence, especially with regards to state sanction lynching. According to an on-going research database from The Washington Post since 2015, black Americans are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers and of all the unarmed people shot and killed by police in 2015, 40 percent of them were black men, even though black men make up just 6 percent of the nation’s population. Additionally, a black person shot and killed by police is more likely to have been unarmed than a white person. About 13 percent of all black people who have been fatally shot by police from January 2015 to July 2016 were unarmed, compared with 7 percent of all white people. 4 Coined by Howard Witt in an article concerning the Jena 6 protests from Chicago Tribune, the momentous impact of user-generated content in mobilizing political and social change is not new, but arguably increasing with the crossover of digital and social practices. 5 While Donna Haraway explores this concept as an extension of the work of Paul R. Gross and Norman Levitt in Higher Superstition, the language she employs in Modest−Witness@Second−Millennium.FemaleMan −Meets−OncoMouse: Feminism and Technoscience is more useful to my understanding for the scope of this project. While she discusses the Western development of knowledge of the “real” as a result of visual technologies developed during the Renaissance, I have used this thinking to approach a discussion of the ways our modern visual technology (i.e. video) influences our understanding of reality.
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is developed as an interaction between the characteristics of these videos, as well as the platforms on which they are published, shared, and experienced. While these patterned cases of racially motivated violence vary in context, public reception, and virality, this analysis will focus specifically on four cases spanning the last three years from 2014 to 2016. Chosen from a discouragingly vast pool of viral media from similar instances, the video footage of the deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Philando Castile will be the focal point of this discussion.6 Explored later, these recorded instances are unique in the understanding that they each provide, leaving us with a deeper insight into what can be referred to as the digital death experience.7 The videos themselves will be analyzed closely, and comprehended through a framework used to understand the ways in which they operate on their own, as well as in the broader digital environment they are immersed in. These four cases were chosen specifically, among others, owing partially to the widespread national attention that followed shortly after the release of each video. Furthermore, the time frame of these videos situates them all within relatively similar technological moments where a framework for understanding the embedded digital culture can be employed to understand these tragedies as a whole. While a large number of similar cases could be added to this list, I felt that these recorded deaths, when considered alongside
6 The dates of the deaths of each of the victims are as follows: Eric Garner (July 17 th, 2014), Tamir
Rice (November 22, 2014), Walter Scott (April 4, 2015), Philando Castile (July 6, 2016) 7 While a consideration of digitally mediated death, and its surrounding practices is a blatant element of inquiry in regards to these videos, it is not exclusive to a documentation of racially charged killings. In fact, media theorist Tama Leaver thinks about these concepts in online grieving practices, and the data driven impact of our leftover digital legacies that persist on our SNS after the event of our deaths. Using his scholarship as an essence of this discussion, we can think about the ways that our social practices surrounding death are being remediated and challenged with their introduction to online forms.
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one another, help to provide a substantial understanding of the violence employed daily against African Americans, as well as how this violence operates in relation to their media platforms. Additionally, it is important to note that this analysis includes cases of exclusively male victims, though attention to non-male victims would arguably amount to an even more complex discussion about the prevailing role of oppressive systems in violence based on race and sex in the United States. While I will later discuss the ways in which these four videos operate in similar ways regarding the communication of information to their viewers, these videos have been chosen particularly for the differences between them. Anchoring on this heterogeneity, the selected incidents invite an analysis that maps their qualities on a spectrum. Discussed later in more detail, most apparent is the difference between the video footage of the deaths of Tamir Rice and Philando Castile, as the video of Rice’s death is captured on a later discovered low-quality security camera, while the latter was first published as a live-streaming Facebook video, a feature that is relatively new to the platform.8
The paramount elements needed to begin this discussion are the close
readings of each video, which consist of my own understanding, and analyses of the videos themselves. The close analyses will serve to highlight both the widely acknowledged overall message of these videos, as well as the easily ignored, unconsidered aspects of these digital artifacts. Using these close analyses, I will attempt to focus on what I have identified as three major points of exploration into
8 The new live feature allows Facebook users to share content with their friends and followers in
real-time. After the video has ended, it is published to their Facebook page in the same way that any uploaded media would appear.
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their deeper significance. These three pillars to my discussion are characterized by the temporality, technology, and materiality of each incident. For the purposes outlined here, the temporal elements of these videos will apply to the time spanned by the footage itself, the specific moment in time in which we encounter the media as spectators, as well as the temporal reality that the videos represent. The technological aspects of the videos, while vast, will be constituted as an exploration of the digital environments they are immersed in, which informs our viewing experience.9 Additionally, the functions granted to us in curating our experience of viewing these videos through features that allow us to pause, slow, and rewatch the content will also be considered. Although the material elements of these videos are tied up in the other categories of examination, it is important to note that this discussion will anchor on a close description of the physical events that take place. As a representation of the physical, the material world depicted through these videos is also informed by our awareness of the technology used to capture it. I will examine these layers as both separate inquiries and as interconnected forces, which shape our understanding of these recorded deaths.
9 Nicole Jefferson explores the implications of varying media environments in encountering this
violent content. In Conversations On Controversy: An Examination Of Internet Discussions On HighProfile Incidents Of Recorded Police Brutality, she examines the differing ideologies associated with YouTube, MCNBC.com and NYTimes.com that contributes to our understanding of the artifact itself. Her analysis of a number of high profile cases of police brutality addresses the importance of context and spectator approach to engaging with these videos.
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Figure 1 The above photo strip shows images spanning 4 seconds of the security footage taken on November 22nd, 2014, recording the shooting of Tamir Rice. From left to right, the first photo shows the police car as it first enters the frame. The second photo shows the car approaching Tamir, standing beneath the gazebo. The final photo on the right shows Rice buckling over as he is shot in the abdomen.10
The security footage capturing Tamir Rice’s last moments shows a pixelated view of a gazebo at Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Beneath it sits the 911 caller who reported Rice for walking around with what was revealed later as an airsoft gun. None of this is apparent from the video, however, which records stationary, washed out footage of the park covered in snow, the sidewalk on which Rice walks backwards stretching horizontally across the screen. Tamir falls out of step with a blurred figure on the sidewalk, and turns around, giving us a glimpse of an object he is carrying. We can see Rice’s choppy movements as he lifts the object at different angles with his right arm, then again with both arms, mimicking the way one would hold and point a gun. The video is then segmented, and the person sitting under the gazebo is no longer there, leaving Rice as the only figure we see. Standing beneath the gazebo, Rice raises the object in his right hand again, walking towards the left of our field of vision. After sitting down for a few seconds, a third video clip begins at 1:20 minutes with Rice under the gazebo still, but standing.
