Not Quite Bleeding from the Ears: Amplifying Sonic Torture
| Autor: | Ian E. J. Hill |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Western Journal of Communication. 76:217-235 |
| ISSN: | 1745-1027 1057-0314 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10570314.2011.652287 |
| Popis: | This paper examines “sonic torture,” which refers to using sound reproduction technologies to blast prisoners with a continuous noise at peak loudness in order to coerce cooperation. I propose two ways to understand sonic torture's deafening noise—by examining how its technological embodiment coerces prisoner behavior, and by analyzing how people re-amplify the sound's embodiment when they condemn or advocate torture in the greater “soundscape.” I first argue that the concept of “amplification,” in both its electronic and rhetorical senses, links the capacity of noise to alter moods and behaviors to how people communicate about sound. Second, I analyze victims’ testimony to show how they amplified their pain when describing the indescribable brutality of sonic torture. Third, I examine how torture advocates used amplification to justify sonic torture as a form of “torture lite,” dictating what prisoners will or will not hear. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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