Under Construction @ Keele Volume 6 Issue 2 2020 | Page 17

15 across more interested in tearing symbols down as opposed to demonstrating for reform .
Nonetheless , the symbols may not have been the singular problem per se but it was more to do
with where they were physically presented . Did it matter if everyone agreed on the same symbols to be a fully functional country , or , was this more of an issue of defining what a public space was ? Irrespective , ‘ Leninfall ’ evidently proved how intangible the conflict had become . This exposed confusion leaked its way into the framing of the national discourse , for if there was no symbolic figure like Lenin presiding from a height , and there was nothing to replace the symbol on the pedestal , what were the Ukrainian people for ? Political scientist , Kari Andén-Papadopoulos argued , ‘ photographs in the press […] are constructed as generic symbols that serve to support dominant news discourse ’ ​ 10​ , but if there were no ‘ generic symbols ’ in the Ukraine in relation to tearing down the statues of Lenin , such a hypothesis could not support the efficacy of any discourse of any sort .
Figure 3 ARABIC 4 . A Turkish police officer discovers the body of Alan Kurdi ( The New York Times , 2018 ).
On the 2​ nd September 2015 , a still image of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed ashore on the Greek coast , later identified as Alan Kurdi , made global headlines . Whilst he and his family were trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe , in the hope of seeking refuge from the on-going conflict in Syria , Kurdi , lost his life by drowning . The photograph ignited colossal international response and became one of the most memorable images of the
10
​K Andén-Papadopoulos . “ The Abu Ghraib torture photographs ”. Journalism : Theory , Practice & Criticism , 9 ( 1 ),( 2008 ): 8 . [ Accessed 1.8.2020 ] ​ : https :// doi-org . ezproxy01 . rhul . ac . uk / 10.1177 / 1464884907084337