10 Connor, Tracy. "Video Shows Cleveland Cop Shoot 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Within Seconds." NBC
News, 26 November 2014, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-cleveland-cop-shoot-12year-old-tamir-rice-n256656. Accessed 12 February 2017. Accessed February 5 2017.
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The video of Tamir Rice’s death is captured by the neutral presence of a security camera, devoid of intent, biased perspective, or commentary.11 Indeed, the footage lacks any audio, and the quality is subpar, leaving any specific details often indiscernible to the viewer. Released on November 26th, 2014, four days after the fatal incident took place, the footage was first publicly shown at a press conference held by Cleveland police as a response to pressure from social media users and a written request from Rice’s family. The video is 2:03 minutes in total, with the first 13 seconds consisting of Deputy Chief of Cleveland police, Ed Tomba, as he presents the information at a press conference.12 In the clip, which prefaces the security footage, Tomba explains that the video has been “compressed” for time. The practice of editing in the interest of time is not uncommon in the release of recorded incidents of police brutality, and is certainly apparent in many of the other cases examined. However, such a decision alters the viewer’s volume and order of information, merging temporally discontinuous instances in a way that gives an illusion of completeness.13 11 While this discussion is centered around the circulation of digital media, it should be disclosed that the original format of this footage is ambiguous. This case is the only one examined where the footage was not taken by a witness on some form of digital device. However, the video of Rice was circulated in the same fashion as the other videos examined, and although it was possibly not digital at its source, it is useful in the context of this broader examination. 12 Because the incident was captured on a security camera, the circulating footage is rarely consistent, with some versions showing up to 30 minutes of footage after the shooting had occurred. The analyzed video was released by NBC news in an article published on November 26th, 2014 at 3:47pm. Because the aforementioned press conference was scheduled for 1pm on this day, it seems that this video was published relatively soon after the release of the footage, and would have been one of the first sources through which viewers could access the evidence online. 13 In “The Objectifying Documentary: Realism, Aesthetics and Temporality,” Pol Capdevilla discusses the ways in which editing footage “can actually help us contextualize it, relate it to our expectations and prior knowledge.” This is supported by the evidence of Rice’s video, giving us a useful, while temporally unrealistic, view of the events that transpire.
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Despite the bewildering lack of visual clarity with which the footage begins, the prefaced title, “Video Shows Cleveland Cop Shoot 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice Within Seconds,” frames our understanding of the content before we experience it ourselves. Unlike the other cases examined, the word “shoot”, alerts us to the violence of the incident without affirmation that it was ultimately fatal. Due to the poor quality of the footage itself, this context becomes one of the most important elements in shaping our understanding of Rice’s shooting. Indeed, the value of this footage is far removed from a sensational understanding of the violence that takes place, and is more closely related to the facts of the incident itself. While media theorists have generally established the notion that any reproduction of reality is never “true” in that it is experienced in a separate spatial and temporal moment, the security footage available for our understanding of Rice’s death is more heavily reliant on the approach of the viewer than the content of the video itself. In thinking about the complexities of technologically mediated representations, philosopher Walter Benjamin’s theoretical essay discussing changing semiotics of works that are mechanically reproduced employs his idea of the “exhibition value”, or the value that stems from the act of viewing the media.14 This term can be used here to think about the ways that Rice’s death is framed by our contextual understanding of the footage, rather than the content of footage itself. In other words, the spectator’s approach demanded by the title of the video, as well as the preceding context provided by the Deputy Chief of police is paramount in 14 In his essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Benjamin makes a distinction
between the “cult value” and “exhibition value” of a work. Though dealing mostly with works of art, the idea that a digital artifact can be understood based on the cultural landscape in which it is situated is applicable to the types of videos explored here.
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setting up our viewing experience as one that opposes what Benjamin refers to as “free-floating contemplation”.15 Rice walks towards the edge of the gazebo as we see a patrol car enter from the right of the frame at 1:26 minutes. Although the movement is choppy, we see the police car as it approaches quickly, speeding through the lawn in front of the gazebo, slowing directly in front of Rice. There is a jerk in the motion of the vehicle that suggests the car has stopped, and only one second later we see Rice buckle over in a movement that signifies he has been shot in the abdomen. At 1:31 minutes, officer Loahmann is clearly seen as he exits from the passenger’s side of the car. Simultaneously, we see Rice fall to the ground behind the front right side of the police car out of the camera’s view. In the few seconds that follow, Rice’s pixelated motion can be made out, but it is unclear which part of his body is visible above the hood of the vehicle. Officer Frank Garmback exits from the driver’s side, circling around the front of the vehicle with his firearm pointed in the direction of Rice, while officer Loehman circles from the back of the vehicle and points his gun in the same direction. The footage concludes as officer Frank Garmback moves towards the gazebo with his firearm still pointed in the direction of Rice. We do not see Rice again. The implications of this video as one that is dominated by the technological limitations of the equipment employed are apparent in our perception of the events that unfold. While one effect of the poor image quality is an obstruction of the clarity of the actual motion on the screen, the low saturation of the images, along with the silence of the footage lends itself stylistically to features common to featured footage in documentary film. The grainy, low quality characteristics of the footage are 15 Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Lexington, KY: Prism Key,
2010. Print.
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reminiscent of the types of clips featured in documentaries, and are associated with a signification of truth. In addition to this, the lack of premeditation, or even authorship in the case of the examined footage, lends itself to an essence of objectivity that reinforces the authenticity of the atrocities depicted.16 This concept of mechanical objectivity is one that is often associated with video footage, following the idealized notion that cameras are “objective witnesses.”17 Returning to the language of the video’s title, the phrases “12-Year-Old” and “Within Seconds” reverberate in the silence of the video. Indeed, the elements that make the recording of Tamir Rice’s death so disturbing lie so entirely outside the realm of the sensational that the footage of his homicide stands apart from the other viral cases that follow. Without a clear image of the boy’s face, or even the sound of the fatal shot that pierced his torso, we are left with only the swiftness with which the blurred action takes place, as well as the external facts of the situation to derive meaning of the incident and the consequent death of Tamir Rice.
