Imaginative geographies of distant suffering

Two cases of the Syrian Civil War on television

Bibliographic Data

ID3977335
AuthorsPavel Doboš (0000-0001-9542-679X, Masaryk University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume19
Issue6
Pages764-788
Publication date2018-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2017.1312695
OpenAlexW2600276885
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited74

The paper builds upon distant suffering studies and the ‘analytics of mediation’. It observes how television performances of suffering expose spectators to dispositions to feel, think and act towards each instance of suffering. It analyses the news coverage of civilians’ suffering in the Syrian Civil War that was presented by Czech public television broadcaster. The interpretation of imaginative geographies expands the analysis because of the need for more spatially sensitive approaches to distant suffering. Imaginative geographies coproduce diverse spacetimes and distant suffering studies often overlook how media performances are shaped according to spacetimes where suffering occurs. Two spacetimes are contrasted here; the Syrian Civil War before and after the Islamic State gained prominence in it. In both cases, the aim is to interpret in what ways the distance is translated into difference through imaginative geographies and how it shapes television performances of suffering. The analysis shows that Orientalist imaginative geographies appear in both cases. However, while in the first case imaginative geographies empower pity and dispositions to act towards suffering, in the second case they do not. It is because of the difference between Bashar al-Assad as a local Oriental persecutor and the Islamic State as the global threat

Aesthetics · Art · Interpretation (philosophy · Islam · Literature · Media studies · Mediation · Orientalism · Pity · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Global Security and Public Health · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy

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