Page 64 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

The Fate of the Iconic Sign: Taser Video 55

these practices assume authority for the camera, and sanction its use, because
it is believed to contribute factual truth to matters at hand and/or a more
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complete sense of presence than is possible through documents alone.
That this could significantly complicate legal decision making has been
observed in discussions of the use of videoconferencing in appearances and
arraignments in criminal proceedings, where defense lawyers have to choose
whether to join their client in a remote location, making possible consultation,
advice, and support, or to remain in the courtroom, where the client may see
the lawyer as part of the court and not as a personal advocate, but where
presence in the court enables the defense lawyer to confer with the judge. The
benefits attributed to using videoconferencing in these contexts are savings in
time and travel costs and easier management of security. Defendants have the
right to refuse to appear or be arraigned in this fashion, although there are no
doubt pressures toward accepting it. Poor technological arrangements can
exacerbate the problems the defendants face. [Fowler] [Sharkey]
When courts use video as part of their regular administrative practices, we
have recordings made to accomplish deliberate ends, and while they may be
―edited‖ both through the timing of the start and end of recording or because
selections may be made from the video stream (clips from long depositions,
for instance), they are not constructed cinematically through the ―grammar of
film language‖ [Arijon] to any great degree (though any fragment of video has
expressive effects arising from whatever was captured in combination with the
circumstances, equipment, social surround and viewer understanding.) While
it is very possible to criticize video used by the legal system for technical
inadequacy, poor planning for ancillary or incidental effects that can actually
affect the administration of justice (as in camera angle for remote appearances;
matching of gazes or not in video-conferencing), the circumstances of their
making bespeak a measure of control over their realization. Someone ordered
and set up the equipment; presumably there are technical staff available to
troubleshoot any problems and there is probably some system of backing up
crucial data and archiving it. Or there should be.
Newer kinds of video that are and will be increasingly at issue are
recordings made by surveillance cameras and those made by mobile devices,
such as dashboard cameras in vehicles, and hand-held devices (made by

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Presence is of increasing importance in legal contexts. Our global economy is creating disputes
across national borders, time zones, cultures, and there will be increasing debate around
what is the required presence for trustworthy decision making with the use of technology to
transcend limitations on actual physical presence, adding not just videoconferencing but
virtual reality environments, avatars, etc.