16 Theorist of documentary film, Stella Bruzzi, has analyzed the perception of objectivity in image, and concluded that “images are accepted as objective documents because of their lack of premeditation, intention or authorship.” (Capdevilla) 17 Media and surveillance studies scholar Ben Brucato describes the assumption that mechanically generated images provide “self-evident” information. Discussing the inversion of surveillance that exists in cases of documented police brutality, his theories outlined in “The New Transparency: Police Violence in the Context of Ubiquitous Surveillance” support the idea that the video capturing Tamir Rice’s shooting is most widely considered an objective, and therefore truthful documentation.
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Figure 2 Eric Garner is forced to the ground by multiple officers on July 17th, 2014. 18 From left to right, the first image, taken at 1:21 minutes, shows the officers moving in on him, as officer Panteleo wraps his arms around Garner’s neck and shoulder in a chokehold position. The second snapshot is taken from 1:28 minutes in, showing four officers physically restraining Garner as they have collectively brought him to the ground. The third photo shows at least five officers crowding around Garner, with officer Panteleo resting his weight on his hands pressing Garner’s head into the pavement.
On a Thursday afternoon in Staten Island, a man named Ramsey Orta filmed
the altercation between 43-year-old Eric Garner and New York City police officers Daniel Pantaleo and Justin Damico. Standing on the sidewalk in front of a beauty supply store, the footage, taken by Orta and later published first as an exclusive Daily News video, begins with an emotionally charged conversation between Garner and two officers who stand on either side of him. The officers’ voices are largely inaudible leading up to the physical assault, but we can hear Garner clearly as he responds to their muffled questions and remarks. Repeatedly, Garner asserts that he has done
18 The images were sourced by taking a screen-capture of the subsequently examined video footage.
They were then cropped, removing the blurred background that bordered the portrait-shot footage, as well as a portion of the “Daily News Exclusive” logo seen partially at the top right hand corner.
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nothing wrong, pleading with the officers to leave him alone. The only other contextual information comes from Orta, claiming that the officers approached Garner after he broke up a fight, and accused him of selling untaxed cigarettes. His remarks give context to Garner’s irritated tone as he tells the officers he didn’t sell anything to anyone. The video is segmented, cutting at 1:16 minutes from Garner begging the officers to “please just leave [him] alone”, to a clip where we see officers Pantaleo and Damico moving in on him. Beginning in the middle of a conversation between the three men, it is initially difficult to derive context from the captured footage. However, the supplementary material provided by the Daily News article precedes the video with the largely bolded title, “GRAPHIC WARNING: Two cops pulled off streets, Staten Island DA looking into death of dad of six after NYPD cop put him in chokehold during sidewalk takedown — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO”, diminishing our ambiguity about the outcome of the events recorded. With this foresight, our first 1:16 minutes of viewing are riddled with the anticipation of Garner’s attack, rendering it difficult to focus on the muffled conversation leading up to the incident. This eerie, predetermined knowledge provided by the delayed temporal moment in which the video is viewed highlights a disconnect between our experience as viewers and the experience of the video’s subjects, who are unaware of the fatality of the situation. This ominous article title available to us today has changed over the course of the article’s existence on the Daily News website.19 It was initially titled “Staten Island DA looking into death of dad of six after NYPD cop put him in chokehold
19 Using the online archive database, the Way Back Machine, I was able to track the available saved
changes to the article over time. This only applies to the content of the article, excluding the video itself.
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during sidewalk takedown — EXCLUSIVE VIDEO” when it was first released at 5:54pm on July 18th. The graphic warning signifier was not included until the article was updated at 8:38 pm on July 19th. Without this language in place, the violent content of the video may have been unanticipated by viewers in the early days following its release.
Originally published by the Daily News, the video spans 2:49 minutes long,
and is comprised, as far as I can discern, of 7 merged segments of footage. According to other information released by Daily News, all of the footage was derived from 4 separate cellphone videos taken by Ramsey Orta amounting to a total of 11:08 minutes long.20 This method of slicing and merging separate clips is not uncommon in the release of news footage, allowing viewers to see the highlights of the incident, while providing the minimal amount of information needed to understand the situation recorded. While practical, this decision can be problematic when considering the intent of publishing the footage in the first place. Indeed, many of the existing videos that capture violent incidents of this nature are recorded and shared with the hopes of depicting the truth of the situation that unfolds.21 Considering this, the act of altering or editing the footage further retracts from the veracity of the situation in disconnecting us with the simulated experience of witnessing it in real-time. This lack of transparency is further exacerbated by the fact that the unedited version of the footage was only released after almost a year 20 Orta, Ramsey. “Eric Garner video - Unedited version” Youtube, uploaded by New York Daily News,
12 July 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpGxagKOkv8 21 Anna Everett discusses the ways that digital communication gives people the tools “to speak truth to power.” This is undeniably a common thread among the reasoning behind the dissemination of this disturbing content.
