"The presence of cameras, at the forefront of crises, either in the hands of journalists, bystanders or passers-by and sometimes even parties to the crises, has inspired multiple visual notations, commentaries and perspectives. Thus, efforts and resources are channelled towards documenting crises, t
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o help us better understand them and play a part in their resolution. Sometimes, the camera also participates in the adjudication of cases arising from crises or, indeed, even in the reconciliatory efforts after a crisis. The book aims to explore the multi-dimensional role of the camera in times of crises, with particular interest in how scholars view the camera as a [useful] tool in times of crisis in Africa. Hopefully, this book will help unravel the multi-layered tendencies of the camera as an instrument of documentation, history verification, (re)presentation of the other, and perhaps the legitimisation of narratives. The camera’s subjective framings of crisis narratives, as a manipulative tool for influence, inference and power are also explored. The book is structured into three parts. The first part focusses on the visual narratives of crises. The second part of the book explores the camera’s tendency to be a tool for representation and agency, while the third segment discusses the use of the camera as an entity for activism and advocacy in crises. These structured parts are intended to broaden the understanding of readers about the greater possibilities that images and imageries from the camera as a tool possess." (Abstract introduction, page 1)
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"Social media provide unprecedented opportunities for the distribution of photographs capturing experiences of conflict. Instagram in particular renders conflict photography searchable, whilst also aggregating the memories of traumatised communities. This paper adds to the nascent literature in this
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area by exploring how the photosharing app is used to share photographs of the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, a low-intensity conflict that resulted in 3,600 fatalities and left many more bereaved, injured and traumatised. Two decades on from the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland remains a deeply divided society in which competing narratives over the conflict remain deeply entrenched. This study explored photographic representation of the Troubles, with a specific focus on who was represented in these images and whether they were evoke personal memories of the conflict. A content and narrative analysis of 100 historical images tagged #thetroubles was conducted in order to explore these issues. Results indicate that images showing the ‘peculiarity’ of everyday life during the conflict, such as armed British soldiers standing in close quarters to children playing in the street, were the most prominent visual representations under this hashtag. The memories evoked by such historical photographs reinforce zero-sum narratives on conflict, rather than promote new interpretations that build support for peace in ‘post-conflict’ societies." (Abstract)
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"Western, especially British interventions in Afghanistan, parallel the long history of photography. This article examines the resulting archive and considers its ongoing influence on the traditions of conflict photography through the concept of the ‘Feedback Loop’ coined by photographer Tim Het
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herington. Hetherington’s work is used as a departure point for an examination of the archival legacy of the male-gendered western gaze in ongoing western incursions. It focusses on Hetherington and contemporary practitioners to position and understand a repetitive cycle of photographic witnessing informed by the archive. Its perspective is on western traditions in the context of picturing Afghanistan and explores what underpins such traditions and how contemporary practitioners are rethinking, rememorizing and now restaging Afghanistan as a site of post-imperial ‘conflict’. It argues that what Hetherington identified as a ‘feedback loop’ is part of a much older tradition of picturing conflict and the combatants at its heart." (Abstract)
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"This edited book expands the applicability of peace journalism research beyond war to cover terrorism and radicalization, an issue that has not yet been touched by peace journalism scholars." (Publisher description)
"La mediática de la guerra y la paz consta de cuatro ensayos que estudian los discursos, las imágenes y la comunicación durante los años del proceso de paz en Colombia (2012-2016). La investigación principal es de Valeria Parra Gregory, politóloga y periodista, quien aborda las palabras mediat
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izadas durante estos diálogos. El texto de Omar Rincón, ensayista y profesor de la Universidad de los Andes, reflexiona sobre la figura de Santos y sus modos erroristas de habitar comunicativamente la paz. El análisis de Jorge Bonilla, estudioso de los medios de comunicación y profesor de la Universidad EAFIT, nos recuerda que para lograr la reconciliación debemos mirarnos en el horror que habita las imágenes. Y, finalmente, Rousbeh Legatis, experto internacionalista, nos lleva a comprender cómo desde la mediática se construye colectiva y solidariamente la paz." (Cubierta del libro)
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"Those working in media face plenty of challenges when it comes to handling issues around conflict more sensitively. In some countries, these difficulties could include forced or unsolicited loyalty, a lack of information, or physical and psychological threats. In others, challenges could arise from
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prejudice fostered by excessive homogeneity in newsrooms, or a lack of consciousness for the limits of certain views. In DW Akademie’s publication, authors from around the world approach the question of how media workers can cover conflict better. This includes reflections on how to cope with the deluge of hatred online and on how to deal with trauma. Rather than academic, analytical texts, the publication is made up of thoughtfully written, carefully illustrated and often personal pieces." (Publisher description)
