Visual Framing of the Syrian Conflict in News and Public Affairs Magazines

Abstract

Research indicates that international news is most often visually framed in terms of violence and disaster. Conflicts are visually framed in terms of the active participants and aftermath of battle instead of the affected bystanders or efforts to negotiate peace. An alternative frame proposed by Galtung promotes an emphasis on peaceful demonstration and negotiation instead of the usual aspects of conflict. Building on research that observed evidence of this peace framing in photographs related to conflict published in international media, this research examines visual framing of the 2011–2012 Syrian conflict that arose from the Arab Spring movement in northern Africa and the Middle East. The study analyzes 193 photographs published in two news magazines and nine public affairs magazines available to American readers to determine whether visual framing differs among magazines with differing purposes and differing political/editorial orientations. The analysis affirms the dominant visual frame of conflict through images of active fighting and victims but also notes that public affairs magazines published a higher proportion of photographs depicting peace framing. As the magazine environment becomes increasingly oriented to niche publications, the results present implications for the likelihood that a broad audience will experience similar visual framing of international news.

KEYWORDS:

• conflict
• framing
• international news coverage
• news magazines
• peace journalism
• photojournalism
• public affairs magazines
• Syria

Notes

1. Political orientation was determined by examining magazine content and published editorial statements and compared to the designated political orientation of publications on the world-newspapers.com website (World-Newspapers.com 2013). Publications considered conservative were National Review and Businessweek. Time, Newsweek, and The Economist were considered moderate publications. All others were considered liberal. The authors recognize an imbalance in the numbers of magazines of each perceived political orientation.