Day of Rage
Forensic journalism and the US Capitol riot
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11268488 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kelly Gates (0000-0002-7848-8793, University of California San Diego, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 78-93 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Media Culture & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0163-4437 • E-ISSN: 1460-3675 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01634437231188449 |
| OpenAlex | W4385221315 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 21 |
This article examines how video journalism produced by the elite press is using forensic techniques and aesthetics as part of the effort to reinvent journalistic authority in a fragmented media and political sphere. I first discuss some earlier moments in which news coverage of events adopted a media-forensic epistemology and style, and then turn to the formation of the New York Times Visual Investigations team, a group at the leading-edge of this type of journalism today. I provide an analysis of one of the team’s investigative reports, a 40-minute account of the January 6 Capitol riot assembled from vernacular video, surveillance footage, police bodycam video, and other non-news source materials. In both its formal aspects and its subject matter, the piece represents an important example for understanding an emerging form of forensic journalism. While the January 6 Capitol riot was not the first time news coverage of a violent event adopted a forensic style and epistemology, the forensic-media coverage of the riot represents a unique conjuncture. A new convergence of media-technological developments and journalist practices shaped how the storming of the Capitol was experienced, investigated, and covered as a media event
Art · Criminology · Forensic science · Journalism · Media studies · News media · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Technological convergence · Visual arts · Engineering · History · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media · Rhetoric and Communication Studies
Material Witness
Forensic Architecture
Arresting Images
Citizen Spies
Rethinking Media Coverage
Reassembling the Social
Witnessing in crisis
Images of Transgressions
Truth is What Happens to News
After the post-public sphere
Internet-based media, Europe and the political public sphere
Mediated forensics and militant evidence
Conflictual Media Events, Eyewitness Images, and the Boston Marathon Bombing (2013)
The Strategic Bias
From Gatekeeper to Gate-opener
News After Trump
Open-source investigation as a genre of conflict reporting
Professional Vision
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |