Framing of International Conflicts

Images and Their Aesthetic Meaning

Images carry aesthetic meaning and can influence what people know and how they feel about a particular problem. The powerful meaning passed by images is largely due to their ability to provoke emotions to the viewers. As result, photojournalists are under intense pressure to carefully analyse and edit pictures in order to ensure the message passed achieves a desire outcome. This way, a picture can become the face of conflict on matters of foreign relations. By focusing on one part of military action such as combat and victims of war like children, visual framing can be used to influence public opinion.

The Concept of Framing

Framing has been developed as a field in mass media. According to Saleem (2), framing refers to the process of selecting some parts of reality in order to make it more persuasive in communication. This is done to promote a particular definition of problem, for moral interpretation or for causal interpretation. Media frames are the sequences of cognition and interpretation of selection of information through which communicators organise discourse, whether visual or verbal. Visual framing is therefore the act of identifying and selecting sections of reality to make it more striking for visual communication. Audience of mass media can interpret events using natural or social frameworks. Events interpreted via natural frameworks are seen as objective to moral interpretation, such as natural calamities while actions interpreted through social frameworks are subject to social criticism and appraisal. Visual framing of military actions is subject to social framework of interpretation. Symbol-handlers will therefore organise the discourse of military conflict in order to achieve the desired social interpretation.

Framing of International Conflicts

Framing of international conflicts tend to focus on violence and outcomes of combat instead of focusing on peace negotiations. According to Jenkins and Greenworth (1), foreign affairs and conflicts are usually framed focusing on the parts of fighting and victims of war. While it has been emphasized that visual communicators should frame peaceful demonstrations and non-violent sections of international conflicts, it is usually the violent part that is framed. This has been evidenced in the case of Syrian conflict of 2011-2012 that begun with the Arab Spring in Middle East and some parts of North Africa. An analysis of 193 photographs by Jenkins and Greenworth (1), revealed the visual framing of military actions that shows audience combat and civilians suffering from war. The photographs were disseminated to the public through legacy media -two news magazines and 9 public affairs magazines. The images were framed to achieve different purposes but the dominant framing focused on combat and the victims of the war. Only few media framed peace aspects of Syrian conflict.

Visual Framing and the September 11 Attacks

The public perception and interpretation of the September 11 attacks and the Afghan war was shaped by visual framing. Images were used to represent, at a global level, key events surrounding the events and garner public support for the government’s intervention using military combat. Campbell (4) notes that photography has been used to mark significant events. The number of images released for public consumption more than doubled before the 9/11. The pictures, while talking about a certain part of the whole, do not depict other parts of the whole. As such, Campbell insists that pictures have a symbolic function where, in the case of 9/11, the repetition of some themes prompts the audience to interpret meaning in an intended way. Thus, images were used to move viewers through the traumatic events of September 11 and prepared them to support military intervention in Afghanistan.

Narrow Framing of the Afghan War

Images of the Afghan war and the September 11 attack have a narrow framing that focused on military personnel in combat or civilians in war zones. One of the most famous images of the Afghan war was captured by David Guntenfelder of the Associated Press. The image was taken in the Korengal valley in 2009 (Edy and Patrick 6). The subjects of the image are three US soldiers of the 26th infantry gazing at the valley. The image is thought-provoking and stimulating. It depicts one of the soldiers, Zachary Boyd, in red t-shirt and pink pajamas while another soldier is in silver trainers. The image suggests that the three soldiers were sleeping when a potential state of combat emerged, leaving Zachary no time to dress in uniform. The image evokes sympathy to the soldiers who must risk their sleep and lives to capture the enemy and therefore support their course based on subjective influences of emotions. The image confirms that visual framing is one of the many ways the public is persuaded to perceive the reality of foreign matters.

