Epilogue: On Giving and Being a Voice

An interview might be a rather unorthodox format for an epilogue for a book of such overarching and ambitious scope. However, if the preoccupation with voice is one of the fundamental concerns of this work, then a dialogic interview is a fitting topic vehicle to explore its workings. Another fundamental concern for this handbook is a growing discourse of crisis with relation to migration. The Syrian exodus is irrevocably linked to this by virtue of its unprecedented mediatization. Thus came about the idea to conclude this work with a conversation with Zaina Erhaim, who through her journalism and activism had been at the heart of the Syrian conflict since its very beginning.
What comes out loud and clear through this interview is that Erhaim’s and others’ work is a continuous struggle against a multiplicity of interrelated erasures: The erasure of women from the public sphere by patriarchic and conservative logics. The erasure of the professional identity and expertise of the other by neo-colonial and orientalist logics privileging the west in the production of knowledge. The erasure of complexity by a hegemonic ideological model of war in sensationalist and binary news framing and production. And the erasure of the dissenting subject by the bureaucracy of authoritarian states and technologies of control and surveillance. These tensions and concerns are at the heart of many chapters in this handbook.

ISBN:9781526447210

Keywords:Syria, representation, journalism, activism, citizen journalism, journalism training, war, gender, voice, migration

Accessibility:Closed