| Abstract | As a researcher and professional human rights worker, my publications and research between 2012-22 generated knowledge and influence on three critical questions: What were significant methodological shifts in human rights tactics and strategies based on audiovisual media? For professional practitioners and everyday activists, what was constant and what changed in ethical and practical challenges around visibility/obscurity, trust and authenticity, and the impact of witnessing amidst media volume? How do emerging technological infrastructure and systems - particularly around media manipulation, deepfakes, authenticity and trust, and artificial intelligence - impact practices and dilemmas, and how can they be shaped from a global human rights perspective? My methods include participatory and action research, field-mapping, expert interviews and convening, speculative/futures-based approaches and specific fieldwork projects. I map, produce case studies, and provide insights into novel forms of human rights participation, documentation and advocacy, including participatory fact-finding and open-source intelligence, as well as new forms of ‘distant witnessing’ via live-streaming, remix and evidentiary documentation at critical moments of their evolution. Emerging forms shape and are shaped by existing advocacy paradigms including smart narrowcasting, as well as by professionalisation trends and the ‘forensic turn’. Their reception cannot be separated from broader questions around trust in media and content and present challenging evaluatory questions around impact. Research findings confirm the consistency of challenges around activists navigating choices around visibility and obscurity of self, presence and content, as well as escalating challenges of confirming trust in content and being found amid volume. ‘Distant witnessing’ involving the active participation of remote activists and co-presence-based strategies, investigated via theorisation and case study, provides an opportunity for more equitable mediated witnessing. Yet experimental action research shows the challenges of self-surveillance. Early global research on deepfakes and authenticity infrastructure closely integrates diverse perspectives in comparative contexts with technical investigation to ground emerging phenomena in existing interdisciplinary knowledge and propose research and action. The close integration of participatory research with engagement in standard-setting, as well as reference design development via technical artefacts, indicates how research can directly impact these emerging technologies. Future opportunities for research focus on the implications of generative AI, evolving remix activism, and XR. |
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