Self-represented witnessing

The use of social media by asylum seekers in Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres

Bibliographic Data

ID11267709
AuthorsMaria Rae (0000-0002-3366-620X, Deakin University), Rosa Holman (Deakin University, corresponding author), Amy Nethery (0000-0002-1830-6716, Deakin University)
Year2018
Volume40
Issue4
Pages479-495
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedia Culture & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0163443717746229
PMID29782576
OpenAlexW2774045932
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited25

The act of witnessing connects audiences with distant suffering. But what happens when bearing witness becomes severely restricted? External parties, including the mainstream news media, are constrained from accessing Australia’s offshore immigration detention centres. The effect is that people seeking asylum are hidden from the public and excluded from national debates. Some detainees have adopted social media as a platform to communicate their stories of flight, and their experiences of immigration detention, to a wider audience. This article examines the ways in which social media, and particularly Facebook, has facilitated what we call self-represented witnessing. We analyse two public Facebook pages to assess how detainees use such social media networks to document their experiences, and we observe the interaction between detainees, other social media users and mainstream media. Significantly, these social media networks enable detained asylum seekers to conduct an unmediated form of self-represented witnessing that exposes human rights abuses and documents justice claims

Asylum seeker · Criminology · Human rights · Immigration · Immigration detention · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Refugee · Social media · Sociology · Witness · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration