The challenges of human rights video making in the global network: The case of WITNESS

This paper uses the New York-based human rights organization WITNESS as a case study in examining the technological factors that complicate the pursuit of a human rights agenda, in an era of video making characterized by networked mobilities. The organization has developed a sophisticated understanding of the need to adapt and embed video making within localized assemblages of social, political, economic and technological elements. Their primary focus is on developing human capital, in particular facilitating the fostering of skills and awareness around the possibilities of video as a tool for social and political change. A key part of WITNESS' strategic thinking (and the focus of this paper) also centres on a necessary critical understanding of the opportunities and challenges of operating within the configuration of technologies which characterise a globalized, networked media environment. The experience of WITNESS, then, suggests many of the technological complications of video making in the contemporary era.