How to Witness in the Digital Age

Witnessing in the traditional sense emphasizes “presence” and “seeing” of the witnesses,and thus gives the witnesses unparalleled “factual authority” and “moral superiority”.But in the digital age,with the development of media and technology,the way,nature and function of witnessing have undergone an important transformation.Witnessing in the digital age has two meanings: First,it refers to digital witnessing,and second,it is doing witnessing in the digital age.The former means computer forensics and testimony,which essentially is empowering data and replacing the human memory with digital memory.Digital witnessing can't completely replace human's witnessing.Doing witnessing in the digital age is deeply influenced by the media.It is a kind of mediated witnessing and commonplace contextual witnessing,which does not aim to recover historical truth but focuses on experience transformation and emotion generation.It also reshapes the relationship between the witnesses and the past.