Ethical Dilemmas in Visual Framing

In another incidence of the Afghan war, Julie Jacobsen photographed a scene where the Taliban ambushed them in the South of Afghanistan. She captured Corpora Bernard in a wounded situation. The visual, according to Campbell, angered US Secretary of Defense for depicting photographs of combat. The photos showed Joshua Bernard, a US Corporal, being attended by two soldiers with his leg filled with blood. Unlike Zachary’s photo, Julie’s photograph was censored and its circulation to the public domain highly restricted. It was only that the blurred image did not reveal the faces of the subjects that it was permissible. This shows photojournalists face an ethical dilemma regarding what to show to the public and how to best present images of military actions. While they are usually under pressure to follow ethical principles of journalism like diligence, they are under immense pressure from internal and external governments in deciding on matters of visual framing. Sometimes victims of combat will want their pictures not to be framed due to privacy concerns and the need to protect their families, while on the other hand governments will want to use the same pictures to influence public opinion.

Editing and Tailoring Visual Messages

Images produced for public consumption are subjected to analysis and editing by the messenger before they are disseminated. Photojournalists are under strict regulations and have difficulties operating independently (Below 19). According to Pantti, Mervi, the Syrian regime presented journalists with difficulties due to its opposition to innovative media presented journalist with difficulties in covering the event due to its opposition to eye witness images (1). What the public consumes has been carefully chosen to achieve a descriptive purpose and provide a tailored interpretation. Since mass media is a powerful agenda-setting tool, editors will ensure the most captivating and emotion-provoking images are used. For example, the civilians suffering from war are mostly depicted in pictures as children who have been displaced and lost their families due to war. The purpose of focusing on children is to depict innocence of young ones who are helpless and in dire need of immediate intervention. This is usually a psychological manipulation of the viewer’s emotions to ensure they interpret meaning subjectively.

Persuasion and Visual Framing

Visual framing is meant to persuade the audience to support a certain party involved in war conflicts. According to Ojala, Paniti, and Kangas (2017), civilians are the most targeted subjects of visual framing in major newspapers and other mass media outlets. They are usually framed in roles that will generate sympathetic feelings towards the subjects. In most cases, the pictures show civilians fleeing from zones of war, properties being destroyed, and locals grieving human casualties. Consumers of visual messages, unlike audio and textual messages, are highly persuaded by images. Ojala, Paniti, and Kangas (1) argue that images shape the viewer’s perceptions of the issue being addressed more efficiently than textual messages. Photojournalists will, in some cases, use images of civilians alongside other subjects like flowers, religious symbols, candles, or coffins to indicate the loss of human lives and the cost of the war.

The Role of Images in Shaping Public Opinion

To sum up the text, photos of war act as important pieces of evidence. Governments use visual framing during wars to showcase their military actions as justified. As evidenced in the case of Afghan, September 11 attacks, and Syrian conflict, images play an important role in influencing public opinion. The powerful ability of images to provoke emotions has been used to deliver tailored messages that represent part of the reality in foreign affairs. Visual framing on military actions focuses on combat and victims of war instead of showing other aspects of affairs such as peace negotiations and peaceful demonstrations. Part of the explanation is that handlers of visual communication want to evoke emotions and represent that part of the conflict that will create sympathy and generate support. It is for this reason that images are edited, and other subjects inserted to ensure the desired message has been passed.

Works cited

Below, Jelka Ninja. Photojournalism in War and Armed Conflicts: Professional Photography and the Framing of Victimhood in World Press Photos of the Year. 2010.

Campbell, David, and Simon Norfolk. “How has photojournalism framed the war in Afghanistan?.” Burke and Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing (2011): 153-5.

Edy, Jill A., and Patrick C. Meirick. ”Wanted, dead or alive: Media frames, frame adoption, and support for the war in Afghanistan.” Journal of Communication 57.1 (2007): 119-141.

Greenwood, Keith, and Joy Jenkins. ”Visual framing of the Syrian conflict in news and public affairs magazines.” Journalism Studies 16.2 (2015): 207-227.

Ojala, Markus Mikael, Mervi Katriina Pantti, and Jarkko Kangas. ”Whose War, Whose Fault?.” International Journal of Communication (2017).

Pantti, Mervi. ”Seeing and not seeing the Syrian crisis: New visibility and the visual framing of the Syrian conflict in seven newspapers and their online editions.” JOMEC journal 4 (2016).

Saleem, Noshina. ”US media framing of foreign countries image: An analytical perspective.” Canadian Journal of Media Studies 2.1 (2007): 130-162.