Passing the “Breakfast Test”: Exploring the Effects of Varying Degrees of Graphicness of War Photography in the New Media Environment

Abstract

In the context of new media to which young audiences are exposed, this study examined whether the level of graphicness depicted in images of conflict influenced viewers’ war perceptions. Results showed that higher levels of graphicness in images of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict did not affect beliefs regarding the severity of this issue or attitudes toward US involvement in the conflict. However, findings did suggest that highly graphic visuals led to increased negative mood states. The study also found that level of graphicness moderated the impact of preexisting attitudes toward Middle Easterners on perceived severity of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, suggesting that the graphicness of visuals may play more of a moderating role in explaining war perceptions. Overall, results indicate that journalistic concerns about presenting highly graphic images to viewers might have now become unfounded.

Acknowledgments

Shahira Fahmy is the of this journal's editorial board.

Notes

¹So far the reluctance of US media to feature graphic images because of a concern it might offend audiences has had merit. A few years ago, a study by Pew Research suggested the public commended the media for not showing the graphic images of four US contractors hanging from a bridge in Fallujah, Iraq. About 70% agreed with the decision of news organizations not to air these images (see Fallows & Rainie, 2004).

²In general, critics contend the US media is extremely conservative compared to other countries regarding running graphic visuals (Robertson, 2004). Limor and Himelboim (2006) compared 242 press codes across 94 countries. They reported cultural differences explained at least some of the differences in media ethics among various countries.

³Interestingly, a survey of photojournalists and photo editors found organizations’ codes of ethics were perceived to be not strongly considered in selecting graphic visuals covering 9/11 and the Afghan War in US media (Fahmy, 2005).

⁴ Media consumption. Participants’ media consumption habits were assessed by a 12-item inventory that asked participants to select the most appropriate response estimating the amount (In general, how much television to do you watch during the average week? How often do you watch national news on television? How often do you read international newspapers?) and type of media consumed (Please indicate which major daily United States newspapers you read; Please indicate which online news source websites you view to get news information, check all that apply). The nine items that were measured as continuous variables were subjected to a reliability analysis. Unfortunately, the largest alpha for this scale when removing inconsistent items was α = .69. While it was tempting to keep an averaged media consumption measure in the analysis, zero-order correlations showed that this variable was not significantly associated with any of the outcome variables. Ultimately, it was decided that media consumption would not be included in any of the multiple regression analyses due to the instability of the scale and its possible impact on the relationship between other predictor variables and the outcome measures of interest.

⁵ Beliefs about conflict and foreign policy perceptions. The items used here measured only perceptions regarding US involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Clearly, there are other countries and nongovernmental organizations that play a role in this conflict; however the United States is viewed by many in the international community as a central third-party figure that could successfully resolve the dispute. Furthermore, given the sample used for this study (US college students), asking questions related to US involvement likely increased the relevancy of this topic among participants. This hopefully increased participant interest, allowing for more accurate responses.