Distant Suffering and Postmodern Subjectivity: The Communal Politics of Pity (Essay‪)‬

Introduction Narratives of loss and suffering form an important part of the modern media landscape (see Gorney 2005; Oushakine 2006; Debrix 2006), and such narratives are the primary means by which people engage with disasters and tragedies. According to the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters in Belgium there has been a marked increase in the number of disasters worldwide with 1,230 disasters registered between 1970-1979, compared to more than 3,000 disasters reported between 2000-2003 (See Vasterman et al. 2005:107). As sociologists and historians have argued the communal consumption and experience of pain and suffering can be fundamentally social (see Cole 2004; Good et al. 1994; Winters 1995) enabling human communion through media narratives. Media narratives of suffering have the potential to both personalize and de-personalize suffering to their audiences and in the process they can re-frame proximity and distance, our sense of connection and disconnection as well as temporality.