Personal Choice or Political Provocation: Examining the Visual Framing and Stereotyping of theBurkiniDebate

Abstract

The burkini, a modest swimsuit marketed to Muslim women, was at the center of controversy in France when it was banned from the beaches in dozens of cities. This research examines how the three leading international newswires (Agence France-Presse/Getty Images, Associated Press, and Reuters) visually framed this debate and whether they visually stereotyped women wearing the burkini. Using a mixed-method approach, this study unpacks the role of news agency photography in visual representation. The analysis examines four visual frames: Mediated Solidarity, Administrative Response, Symbolic Fashion, and Active Liberation.

Who Is Worthy of a Name? Identity, Naming, and Social Difference in News Images’ Captions

“…Wire service images are widely distributed news images that can be published by any contributing or subscribing news outlet. Many visual studies have focused on wire services ) Bowe et al, 2019;Fahmy, 2004;Fahmy et al, 2007;Fahmy & Neumann, 2012( which Each constructed month was formed by creating a constructed week from each season )January-March, April-June, July-September, October-December( from each year sampled. This method allows for the sample to reflect the changing news cycles ) Long et al, 2005(.…”

“…Wire service images are widely distributed news images that can be published by any contributing or subscribing news outlet. Many visual studies have focused on wire services (Bowe et al, 2019; Fahmy, 2004; Fahmy et al, 2007; Fahmy & Neumann, 2012) which have been called the wholesale suppliers of news (McQuail, 2005). The images sampled for the constructed months possessed the label “APTOPIX,” which is a designation by AP photo editors indicating the best images of the day (Lough, 2018).…”

Reframing (inner) terror: A digital discourse-based approach to evidential repositioning of reader reactions towards visual reframing

“…Specific emphasis on the Arab world can be appreciated in the works by Muñiz et al,(2008), who have analysed the visual frames on immigration contained in journalistic photographs and television news images; López-del-Ramo et al, (2016), who have addressed the Syrian refugee crisis; or Parry (2010), who carried out a visual framing analysis of British photography during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. More specifically, Muslim women have been the object of analysis in the works byBowe et al, (2019), who explore visual framing and stereotyping in the burkini debate (2019); Bader (2019), who follows a visual framing approach to analyse pictures of female circumcision in Swiss newspapers; Dastgeer; Gade (2016), whose focus is on the visual framing of women in the Arab spring; orFahmy (2006), with a focus…”

The Good and the Bad Sides of the Protest: Framing Abortion Rights Protests in Photojournalism

“…Research suggests that photographs play a crucial role in the struggles over the discursive power of social movements and help define the credibility of those movements (Luhtakallio, 2013). Visuals shape the audience's understanding of social movements; in this case the demand of abortion rights, by creating and shaping perceptions as well as historical imagination (Bowe et al, 2019;Fahmy et al, 2007). Furthermore, studies around the protest paradigm (Chan & Lee, 1984) have continuously demonstrated that journalistic coverage on social movements tends to focus on the disruptive acts of a protest, depicting it as a criminal activity and differing from the intended goals of the protesters (McLeod & Detenber, 1999;Boyle & McLeod, 2018;Brown & Mourão, 2021).…”

“…Various scholars have mentioned a gap in the research on visual framing compared to textual framing (Coleman, 2009;Fahmy, 2004;Bowe, et al, 2019). That gap is even wider when looking at visual frames of protest news coverage.…”