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had passed, meaning the most commonly associated footage with the death of Eric Garner remains the 2:19 minute version.22 The recorded death of Eric Garner is not simply shaped by the substance of the video itself, but also by the platform through which we gain access. A host for wide ranging content - from sports, entertainment, and even horoscopes - the gravity of the footage seems inappropriately situated among the monotonous mass of comparatively superficial information. The juxtaposition between the video’s sensitive nature and the blaring advertisements prefacing the footage create a surreal environment that does little to favor a viewer’s ability to connect with the true meaning of the atrocities depicted.23 Garner’s words “please don’t touch me” are heard as he shrugs off the grasps of the two officers, who simultaneously reach out towards him. Immediately, we see officer Daniel Pantaleo reach up behind Garner’s back, wrapping his arm around his neck as he pulls him downward into a chokehold position. A third officer in a police uniform enters from the left, followed by a fourth officer seconds later. The four officers bring Garner towards the ground together, while he remains in Pantaleo’s
22 This lack of transparency is at odds with the very element that is purported by media theorists to
give weight to such user-generated content. Technological optimists praise the mobilizing aspects of SNS as spaces to expose the reality of police brutality enacted against African Americans, and media and surveillance scholar Ben Brucato asserts that such videos work to invert the gaze of surveillance, giving citizens power to speak out against government sanctioned injustices. With this in mind, the editing of the recorded footage of Garner’s death without the release of the raw version is problematic in that it undermines the effect of transparency to the general public. 23 Computer science professor and media scholar Dr. Anthony Gorry discusses the implications of how our experience with digital media is inherently at odds with our ability to empathize with the content encountered. Evoking Plato’s allegory of the cave, Dr. Gorry argues that life on screen is a poor representation of reality, in which the social constructs that exist to keep our brutish selfinterests in place are lacking, rendering us apathetic to digital media. While I diverge from Gorry’s assumption that we are inherently unable to connect with such media, I use his argument to think about the ways that SNS tend to bombard a user with an excess of information, undeniably preventing them from focusing on merely one piece of content. Considering this, our empathy may be jeopardized by our inability to truly focus on the atrocities within these viral videos.
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chokehold. Garner resists, but is quickly overtaken, his elbow slamming into the concrete, his hand forcefully splayed and facing upward towards the sky. The abilities granted to us by the functions of the open access digital technology allows us to control the temporality of our own watching experience. The ability to pause and reexamine the fast-paced commotion leading to Garner’s death impacts the clarity of the scene in a way that would be humanly impossible if it were experienced firsthand. Referred to by Benjamin as the “unconscious optics”, the details that are rendered possible by these features of the digital technology might push us away from a simulation of reality, but they allow us to come to terms with the content in a meaningful way.24 Combining this concept with the photography theory established by philosopher Roland Barthes, our understanding of the footage is not limited to the overall message or basic understanding of the chronology of events, but is influenced by our ability to interact with less overt elements of the artifact that grasp our attention, informing our experience of the video in a non-obvious, and often individualized way. Referred to as the “punctum,” Barthes describes how the subtle details that call out to us as spectators of images, or in our case videos, can shape our experience of the content by penetrating a deeper level of comprehension achieved through close attention and repeated interaction with the subject matter. For me, this qualifying element of the footage of Eric Garner’s death was manifested in the fleeting image of his upturned palm, 24 Walter Benjamin discusses in The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction the ways that
photography extends our comprehension of a captured scene, owing to our ability to examine the aspects of the image that would be near impossible with the naked eye. This idea applies here to video footage as the platforms on which these artifacts exist allow spectators to control the experience of said footage, namely the temporality, volume, etc.
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signaling in the midst of violence and chaos, the tragic helplessness of his situation. It is unclear whether the concept of the punctum becomes more, or less pertinent when applied to these video artifacts as opposed to the photographic images for which the term was originally intended. On the one hand, the open-access nature of SNS on which many of these videos gain virality means that these artifacts can be infinitely reproduced and replicated. This is true of both the ease with which information can be shared across many platforms, as well as the possibility to revisit and rewatch the videos independent of time or place. With these elements in mind, it is likely that our experience with the footage is colored by a sense of familiarity with the outcome of the events witnessed, inviting a more specific connection with the footage itself. However, as explored by scholars of black digital studies, the fatigue resulting from a constant absorption of black tragedy in online media might blur the individuality these recorded deaths in a way that prevents unique connection.25 Considering this, it is undeniable that our experience with Garner’s death is heavily dependent on our level of engagement. Only in identifying the meaningful punctum, we can breach the fatigue resulting from the permeation of such online media in our daily digital climate, and ultimately individualize these
25 André Brock is a scholar of black digital studies who discusses the implications of UGC in documenting the brutality inflicted upon black citizens at the hands of police officers in the United states, and how such participatory media has “become part of our communicative infrastructure.” As a result, he identifies the “racism battle fatigue” wherein a constant and unavoidable confrontation with such disturbing images is followed by a persistent expectation to justify the humanity of the victims. In this instance, I use his idea of fatigue to think more broadly about the ways that this flood of inundated violence saturates our SNS and minimizes our shock of the content at hand. I don’t intend to argue that the volumes of related cases trivializes the very real and consistently ignored issue at hand, but rather that we are perhaps rendered less capable of developing a deep, effecting connection with these cases as individualized instances of the loss of life.
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cases in a way that respectfully memorializes the patterned, but distinctive atrocities committed. A fifth officer enters the scene and the words “he’s down, he’s down” can be heard, prompting Pantaleo to release Garner from the chokehold. Our view is obstructed by the fifth officer on the scene, and the muffled words “I can’t breathe” can be heard from Garner approximately 16 seconds after the chokehold is initiated. We briefly see officer Pantaleo as he positions himself on top of Garner’s face-down body. Garner pleas over and over, while more officers entering the scene continually obstruct our view of him.26 In the midst of the commotion, we see several brief glimpses Garner’s shoulder and the top of his head, pressed firmly into the pavement by Pantaleo’s hand. The video is obstructed by a close-up shot of one officer’s uniform as we hear him tell Orta to “back up”. The video is segmented several more times, but we never hear Garner’s voice again, and the fleeting visuals we get of his person show only his motionless lower body, tuned on his side away from our gaze through Orta’s camera phone. From the footage available, Garner’s state of health is ambiguous, but we hear a witness say “something’s wrong with him”, coupled with Orta’s comment, “he can’t breathe”. The video ends abruptly, with the officers ordering Orta and the presumed onlookers to back further from the scene.
