ABSTRACT
This chapter initiates a return to the work of the cultural theorist Raymond Williams, especially his concept of a culture of distance' in his critique of television news. It elucidates certain themes in William's writings about televisual cultures in order to extend a critical reconsideration of the current Medias cape, with particular reference to citizen mediations of connectivity. The chapter suggests that his conception of the culture of distance offers an invaluable perspective pertinent to the ongoing debate over the ways in which visual media shape the journalistic mediation both professional and citizen alike of distant suffering. Chouliaraki argues that journalism is per formative and a practice which, on a global scale, calls communities into existence through the particular frames and narratives that guide journalistic and citizen media reporting. The constant negotiations between the push of conventions and the pull of personal, local connections and ruptures in mediated, visual representations should by now be apparent.
