Presence of Absence: Exploring the democratic significance of silence

How can an absence of media help democratic theorists better understand listening, observation, and reflection as legitimate forms of public participation? Drawing on Communication Theory and Science and Technology Studies, the chapter argues that a seeming lack of media—left by individual behaviors, media making cultures, sociotechnical infrastructures, and algorithmic systems—that might be misread as apathy is actually a significant and understudied site of political power that should more precisely be seen as new forms of expression, exclusion, and empathy.