Abstract
Buenos Aires, August 2011, I am attending a hearing. The witness testifying warns: ‘The only way for you to enter into a concentration camp and travel to those times is through our memories. And they are imprecise.’1 This powerful and emotional statement acknowledges the limitations and imprecision of survivors’ memories while recognizing that in the absence of confessions from torturers and assassins, the hazy memories of survivors are our only window into what happened inside Argentinean torture chambers three decades ago. Who dares to challenge this statement? The impact of the testimony is obvious in the courtroom. I look around; there aren’t many people present and I wonder why all of Argentina isn’t here to witness these testimonies. Will people who are not in the courtroom ever know about what is unfolding here? Are journalists covering these trials?
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.
Arendt, H. (2004) ‘From Eichman in Jesusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,’ in N. Scheper-Hughes and P. Bourgois (eds) Violence in War and Peace. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 91–100.
Ashuri, T. and Pinchevski, A. (2009) ‘Witnessing as a Field,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 133–57.
Blondheim, M. and Liebes, T. (2009) ‘Archaic Witnessing and Contemporary News Media,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 112–32.
Calveiro, P. (1998) Poder y Desaparición: Los Campos de Concentración en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Colihue.
Dandan, A. (2012a) [Interview by author] Buenos Aires, 9 August.
Dandan, A. (2012b) ‘El ojo de la cámara,’ Página 12, 22 July, 16–17.
Edy, J.A. (1999) ‘Journalistic Uses of Collective Memory,’ Journal of Communication, 49(2), 71–85.
Ellis, J. (2009) ‘Mundane Witness,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 73–88.
Frosh, P. (2009) ‘Telling Presences: Witnessing, Mass Media, and the Imagined Lives of Strangers,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 49–72.
Frosh, P. and Pinchevski, A. (2009) ‘Introduction,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–22.
Gelman, J. (1998) ‘Del Silencio,’ Página 12, 13 August, Contratapa.
Izumi, J. (2012) [Interview by author] Buenos Aires, 26 July.
Kaiser, S. (2005) Postmemories of Terror: A New Generation Copes with the Legacy of the ‘Dirty War’. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Keats P.A. (2005) ‘Vicarious Witnessing in European Concentration Camps: Imagining the Trauma of Another,’ Traumatology, 11(3), 171–87.
Martiniuk, C. (2012) [Interview by author] Buenos Aires, 24 July.
Peters, J.D. (2001) ‘Witnessing,’ Media, Culture & Society, 23(6), 707–23.
Ragendorfer, R. (2012) [Interview by author] Buenos Aires, 17 July.
Rentschler, C. (2004) ‘Witnessing: US Citizenship and the Vicarious Experience of Suffering,’ Media, Culture & Society, 26(2), 296–304.
Rentschler, C. (2009) ‘From Danger to Trauma: Affective Labor and the Journalistic Discourse of Witnessing,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 158–81.
Thomas, G. (2009) ‘Witness as a Cultural Form of Communication: Historical Roots, Structural Dynamics, and Current Appearances,’ in P. Frosh and A. Pinchevski (eds) Media Witnessing. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 89–111.
Verbitsky, H. (2012) [Skype interview by author] 3 July.
Zelizer, B. (2002) ‘Finding Aids to the Past: Bearing Personal Witness to Traumatic Public Events,’ Media, Culture & Society, 24(5), 697–714.
Zelizer, B. (2008) ‘Why Memory’s Work on Journalism Does not Reflect Journalism’s Work on Memory,’ Memory Studies, 1(1), 79–87.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Susana Kaiser
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kaiser, S. (2014). Argentinean Torturers on Trial: How Are Journalists Covering the Hearings’ Memory Work?. In: Zelizer, B., Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K. (eds) Journalism and Memory. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137263940_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137263940_16
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-26393-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-26394-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)