Images of Transgressions: Visuals as Reconstructed Evidence in Digital Investigative Journalism

Abstract

The epistemic authority of journalism has undergone significant theorization and empirical investigations in past years. This article contributes to this growing body of scholarship by analyzing how collected images and videos are used as evidence in 14 visual video investigations by The New York Times. A visual discourse analysis following the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) is conducted to map out how an investigative way of seeing is established by coexisting discursive practices, including narrativization, coding schemes, highlighting techniques, and juxtaposition of video footage in split-screen mode. The article argues that these discursive practices serve as markers of authority which together facilitate a demonstration that recontextualizes collected visuals into evidence, reanimating them as external objects of knowledge that can be interrogated in epistemic struggles concerning the definition of controversial events.