Prompted by the ambiguous ending to the documentation of Garner’s assault,
his death is rendered unknowable to us as spectators. This uncertainty invites questions about the nature of this footage as a record of a violent death. The disturbing footage of Garner’s physical struggle combined with the fragmented images of his inert body and the wording of the article title renders it difficult to draw a distinction between the unresponsive body and a lifeless figure. Though the
26 While I could only discern these seven times myself, it is reported that Garner repeated the phrase,
“I can’t breathe” 11 times throughout the course of his assault.
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viral outrage of Garner’s homicide obviously relies on the nature of this outcome, the viewer’s experience and understanding is arguably unaltered by this distinction. Drawing on the discourse philosopher Julia Kristeva regarding our revulsion of the human corpse, we can understand how the vague unknowability of Garner’s motionless body provokes fear and upset in us as spectators of the incident. The “inbetween” of the posthumous body, Kristeva argues, is troubling to our understanding of the world as neatly packaged. When confronted with the ambiguity of the body between life and death, she argues that this illusion is disrupted and ultimately abject.27
Figure 3 Images from the video footage of the shooting of Walter Scott on April 4th, 2015.28 From left to right, the first image at 0:18 minutes shows Scott as he turns way from officer Slager, who is raising his gun, pointed at Scott. At 0:20 minutes, the second photo shows Scott, who runs away as Slager begins to shoot in his direction. The third photo 0:23 minutes shows Scott fall to the ground, after 8 shots have been heard.
The fatal shooting of 50-year-old Walter Scott on a sunny morning in Charleston, South Carolina was captured on the cell phone of Feidin Santana, the man who stumbled upon the occurrence during his morning commute.29 The footage begins 27 Kristeva, Julia and Kelly Oliver. The Portable Kristeva. Updated edition, New York: Columbia
University Press, 2002. European Perspectives. Web. Accessed March 30 2017. 28 Santana, Feidin. “Walter Scott Shooting.” Vimeo, uploaded by The Post and Courier, 7 April 2016, www.vimeo.com/124336782. Accessed 19 February 2017. 29 Although it is unclear in which media source the video was first published, the footage dramatically changed the level of attention given to the case. Because of this ambiguity, I have chosen to analyze
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in an abrupt assault to our senses. Blurred, angled images of a sidewalk lined by trees and the noise of the wind indicate movement as Feidin approaches the action playing out about 60 feet away from him. The phone turns, giving us a portrait view and our first and clear visual of the two figures, officer Michael Slager and Walter Scott. Just as our eyes settle upon the scene, we see Scott stumble away from Slager as he catches his footing and begins to run, looking back at the officer. Slager raises both arms, pointing his gun in the direction of Scott who is momentarily blocked from our view behind a tree. As we see him emerge from the other side of the tree – still running – 8 consecutive gunshots are heard within 3 seconds, the last two with the longest stretch of time between them. In line with the other videos examined, we can begin by considering the structure of the platform from which the video is sourced. Similar to the technique employed in the release of the footage of Eric Garner, the video of Walter Scott’s death, as viewed on the video sharing platform, Vimeo, is tagged with the capitalized warning “mature”, accompanying the title of the video itself. This tag was not assigned until at least a day after the video was released on April 7th, as archived versions of the page shows the signifier “all audiences” was still being used until it was changed on April 8th, 2015.30 Compared to the previously examined videos, though, the footage posted by Charleston’s The Post and Courier does an arguably better job at preparing viewers for the experience of watching the graphic footage by including a message indicating its context and content: what I have found to be the earliest published version of the footage from a daily newspaper from Charleston, SC called “The Post and Courier”. The video footage available in relation to the incident also includes the dash cam video taken from officer Slager’s patrol car upon first stopping Scott for a broken taillight. 30 This information was gathered using the Wayback Machine, an Internet archive database. Accessed from www.archive.org/web/
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“The following contains unedited, graphic footage of the April 4, 2015, shooting of Walter Scott.”31 Despite the lack of an accompanying write-up, or perhaps because of it, the viewer is faced directly and solely with the raw footage of Scott’s last moments in a way that facilitates a more personal journey to making sense of the violence recorded.
Considering the footage itself, we are made immediately aware of the
materiality of the video technology in a way that is less overt in the case of Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. The shaky, obstructed image that makes up the first few seconds of footage has an effect on our viewing that is twofold. Firstly, the fumbling of the camera confronts us immediately with the fact that we are indeed watching a reproduction of events rather than the actual instance itself. This element of overt materiality was not absent in the bystander-filmed footage of Eric Garner’s death, but the editing methods employed rendered its effects less significant than in Scott’s case. In another way, however, this initially unpleasant viewing experience poises our understanding of the video in terms of its temporality. Extended by the swiftness of the action that takes place just as Scott and Slager’s figures enter our visual field, the immediacy of the events that unfold embellish our understanding of the injustice by providing us with a dramatic temporal structure. Theorists of documentary form have identified these accidental characteristics of filming as features can embellish the realism of the content by making us aware of the video’s
31 Santana, Feidin. “Walter Scott Shooting.” Vimeo, uploaded by The Post and Courier, 7 April 2016,
www.vimeo.com/124336782
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authentic spontaneity.32 This lack of control demonstrated by the presence of such elements situates us in the action in a way that is impactful to our experience of Scott’s shooting as reality.
Dramatically different from the footage of Tamir Rice’s death, our experience
with this footage is influenced by the audial effect of the shooting itself, impactful in the reverberation and multitude of the shots fired. At once all-encompassing and short-lived, the noises are a pillar to the video’s association with the horror of Scott’s death and the silence that follows an indicator of their fatal nature. As the last shot is fired, Scott momentarily leaves our field of view. When the camera focuses back on him, we see him fall to the ground, his back still facing the officer as he drops to his knees. The camera pans back to Slager, who seems to look in the direction of Santana as he speaks into the radio on his left shoulder. The filming becomes unsteady once more and we see a view of the ground as Santana walks in the towards Scott’s motionless body. The camera approaches, and we get a choppy view of Slager standing over a motionless Scott yelling “put your hands behind your back”, as he leans down to clasp Scott’s arms behind him.
