Media Objects and Testimony: Susan Sreemala

This project was undertaken between February 2021 and August 2022 and details how truth telling is transformed after widespread media proliferation. It focuses on the testimony and evidential objects used in public investigations into the North-East Delhi Riots in 2020. The project seeks to understand the nature of political, humanitarian, and legal claims made in the presentation of witness speech and evidence; how to assess the temporality of the report in negotiating these often-competing claims; and what the handling of media evidence discloses about the politics of caution, care, and self-care. In detailing how investigations assemble evidence and articulate the evidentiary value of media, special attention is given to practices associated with open-source investigations, online publication and archiving, and the management of risk associated with such human rights media work. Fieldwork entails interviews with human rights and media practitioners. Research collections include fact-finding reports and books, documentary film, collections of film and photo documentation, news reports, web archives, and social media posts.