Ethics of Mediation and the Voice of the Injured Subject

In this chapter I argue that understanding the workings of mediation – a structurally different condition to face-to-face communication – is a prerequisite to any discussion of ethics of media. Drawing on O’Neill’s earlier critique of rights-based models of media ethics, I argue that a sociological analysis of the symbolic power of mediation highlights an additional reason why freedom of expression – an individual right – cannot be applied to media institutions. Drawing on the witness statements at the Leveson inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the UK Press among other narratives of individuals who found themselves inadvertently exposed in the media I illustrate the asymmetries of mediation and observe that technological convergence can even heighten the symbolic power of mediation. Cases of mediated harm can even contribute to the problem of materialisation (Butler, 2005) and annihilation of voice.