In addition to the initial ways that our viewing experience is colored by the
accidental elements of the filming itself, we are momentarily suspended in our role as spectator when officer Slager turns, staring directly at Santana, and at us, through
32 Capdevilla discusses the elements of documentary realism in , describing the ways that ‘accidental’
elements, such as imperfect framing, gaps in action, and inaudible speech can contribute to “a heightened sense of the actual process of recording what was said and done.” These features are clearly apparent in the video surrounding the death of Walter Scott, and their effect on the viewer is apparent. In contrast with the video of Eric Garner, this video artifact provides us with what seems to be well balanced elements of detachment and intimacy that frame our understanding of his death.
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the lens of the camera.33 In this second, we are made aware of our own visibility, and this inversion of the gaze of surveillance is disturbing, exacerbated by the fact that is comes directly after he has fatally shot and killed Scott. Faced again with the video’s materiality, we are forced to grapple with the idea that our knowledge of the situation surrounding Scott’s death is limited to the footage available to us. While neither the outcome of the video, nor the nature of the homicide changes when considering this fact, it is clear that details necessary in forming an understanding of the filmed events are filled in where the footage is visually lacking. Despite our ability to pause and revisit aspects of the shooting, no amount of editing can provide us with an up-close view of the bullets piercing Scott’s body. Instead, we must form our understanding as a logical compilation of the elements that we are provided, namely the sound of the gun being fired, coupled with the motion of Scott’s body as it slows and ultimately falls to the ground. This, however obvious, is often the nature of experiencing most forms of media, and is important to our understanding of the ways in which this experience is different from one in the material world.34 33 The chilling effect that is produced when officer Slager gazes into the view of the camera is
reminiscent of an exhibition of sinister pride in photographs of lynching as examined by Amy Stewart in "Witnessing Horror: Psychoanalysis and the Abject Stain of Lynching Photography." The memorialization of violence embodied in such historical artifacts is undeniably replicated in this moment when Slager appears to stare unashamed into the frame of the camera. 34 Professor of philosophy Dr. Gregory Currie discusses the ways in which we use context and applied knowledge of a situation to make meaning of the things we encounter. Instead of approaching each situation as one that is brand new and unknown, Currie explains that our brain interprets “representations of things and not the things themselves.” In this way, our cognitive ability to fill in the gaps of our daily experiences allows us to speed up our social interactions. Referred to as our “recognitional capacity,” I assert that these videos trigger such capacities, especially in cases where our visual knowledge is limited.
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The camera pans back to Scott, who remains motionless, face down in the leafcovered ground. Another officer arrives on the scene, approaching Scott. The camera turns again, and we view the scene from the side. The video zooms in as the second officer kneels next to Scott, prodding him with gloved hands. His body remains still as the gloved officer pulls at his green sweatshirt, exposing his smooth, bloated belly. The camera turns again as the second officer leaves the frame. We are left with the image of Slager leaning down to check Scott’s as the video pans away. While the film technique of the video and the moment in time it spans provide us with inadequate information of the events leading up to Scott’s shooting, the duration and close proximity of the footage showing his motionless body in its aftermath makes apparent the tragedy that has occurred. Part of this impact stems from the temporal structure spanned by the footage, where our viewing experience and subsequent understanding is formed by the fact that we only see Scott alive for 24 seconds out of the entire 3:12 minute video. This stark ratio dramatizes the senselessness of his death in a way that is impactful to viewers. Although this temporality is important in informing our understanding, the intimate footage of Scott’s unmoving body is arguably the most impactful element in the video of his death. The image of his unresponsive body confirms our dreaded suspicions without the aid of words or other symbolic confirmation. Reminiscent of the fleeting visual of Eric Garner’s open palm, the sliver of belly fat that is revealed when the officer shifts Scott’s sweatshirt, bringing us closer to the reality of his demise by shedding light on his humiliatingly ordinary human qualities. Though a seemingly absurd aspect to grasp our attention, the mundanity of this detail
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connects us with the reality of Walter Scott’s death, acting as the unique punctum in of the footage. As previously asserted, the presence of these videos as digital artifacts that capture racialized violence is intrinsically tied to a long history of memorialized documentation of such brutal incidents.35 Most notably is the vast archive of lynching photography originating from the aftermath of a post-civil war America. Theorists have evoked the psychoanalysis of philosopher Julie Kristeva to evaluate the impact of such images on our understanding of horror and tragedy. According to Kristeva, the image of the corpse is jarring and upsetting in the way that it disrupts our sense of self. In her words, the human corpse is “the utmost of abjection. It is death infecting life. Abject.”36 This understanding of the image of the dead human body as abject is one that is especially important to our experience of the video of Walter Scott’s shooting. The close proximity with which we encounter Scott’s lifeless body, coupled with the apathy of the perpetrating officer is all too similar to the sickening nature of the historical stain of lynching photographs. Expanding this idea, the video medium of this artifact seems to further embody the ideas outlined by Kristeva. Owing to the swiftness of the action and the vibrancy of the footage set in a green-covered park, the disruption that arises when Scott’s body crosses visually from the boundary of life to ambiguous being that we equate with death upsets our understanding of the world as one that can be neatly structured. Thinking back to 35 In “Witnessing Horror: Psychoanalysis and the Abject Stain of Lynching Photography,” Amy
Stewart questions the idea of spectatorship in relation to the experience of revisiting lynching photography. Thinking about the differing historical moments in which they were produced, and consequently studied invites questions about our own role as spectators to these injustices. 36 Kristeva, Julia and Kelly Oliver. The Portable Kristeva. Updated edition, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. European Perspectives. Web. Accessed March 30 2017.
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the ways that a sense of realism is created by the initial accidental ambiguity of the filming style, this later, disturbing visuality of Scott’s motionless body compounds our interaction to bring us hauntingly close to the reality and meaning of his death.
