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Detainees, however, use new technologies and media to narrate experiences of incarceration. This article evaluates the potentials and limits of bearing witness and exercising acoustic agency through podcasting, using The Messenger podcast as a case study. It shows how voice-based listening can breach secrecy and evoke empathy, while also creating distance via edited sound and selective echo chambers. 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It argues that this secrecy limits institutional transparency and shapes what can be heard from inside detention.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does The Messenger podcast work as a case study?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"A refugee detained on Manus Island exchanges voice messages with an Australian journalist. More than 3,500 disjointed conversations are used to create the 2017 podcast The Messenger.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What are the main benefits and limits of podcasting for bearing witness?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Podcasting can breach secrecy and evoke empathy through the affective nature of voice. Limits include distance created by prerecorded and edited sound and the risk of echo chambers due to selective podcast consumption.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},294740,1789702944,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":46,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":31,"preview_page_count":4},137441390410,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/2000252f4ab5702993?_k=1776741390130283984","Earwitnessing Detention: Carceral Secrecy, Affecting Voices, and Political Listening in The Messenger Podcast  \nMARIA RAE 1  \nDeakin University, Australia  \nEMMA K. RUSSELL  \nLa Trobe University, Australia  \nAMY NETHERY  \nDeakin University, Australia  \nAustralia’s offshore immigration detention centers are characterized by a culture of secrecy that keeps human rights abuses hidden. Yet, detainees are employing new technologies and media to narrate their experiences of incarceration. This article examines the potentials and limitations of bearing witness and exercising acoustic agency through podcasting. It provides a case study of The Messenger podcast in which a refugee detained on Manus Island exchanges voice messages with an Australian journalist. It finds that podcasting can breach the secrecy that sustains a punitive detention regime and evoke empathy in listeners through the affective nature of voice. However, podcasting is limited by the sense of distance produced by prerecorded and edited sound and by the risk of creating echo chambers through the selective nature of podcast consumption. Finally, we adapt, develop, and argue for the concept of earwitnessing as a practice of responsible and political listening to injustice.  \nKeywords: podcasting, earwitnessing, immigration detention, carceral soundscapes, political listening, Manus prison  \nWe have been locked away in a place where it’s an isolated island and far away from the other world. When you cry or when you scream, no one can hear you, so I thought it is a  \nMaria Rae: [maria. rae@deakin.edu.au](maria. rae@deakin.edu.au)  \nEmma K. Russell: [e. russell@latrobe.edu.au](e. russell@latrobe.edu.au)  \nAmy Nethery: [amy. nethery@deakin.edu.au](amy. nethery@deakin.edu.au)  \n[Date submitted: 2018](Date submitted: 2018)‒[10](10)‒[07](07)  \n1 We would like to acknowledge the valuable feedback from Michael Green, André Dao, and members of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences writing group at Deakin University. We also wish to honor the resistance and intellectual labor of Abdul Aziz Muhamat that enabled this research.  \nCopyright © 2019 ( Maria Rae, Emma K. Russell, and Amy Nethery) . Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at [http://ijoc.org](http://ijoc.org).  \nInternational Journal of Communication 13(2019) Earwitnessing Detention 1037  \nbetter idea for me to be the messenger. Like what I mean by that means to be the voice of everyone in here. (Abdul Aziz Muhamat, The Messenger, Episode 1)  \nAbdul Aziz Muhamat is a Sudanese refugee who has been detained on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (PNG) for more than five years under Australia’s offshore detention regime . Under this regime, all people who have sought asylum by boat in Australian territorial waters since 2012 have been detained on Manus Island or the Pacific island of Nauru . The system of offshore detention is highly punitive and has been criticized for its devastating human rights outcomes, which are in part enabled by its “pervasive culture of secrecy” (Nethery & Holman, 2016; Parliament of Australia, 2015, p. 124) . In March 2016, Muhamat began reporting from“Manus prison” (Boochani, 2018b) in a series of 30-second WhatsApp voice messages, sent from a smuggled phone to Australian-based journalist Michael Green . Green used their exchange of more than 3,500 disjointed “conversations” throughout 2016 to produce the award-winning podcast The Messenger in 2017. Although there are numerous news stories about Australia’s offshore detention regime, this is one of the first audible accounts of life in detention from a refugee’s perspective . The result is a powerful account of the daily monotony and damage of detention for Muhamat and fellow detainees .  \nThe Messenger podcast raises important questions about new technological and communicative possibilities for overcoming a lack of institutional transparency. To what extent have these technologies ","cbCaiayu3Ne2dn1o","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiayu3Ne2dn1o","pdf",239145,"English","# Abstract\n## Secrecy in offshore detention and the role of podcasting\n## Case study: The Messenger and voice-based witness\n## Potentials and limitations of acoustic agency\n## Affective listening and the concept of earwitnessing","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the article address regarding Australia’s offshore detention regime?\",\"answer\":\"It addresses how a pervasive culture of secrecy keeps human rights abuses hidden within offshore immigration detention. It argues that this secrecy limits institutional transparency and shapes what can be heard from inside detention.\"},{\"question\":\"How does The Messenger podcast work as a case study?\",\"answer\":\"A refugee detained on Manus Island exchanges voice messages with an Australian journalist. More than 3,500 disjointed conversations are used to create the 2017 podcast The Messenger.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the main benefits and limits of podcasting for bearing witness?\",\"answer\":\"Podcasting can breach secrecy and evoke empathy through the affective nature of voice. Limits include distance created by prerecorded and edited sound and the risk of echo chambers due to selective podcast consumption.\"}]","Earwitnessing Detention: Carceral Secrecy, Affecting Voices, and Political Listening in The Messenger Podcast | PDF"]