ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how journalistic witnessing means traversing boundaries between observing or reporting, avoiding or assuming risk, getting close or staying distant, live coverage or post hoc analysis. An extensive analysis of Glass in light of the entire literature on witnessing is beyond the scope of this chapter focuses on reading Glass for evidence of three aspects of witnessing: Proximity, Risk and Outcome. The chapter analyzes the scholarship on the concept of witnessing, describes the idea of journalistic witnessing, proposes the concept of networked witnessing, and suggests its tracing in Google Glass's user interface, technical documentation, and early adopter discourse. While certainly not describing the entire Glass infrastructure much would be gained from interviewing Glass designers and Google program managers and analyzing Glassware these three types of materials offer insights into how the Glass infrastructure affords and constrains ideals of witnessing.
