Visual (de)humanization: construction of Otherness in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis

Abstract

This study examines how Otherness is constructed visually in newspaper photographs of the refugee crisis. This visual rhetoric analysis examines the form, content, and function of images and explores the rhetorical strategies deployed in visualizations of the refugee crisis in a mainstream Finnish national newspaper from 2015 to 2016. The data consisted of 1,473 images. The study identified six rhetorical strategies used for dehumanizing refugees: massifying, separating, passivating, demonizing, individualizing, and recontextualizing the Other. The rhetorical strategies in turn constructed four discourses related to refugees, namely those of threat and victimhood aimed at dehumanizing as well as personhood and distance aimed at humanizing the Other. The paper contributes to the current knowledge on dehumanization and humanization of refugees in public discourse by unpacking the subtle visual mechanisms through which these processes occur.

Visual humanization of refugees: A visual rhetorical analysis of media discourse on the war in Ukraine

“…Another recurrent image type represents Ukrainian mothers in bomb shelters or in temporary locations in Ukraine after being forced to flee from their homes. In Figure 7, the untidy surroundings, the fact that the mother is sitting on the floor, and the outerwear worn by the mother and the child communicate the transience of their location (see Martikainen & Sakki, 2021). The serious faces of the mother and the child, the alertness expressed by their open eyes, and the contrast between the dark shadows and cold light communicate tension and insecurity (see Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006).…”

“…We employed visual rhetorical analysis to study the content and structure of the news images as well as their social, political, and ideological functions (Danesi, 2017; Foss, 2005; Martikainen, 2019; Martikainen & Sakki, 2021). We operationalized a visual rhetorical analysis using content, compositional, and sociosemiotic analyses.…”

“…Third, the visual rhetorical approach regards images as visual arguments that must be examined in relation to their social, political, and cultural contexts (Kjeldsen, 2017). Therefore, research on visual rhetoric is a socio-visual analysis (Martikainen, 2023).…”

“…These representations of Ukrainians in the Polish press could reflect the framing of displaced Ukrainians as war refugees instead of being portrayed as a threat to economy and welfare that were the dominant frames of the refugee “crisis” in 2015–16. This suggests that macro‐structures and international developments shape how refugees are reported in newspapers (KhosraviNik, 2009), constructing frames of dehumanization for media images of refugees during the refugee “crisis” of 2015 (Alcaraz‐Mármol & Soto‐Almela, 2020; Martikainen & Sakki, 2021) while leaving potential for humanization frames in the ongoing Ukrainian crisis.…”

Reklama religijna w działaniach Kościoła katolickiego w Polsce na rzecz uchodźców ukraińskich

“…Analiza zawartości przekazów medialnych dotyczących konfl iktu rosyjsko-ukraińskiego ujawnia także tysiące grafi cznych artefaktów związanych z wojną na Ukrainie: fotografi i, memów, komiksów, karykatur, infografi ki, a także reklam. Jak dotąd nie powstały publikacje naukowe omawiające materiały wizualne związane z bieżącym konfl iktem zbrojnym, choć nie brakuje tekstów analizujących te związane z rosyjską agresją na Krym w 2014 roku oraz kryzysem uchodźczym w Europie lat 2014-2016, przy czym w znacznym stopniu dotyczą one fotografi i (Makhortykh & Sydorova, 2017;Zhang & Hellmueller, 2017;Chouliaraki & Stolic, 2017Hodalska, 2018;Amores, Arcila Calderón, & Stanek, 2019;Amores, Arcila Calderón, & Blanco-Herrero, 2020;Hansen, Adler-Nissen, & Andersen, 2021;Martikainen & Sakki, 2021;Bellander, 2022) i memów (Wiggins, 2016;Denisova, 2019;Pavlyuk, 2019;Gackowski & Brylska, 2022). Niewielkim zainteresowaniem badaczy cieszą się charytatywne kampanie społeczne i reklama charytatywna, choć w internecie nie brakuje informacji o tych najlepszych.…”