The spectacle of suffering and death: The photographic representation of war in Greek newspapers

C Konstantinidou

doi:10.1177/1470357208088756

The spectacle of suffering and death

The photographic representation of war in Greek newspapers

Dados Bibliográficos

ID	12700517
Autores	C Konstantinidou (0000-0003-3134-700X, University of Crete, autor correspondente)
Ano	2008
Volume	7
Fascículo	2
Páginas	143-169
Data de publicação	2008-04-11
Peer Reviewed	Sim
Open Access	Sim
Tipo	ARTICLE
Periódico	Visual Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódico	ISSN: 1470-3572 • E-ISSN: 1741-3214
Editora	SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI	10.1177/1470357208088756
OpenAlex	W2114223504
Idioma	EN
Citações recebidas	17
Referências citadas	27

This article analyses the visual construction of human suffering in war, with special reference to the signifying practices of the photographs published in Greek newspapers during the Second Iraq War. The author carries out a socio-semiotic analysis, arguing that the overall construction of the Second Iraq War in the Greek press — illustrated by two case studies which are examined in detail — combines contradictory elements and assumptions. Representations of the war are `framed' by the `overpoliticization' of the Greek public sphere and the dominant political culture synthesizing themes of `anti-Americanism', `anti-globalization' and `pro-Third Worldism', but also a particular version of what Said called `Orientalism'. More specifically, the insistence on spectacular images of suffering, and the combination of a humanitarian discourse of compassion for the `innocent distant victims of war' with populist and Greek Christian Orthodox conceptualizations of the self are constitutive elements of the newspapers' signifying practices, which aid the Greek press to be critical of the hegemonic western discourse regarding the Second Iraq War without, however, slipping to the other side of `Orientalist binary oppositions'. On the contrary, this persistence on the humanitarian discourse of compassion towards victims is pivotal in identifying with the western moral virtues of `civilized' humanity

Aesthetics · Art · Hegemony · Literature · Media studies · Newspaper · Orientalism · Political science · Politics · Public sphere · Representation (politics · Sociology · Spectacle · Terrorism · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Visual Culture and Art Theory

Obras citantes distintas	17
Citações por ano	0,3
Intervalo de citações	1970 - 2026 (57)
Velocidade de citação	current
Altamente citado	Não
Tipos de citação	Neutras: 16