Figure 4 Diamond Reynolds films the moments following the shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, on July 6th, 2016.37 From left to right, the first image shows our first image of Castile at 0:04 minutes, his T-shirt soaked in blood. The second shows the officer’s gun through the window at 0:34 minutes, pointed inside the car, still at Castile. The third image is taken from 4:54 minutes into the footage, where the image on the screen goes black. The text overlay is a transcription of the audio of the footage spanning from 4:54 minutes to 5:03 minutes.38
The video begins abruptly, with a close up of Diamond Reynolds through the front camera of her phone as she speaks the words “stay with me”. The video pans over to her left, showing Philando Castile in the driver’s seat, seatbelt on, slumped towards her with his head hung backwards between the two front seats. His white t-shirt is blood-soaked from his left arm to the middle of his torso and his head faces upward, a desperately blank look on his face. We see his neck strain as he takes a breath, his hands positioned stiffly and awkwardly in his lap. This image of Castile is brief, lasting only about 5 seconds before the camera pans back to Reynolds, who narrates the 37 “Falcon Heights Minnesota police shooting.” YouTube, uploaded by Neighborhood Paperboy, 6 July
2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD5ExUY-SNM. Accessed 19 February 2017. 38 The audio transcription published by Emma Ockerman in Time magazine was sourced to create this textual overlay. Although Reynolds’s worlds are fairly distinct throughout the video, the transcript helps to solidify the aural information we encounter.
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scene, explaining that Castile was shot 4 times by officer Jeronimo Yanez as he reached for his license. Reynolds directs the viewers, saying, “he’s covered… he killed my boyfriend”, as an audibly enraged “Fuck” is heard from Yanez. Our view transitions from Reynolds to the dashboard, and eventually pans further, showing us the open driver’s door window through which the officer holds his gun pointed directly at Castile. Guttural groans can be heard coming from Castile as Reynolds continues to repeat the context of the situation. Panning back to Castile, we can see the steams of blood that trail his left arm before Reynolds is heard saying, “please don’t tell me he’s dead”. The front facing video rests on an image of Castile’s head hanging further back between the two front seats. We can see him visibly breathing heavily, but are unable to see his eyes. In a different media environment than the previous videos examined, the footage of Philando Castile’s death was broadcasted originally as a live video on the Facebook page of his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds.39 With this in consideration, many obvious differences arise when considering the initial viewing experience. Streamed in real time on users’ timelines, the footage would have been presumably jarring to the average viewer, lacking textual warnings or context preceding the information given by Reynolds at the beginning of the video. In another diversion to the previously examined patterns, Reynolds’s role as the operator of the video is significantly more involved and even paramount to our understanding of the events 39 Reynolds’s video quickly gained online attention and outrage, resulting in almost 2.5 million views by the next afternoon. However, it is important to note that my viewing of the video for the purposes of this analysis was not conducted on the original video. Although live videos on the Facebook social networking platform are automatically saved to the user’s profile and can be revisited, I was unable, despite extensive investigations, to find the original posted video. Upon further inquiry, it was reported that Facebook removed the video on July 7th, the day after it was posted, but revised their decision, blaming the missing link on a “technical” error. Nevertheless, the original link to the video leads only to Philando Castile’s Facebook memorial page, instead of the video itself. For this reason, I viewed the footage on the Star Tribune site, owing to the fact that news sources such as BBC, NPR, and CNN published articles with graphic clips amounting to only around 3 minutes of footage.
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that unfold. Alongside her narration is the concept of intent and awareness of the audience. Though the videos of Eric Garner and Walter Scott were filmed in an effort to record and eventually share the injustice captured, Reynolds’s speech directed specifically to the people watching in real-time establishes a more personal connection that transforms us from passive to active viewers.40 Not only does the narrative aspect to the footage make us participants in Castile’s death, but it also creates a more complete picture of the events in a way that is unique to this case. The familiarity with which we are presented information throughout the video mimics a more traditional method of storytelling, making it easy to follow the action as it takes place. Not only do her targeted comments guide us through the temporality of events, but also our ability to see her emotional reactions informs our own responses as we watch. In direct contrast with the video of Tamir Rice, the footage surrounding Castile’s death is imbued with visual and audial elements that shape our experience of the incident. Documentary theorists have discussed that while such elements are in opposition to the objective style of film associated with non-authored and incidental footage, the practices identified in the live video operated by Reynolds is reflective of a shift in documentary form that moves from a realist style to one that mimics classical cinema. Though no more premeditated than the videos previously analyzed, the familiarity with which the footage is presented to us make us arguably more accessible as viewers to engage with the representation of reality portrayed. 40 Although Feidin Santana reportedly decided to film the Walter Scott incident because he felt that
the nature of what he saw was problematic, he initially did not intend to share the footage out of fear of legal consequences. (http://www.postandcourier.com/news/feidin-santana-testifies-for-hours-inmichael-slager-trial-i/article_7f3a7ade-a23a-11e6-ae8e-079eb54352a2.html)
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The video perspective shifts as we hear the arrival of other officers on the scene. Reynolds is commanded to exit the vehicle as footage shows officers with pointed guns instructing her to move backwards with her hands up. Reynolds’s 4 year old daughter cries, and the footage shifts again as Reynolds is handcuffed and forced to place her phone on the ground, showing us an upward image of the sky. Our understanding is limited to the audio we can still comprehend, and Reynolds begins to plead, growing more emotional as she repeatedly wails “please no”. At 3:36 minutes, the phone is moved and the image goes black. Reynolds begins to pray. Her voice is far away but her words are discernible. We hear her daughter’s voice before the video cuts abruptly to a dark image of Reynolds in the front facing camera, in the back seat of a patrol car. She repeats much of the information she stated earlier, and addresses the audience directly, asking us to pray for Castile, unsure of his state of health. Reynolds’s calmness breaks again as she pleads for her boyfriend’s life, letting out a desperate scream. Her 4-year-old daughter is heard comforting her in a quivering voice, saying “it’s okay. I’m right here with you”. Reynolds whimpers as she pleads once more before the video ends.
