Mortensen, Mette, Allan, Stuart  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-0470 and Peters, Chris
2017.
The iconic image in a digital age: editorial mediations over the Alan Kurdi photographs.
Nordicom Review
38
(s2)
, pp. 71-86.
10.1515/nor-2017-0415
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Abstract
This article investigates selected newspapers’ editorial mediations over contrasting perceptions regarding the significance of a controversial set of “iconic” news photographs, namely images of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian refugee, whose drowned corpse washed ashore in September, 2015. Specifically, this study examined individual editorial items, published by leading Danish, Canadian and British newspapers over a four-month period, engaging with and reflecting upon this imagery. Our analysis revealed several key deliberative features of editorial self-reflexivity, with three especially salient themes shown to be emergent across the coverage: a) instantaneousness and historical photographic precedents; b) social media’s perceived influence on photojournalism; and c) normative associations of affective qualities for this imagery. By elucidating these features of editorial self-reflexivity within a convergent digital media ecology, this article offers original insights into how and why the epistemic values governing visual communication are being reconsidered and redrawn under pressure from institutional imperatives.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Publication |
| Status: | Published |
| Schools: | Schools > Journalism, Media and Culture |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Alan Kurdi, editorials, iconic images, photojournalism, refugee crisis, social media, |
| Additional Information: | This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License. BY-NC-ND 3.0 |
| Publisher: | De Gruyter Open / Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research (Nordicom) |
| ISSN: | 2001-5119 |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 29 June 2017 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 24 June 2017 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2023 08:34 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/101905 |
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