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"In the last two decades, amid the global spread of smartphones, state killings of civilians have increasingly been captured on the cameras of both bystanders and police. Screen Shots studies this phenomenon from the vantage point of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Here, cameras have
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proliferated as political tools in the hands of a broad range of actors and institutions, including Palestinian activists, Israeli soldiers, Jewish settlers, and human rights workers. All trained their lens on Israeli state violence, propelled by a shared dream: that advances in digital photography-closer, sharper, faster-would advance their respective political agendas. Most would be let down. Drawing on ethnographic work, Rebecca L. Stein chronicles Palestinian video-activists seeking justice, Israeli soldiers laboring to perfect the military's image, and Zionist conspiracy theorists accusing Palestinians of "playing dead." Writing against techno-utopianism, Stein investigates what camera dreams and disillusionment across these political divides reveal about the Israeli and Palestinian colonial present, and the shifting terms of power and struggle in the smartphone age." (Publisher description)
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"Este libro constituye un estudio desde el Diseño y la Enunciación sobre la fotorreportería del periódico El tiempo 2002-2006, su propósito es indagar acerca del conflicto armado colombiano y revelar cuáles fueron los principales antecedentes que le dieron origen. De esta manera, la imagen fot
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ográfica toma lugar como la principal fuente de indagación y el recurso que establece las características y procederes del reportaje de guerra. El fenómeno del conflicto, a efectos de esta investigación, está delimitado entre los años 2002-2006, a fin de precisar las circunstancias identitarias del conflicto armado en Colombia que no se dan en otra temporalidad, probablemente porque las dimensiones de esta realidad fijaron modos de una narrativa de guerra significativa." (Descripción de la casa editorial)
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"Straddling the boundary between historical inquiry and personal reflection, this extraordinary text unfolds as a series of encounters with eponymic Holocaust photographs. Although only a small number of photographs are reproduced here, Fresco provides evocative descriptions of many well-known image
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s: synagogues and Torah scrolls burning on the night of Kristallnacht; deportations to the ghettos and the camps; and, finally, mass executions in the killing fields of Eastern Europe. The unique set of photographs included in On the Death of Jews shows groups of women and children from Liepaja (Liepaja), shortly before they were killed in December 1941 in the dunes of Shkede (Skede) on the Baltic Sea. In the last photograph of the series, we see the victims' bodies tumbling into the pit." (Foreword, page vii-viii)
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"As a young Fulbright scholar in Bogotá, determined to democratize the photographic gaze and bring new visions and voices to public debate about Colombia's armed conflict, Alexander L. Fattal founded Disparando Cámaras para la Paz (Shooting Cameras for Peace). The project taught photography to you
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ng people in El Progreso, a neighborhood in the city's outskirts that was home to families displaced by violence in the countryside. It offered the youth of that troubled region a chance to record and reimagine their daily lives. Shooting Cameras for Peace is an in-depth look into one of Latin America's most dynamic participatory media projects. The haunting and exuberant photographs testify to the young people's will to play, to dream, and to survive, bearing witness to the resilience and creativity of lives marked by a war that refuses to die. With text in English and Spanish, Shooting Cameras for Peace / Disparando Cámaras para la Paz makes vital contributions to studies of collaborative media, photographic activism, and peace and conflict studies in Colombia. Fattal's insightful text is both a celebration of the program he initiated and a critical reflection on the genre of participatory photography and the structural challenges faced by similar media projects." (Publisher description)
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"In international conflict correspondence safety mechanisms are unequally employed to protect local news-staffs in contrast to international staffs. Arguably, this has had the greatest impact on image production from war zones, exposing local photojournalists to increased dangers. But it also raises
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the possibility that local photographers from conflict-torn countries may represent conflicts to international audiences differently than do international photographers. This possibility is explored in this study using the case of Afghanistan. Based on photojournalists’ perceptions and comparisons of international and locally produced images, we explore potential effects of the shifting reliance on local rather than international photojournalists on how distant wars come to be pictured to international audiences. This study advances an argument for giving increased protection to local photojournalists in conflict zones." (Abstract)
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"From Christian missionary publications to the media strategies employed by today’s NGOs, this interdisciplinary collection explores the entangled histories of humanitarianism and media. It traces the emergence of humanitarian imagery in the West and investigates how the meanings of suffering and
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aid have been constructed in a period of evolving mass communication, demonstrating the extent to which many seemingly new phenomena in fact have long historical legacies. Ultimately, the critical histories collected here help to challenge existing asymmetries and help those who advocate a new cosmopolitan consciousness recognizing the dignity and rights of others." (Publisher description)
