A NonReport: The Operative Image and the Politics of the Public Secret

abstract:This article explores how the paradigm of operative media participates in the politics of state secrecy. Studying a failed military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in inland Lebanon in 1997, it analyzes investigative journalism reports of the event together with reflections offered by the event's operators. Drone footage and footage taken from aerial, thermal, and body cameras are brought as evidence in an attempt to expose what compromised the event while fueling a public desire for a candid disclosure. Operative media, this article argues, are sociotechnical constructions, catering to a dialectic of knowing and knowing not to know.