The Abu Ghraib torture photographs

Week 2 Summary

Reading 1: The Abu Ghraib torture photographs

1. This article addresses the question of how iconic new media images exercise power in the shaping of news, politics, and public opinion.
2. The Abu Ghraib case triggered the meaning and impact of the scandal center photo. The sudden exposure of these photos helped to destroy the moral superiority image established by the United States in the Iraq war and transferred public attention to post-war Iraqi powers.
3. Most communication scholars are quite skeptical about claims of the powerful impact of news media images, arguing instead that the context and narrative framing of journalistic images are more influential than the pictures themselves.
4. By comparing and analyzing unmodified photos of Abu Ghraib prisons and photos modified by American media, this article focuses on this issue: how news media images draw strength from shaping news, politics, and public opinion. Through political manipulation, the Bush administration succeeded in changing the Abu Ghraib case to a case of abuse of prisoners of war. From this perspective, these photos are counterproductive, not only causing public concern about the abuse of prisoners of war, but also drawing public attention from a broader perspective. The political realm has deviated. Hersh’s lead frame challenge was unsuccessful because there were no senior officials on the political scene.
5. However, for those who study the media, it is important to explore how these photos affect people’s behavior and attitudes. The author believes that we can gain new insights into the role and limitations of so-called ‘dominant’ news fames by exploring the wider cultural repercussions of media images, and the ways in which viewers actually sue and make sense of them. Plays a critical prismatic role that reflects the elite and public views of US foreign policy

Reading 2: Photography, war, outrage

1. In order to promote information, journalist increasingly agree to adhere to the special provisions of embedded reports to ensure access to the action.
2. The limitation of the photo to any of us is the way of knowing the factual content, explaining in advance what will be included and not included in the perceived realm.
3. The photo itself does not have the meaning of interpretation, and it is easy to confuse the person with the text next to the photo, thus distorting the facts. Painting can be explanatory. Photography is only selective, which shows that it gives us a partial impression of reality. The pictures will provide a separate truth, lacking narrative coherence, but under the relevant politics, it can inspire people
4. Embedded pictures have a mandatory visual image. Photographers need to accept restrictions and generate political awareness that conforms to the photos and frame the people’s minds. These photos will convey the role of the audience, inciting and inspiring people’s views. Once the photos no longer have the ability to excite and irritate the people, people can think independently and view the world objectively.
5. The contribution of political struggles is often carried out through the media.

Reading 3: ‘some viewers may fine the following images disturbing’: visual representations of refugee deaths at border crossings

1. This article mainly describes how the media regulates human vulnerability through visual means. It consists mostly of two themes. The first is to comment on the visible manifestations of refugee deaths at border crossings. Secondly, interdisciplinary discussions.
2. There are two main problems. The first one is to describe the impact of refugees on the audience, which is likely to cause sympathy or anger. The second is that anonymity can reduce the audience’s ability to connect with tragedies.
3. As social scientists, we are increasingly curious to understand why this is so. We considered (self) censorship, two public sensitivities, media guides, or editorial policies to stipulate the “acceptability” of publishing and binding media, especially when it comes to “the audience may feel uneasy.” In fact, Livingston defines the gatekeeper as the process of deciding which story is widely spread and which is mitigated or missing. The decision whether to publish a corpse image in an image-saturated environment is primarily based on value: people are more likely to care (and therefore disseminate information) about people with similar values, history or language.
4. Policymakers saw the media as a key tool in their work, ‘to be grasped and used as needed to implement policy’. Concurrently, the media relied on cues from decision-makers, leading to situations of ‘mutual exploitation’ and interdependence. In fact, media can accelerate, impede or set the policy agenda
5. The feeling of pain produces a personal narrative that shapes the values of the audience in a specific way – and how they act on the moral dilemma. These ethical values are embedded in the news discourse to locate the audience’s attitude towards distant victims. In the long term, they shape the TV public’s unfortunate attitude toward the remote.
6. The media also visually portrayed asylum-seekers in large groups to reinforce the perception that refugees have an uncontrollable risk to security and national sovereignty, thus aligning with mainstream and restrictive political philosophy.
7. A gap in the interdisciplinary discussion on the visual manifestations of refugee deaths at border crossings and their impact on policy needs. This visual representation has the potential to significantly influence policy and public discourse and generate political and humanitarian urgency.