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"Das Thema Medien und Krieg wird in diesem Buch aus einer vierfachen Perspektive heraus behandelt. Es geht zum einen um die Frage nach der Berichterstattung über Kriege, zum zweiten um die Rolle von Medien im Krieg, drittens geht es darum, welche strukturellen Bedingungen von Krieg und Gesellschaft
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die Inhalte der Medien wie prägen und viertens um eine friedensstiftende Sicht auf diese Zusammenhänge. Das Fazit: Definitorisch gibt es kaum noch einen Unterschied zwischen medialer Kommunikation und Krieg." (Publisher description)
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"Im Kontext einer nord-süd-politisch relevanten Information interessiert besonders die Frage der Repräsentation, der Klischeebildung, der Ermächtigung. Ein Foto kann empathisch aufmerksam machen oder zur Schau stellen, aber auch Nähe erzeugen, berühren. Nicht immer folgt auf eine gute Absicht e
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ine gute Praxis. Entwürdigende Fotografie ist, wenn Menschen stilisiert oder als Platzhalter eingesetzt werden. Das kommt in der Fair-Trade-Werbung vor (S.25). Oder wenn sie – wie häufig in der Spendenwerbefotografie von Hilfswerken – viktimisiert werden. Das Foto einer Person kann etwas sehr Privates weltweit und öffentlich kundtun. So zum Beispiel das Foto eines Mädchens ohne Kleider, das – mit Entsetzen im Gesicht – vor dem Napalmangriff südvietnamesischer Flieger weg- und einem Pressefotografen entgegenläuft. Und damit den Augen von Millionen BetrachterInnen in der westlichen Welt, nachdem das Bild mit der Vergabe des World Press Photo Awards 1972 schließlich zum Symbol für die Grausamkeit des Vietnamkrieges wurde. Ein Foto kann Gewalt sichtbar machen. So vermag ein Bild von Gefangenen die Willkür ihrer Peiniger ausdrücken. Der Blick in eine Fabrikhalle mit einem Nähmaschinenpark kann den vernichtenden Charakter eines Systems darstellen. Ein Foto kann vom unmenschlichen Grauen erzählen. Oder es kann Verstoßene rehabilitieren; etwa wenn Personen ihre Versehrungen zeigen (S.17) und dabei Momente des Vertrauens und des Glücks zum Ausdruck bringen. Ein Foto kann Zuversicht schaffen. Der abgelichtete Moment eines Handschlages – wie zwischen Nelson Mandela und F.W. De Klerk – hat ein Zeitalter der Hoffnung auf das Ende der Apartheid eingeläutet. Ein Foto kann ermächtigen. Die Porträts von Trans-Personen der Aktivistin Zanele Muholi sind wie eine Ausstellung der Existenz des Schönen, der Liebe und des Menschseins gegen eine homophobe Stimmung (S.30). Die Kraft eines Fotos im emanzipatorischen Sinn – liegt oft in der Irritation. Ein kleiner Zweifel, ein kurzer Knacks im herrschenden Diskurs. Fotografie kann – das klingt schlicht – Sichtbarkeit schaffen. Die Fotos der Gruppe Lampedusa in Hamburg Professions (S.31), erinnern daran, dass hierzulande viele Menschen eine Vorliebe dafür hegen, sich über ihren Beruf in Wert zu setzten, anderen diese Repräsentation aber gerne aberkennen." (Editorial)
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"From the massacre of the Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, from famine in China to apartheid in South Africa, Picturing Atrocity examines a broad spectrum of photographs. Each of the essays focuses specifically on an iconic image, offering a distinct approach
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and context, in order to enable us to look again; and this time more closely at the picture. In addition, four photo-essays showcase the work of photographers involved in the making of photographs of brutality as well as the artists' own reflections on these images. Together these essays cover the historical and geographical range of atrocity photographs and respond to current concerns about such disturbing images; they probe why we as viewers feel compelled to look even when our instinct might be to look away." (Publisher description)
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"In describing their understanding of trauma, disaster, and conflict photography, photojournalists in this qualitative study conceptualized abstract experiences using specific types of metaphors. Their metaphors focused on concepts such as violence, bewilderment, and health/affliction. The unique as
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pect of these metaphors was how they were reflective of aspects of journalism culture and the work of trauma photography. Through a metaphorical analysis of these figurative expressions, I show how metaphors construct a conceptual system of understanding the work of trauma photography and occupational identity, as well as influence the formation of the culture of journalism itself. Understanding this metaphorical picture may add to our knowledge about how traumatic stress injuries are recognized, managed, and aided in newsrooms." (Abstract)
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"Reporting War explores the social responsibilities of the journalist during times of military conflict. News media treatments of international crises, especially the one underway in Iraq, are increasingly becoming the subject of public controversy, and discussion is urgently needed. Each of this bo
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ok's contributors challenges familiar assumptions about war reporting from a distinctive perspective. An array of pressing issues associated with conflicts over recent years are identified and critiqued, always with an eye to what they can tell us about improving journalism today. Special attention is devoted to recent changes in journalistic forms and practices, and the ways in which they are shaping the visual culture of war, and issues discussed, amongst many, include: "the influence of censorship and propaganda, 'us' and 'them' news narratives, access to sources, '24/7 rolling news' and the 'CNN effect', military jargon (such as 'friendly fire' and 'collateral damage'), 'embedded' and 'unilateral' reporters, tensions between objectivity and patriotism." (Publisher description)
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