Syrian Refugee crisis , and the ongoing Afghanistan War . Taking media as
10 journalistic resource for informed citizenship , analysis of imaging from news stories , demonstrates that audiences are offered varied and often nuanced meanings , as the perceptions of the selected image alters due to how they are interpreted by the individual gazer . Following Hoskins and O ’ Loughlin , I argue that even though there is no doubt still and moving images hold a ‘ privileged status ’ 1 in the reporting on war and conflicts , images alone are still not enough to address ambiguities , or , provide a greater difference in overall understandings of war and conflicts .
Keywords : Images , War , Conflict , News Media , Ukraine , Syria , Afghanistan , Media Studies
Introduction
Still and moving images hold a ‘ privileged status ’ in reporting on war and conflicts 1 . The deconstruction of images presenting conflicts is a nuanced issue . As in the analysis of the visual , the problems of gaining information from images , such as favouring one perspective over another , are highlighted . ‘ Conflict ’ as defined by scholars Andrew Hoskins and Ben O ’ Loughlin is ‘ the exercise of kinetic and symbolic power to defeat an enemy ’ 2 , suggesting the idea of symbolisation used as a method to consolidate power . The said concept , that an individual ’ s understanding of ‘ conflicts ’ is propelled by images , is not just manufactured by an external agency , the image itself , but by the very fact that an image alone can be allowed to dictate opinion . It is an area of communication that holds potential dangers which this article explores , dangers that necessitate analysis of the symbolic power of the images of conflict . These potential dangers can include public political manipulation which are frangible discussions to begin with .
Firstly , this essay will discuss the importance of human empathy as a response to images with regards to three key case studies which are as follows : 1 ) The Ukrainian demonstrations , ‘ Leninfall ’, from 2013-2014 , 2 ) The photograph of Alan Kurdi , a Syrian refugee
1
Hoskins A and O ’ Loughlin B , War and Media : The Emergence of Diffused War ( Malden : Polity Press , 2010 ), p . 23
2
Ibid , p . 13 .