The continuity of the footage capturing the moments after Philando Castile’s
fatal shooting, coupled with Diamond Reynolds’s thorough narration provide an environment for understanding the brutality of the situation which sets itself apart from the videos analyzed before. While the three other instances contain some form of editing or manipulation of the footage itself, the live video streamed by Reynolds is individual in its immediacy and temporal substance.41 While we are not visually 41 The temporality of the footage spanning the aftermath of Philando Castile’s shooting mirrors most
closely a real-life temporal structure, precisely because it happens in real time. Indeed, even hours after the video had been posted, users on Facebook were reportedly sustainably engaged with the horror of what had happened, commenting "Don't stop recording" and "Can somebody please go get the baby."(Kennedy, Live Video After Police Shooting Brings New Immediacy To Bearing Witness)
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acquainted with the circumstances leading up to the shooting, the intimacy of the filming style fosters a deep connection to the intense emotions expressed by Reynolds. Certainly, it seems that this quality is the essence of the value of Reynolds’s video as one that communicates the reality of Castile’s death in an impactful way. Documentary film theorists have argued that the presence of authors, or narrators, of clips can “serve to dispel doubts, remove ambiguities and render the event intelligible.”42 This is certainly true of Reynolds’s account, which guides our viewing experience. The question of whether this creates a sense of realism is debatable. If we understand objectivity as a vital element to realism, then Reynolds’s account would not qualify. However, many theorists argue that our understanding of reality as experienced through film has evolved into one that gladly accepts editing and manipulations of temporality - elements more closely associated with classical cinema. These features are seen, though unintentional, in the narration itself as well as in the moments when the footage is inadvertently recorded in a way that marks itself stylistically different from the rest of the video. I am thinking specifically of the eerie effect created when the camera is no longer in Reynolds’s control, limiting our visuality but providing us with cinematic audio.43 As a composite of these opposing views, the nature of the video as one that was broadcasted live, combined with these accidental forms of cinematic editing creates a unique depiction of the events following Castile’s shooting that borrows features
42 Capdevilla, Pol. "The Objectifying Documentary: Realism, Aesthetics and Temporality.
"Communication & Society, vol 28, no. 4, 2015. Web. 5 Feb 2017 43 See figure 4.
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of objective and intentional filming to create an easily comprehensible imitation of reality that would be difficult not to engage with.44 Conclusion Despite the individuality of the four examined cases as separate digital artifacts depicting grotesque spectacles of the layered impacts of excessive force and blatant discrimination, the ill-fated conclusions are all too consistent. Regardless of the varying legal outcomes, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and Philando Castile lost their lives at the hands of the racialized violence enacted on them by the law enforcement officers in the videos examined. Undeniable is the powerful effect of these videos, rejecting the inherent mundanity associated with social-networking sites and user-generated content as austerely naïve. What sets this participatory media aside is manifold, partly owing to the elements of the videos themselves. Mapping our viewing experience from the footage of Tamir Rice’s shooting to that of Philando Castile, we can see how the multitude of technological, temporal, and material elements connect us with the “real.” Not ignoring the overall meaning of these digital artifacts as the intent to expose injustice, our ability to derive meaning from a close consideration of the
44 The authentic spontaneity of the footage is identified by Capdevella as an impactful and
distinguishing feature of the realist style. More specific to this footage itself, the desperation and lack of control apparent in Reynolds’s live-video are revealed by the accidental features, such as the black screen, supplemented by disturbing and intimate audio of her distress. The function of her narration, while seemingly at odds with the objective realism established, helps to render the events intelligible, a feature which to Capdevella is necessary in our formation of reality. While Capdevella asserts that the realist documentary adopts the perspective of an observer, I would argue that our view of Reynolds as the video proceeds make us feel like we are somehow involved in the events, giving the illusion that we are present along with her, rather than an extension of her visual field.
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videos themselves pulls us away from any notion of triviality rendered by the reproducibility, or sheer volume of digital media of this type. Honing in on the palm of Garner’s hand or the words of Reynolds’s breeching the darkness of the screen – these videos are realized for their non-sensational aspects, and we are forced to find meaning in the authentic and familiar. Garner’s repeated words, “I can’t breathe” have since been appropriated as an embodiment of the injustice of the racialized violence existent in all four incidents. But a true look at the moment in which this battle cry was born shows the desperation and intimate suffering captured on screen. Garner’s death is neither heroic nor dignified, but rather reveals the reality of his distress. Castile’s head, hung back between the front seats of his car mirrors no standard romanticized death, nor does the face down image of Scott, his sweatshirt pulled back, or the pixelated unknowability of Rice’s last seconds. In these details themselves, the entirety of the videos are signified. The temporal chaos of these artifacts pushes us even further from a sensational depiction, often devoid of context or explanation. In the same way that Kristeva’s theory of the abject corpse anchors on the disruption of the supposed rules and boundaries in which the words exists, these digital artifacts shatter our impression of reality as signified by completeness. The myth that the world is fundamentally structured and easily compartmentalized is exposed further by these videos’ lack of clean temporal structures. Understanding Dona Haraway’s concept of reality as “put together, made to cohere, worked up for and by us in some ways and not others” we must recognize
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our undeniable role we play as spectators to this digital content.45 The semiotics of these digital deaths are dependent on our approach as viewers, and in response to the umbrella of ‘digital media’ that encompasses an array of content, we must adopt an assembly of methods to employ in comprehending such media. While the embedded reality of the content will not change as a result of our analysis, the interconnectedness between our ways of interaction with the media can inform our understanding and ultimately our impression of such reality. In an effort to frame this discussion within a closely informed understanding of our current digital culture, we are conceivably inching closer to becoming a society that is well equipped to grapple with the complexity of UGC that reflects our social and cultural practices in a digital form. The seriousness of the examined media, situated in an infinite sea of digital information, demands active engagement with the injustice recorded. In admitting the importance of our role as viewers, we can approach these videos with the attention that is required to understand that Eric, Tamir, Walter, and Philando were real men with real lives, cut tragically and brutally short. In this way, we can breach an understanding of the reality of these digitally reconstructed deaths, and recognize these artifacts as desperately important memorials of the lives taken. 45 Kristeva, Julia and Kelly Oliver. The Portable Kristeva. Updated edition, New York: Columbia
University Press, 2002. European Perspectives. Web. Accessed March 30 2017.
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