Shiny Happy People Holding Guns: 21st-Century Images of War

Abstract

When U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan filter their war experiences through visual aesthetics characteristic of contemporary mobile messaging culture, they produce a new visual discourse for war in the Internet age. A critical reading of 250 Facebook photos reveals an emphasis on colloquial representations of young adult life: hanging out, goofing off, playing games, and wearing costumes. For example, one image depicts two Marines in full desert camouflage posing for a picture while wearing skeleton masks. The Marine on the left looks down at his digital camera, either reviewing a photo or getting ready to hand it off to the “shooter.” The gear in the photo (masks aside) suggests that they are prepared for a combat scenario. Mortars and rockets could hit their base at any moment. The silliness and nonchalance captured in the photo seems antithetical to their physical locale, especially a condition of imminent danger. Most audiences would not recognize this as a combat scenario. Photos like this reflect the ways in which our shifting visual repertoire—with emphases on friendship, domesticity, and spontaneity—modifies visual discourses for contemporary war.

Notes

Notes

¹ The University's Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the use of Facebook screen capture for the purposes of this research. IRB ID # 201109764.

² The University's Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved these interviews with the Marine Corps. IRB ID #201101755.

³ The significance of the grenade pouch is even more thought provoking: Are cameras as equally valuable and/or destructive as an explosive device?

⁴ Facebook's album feature is distinct from other photo-sharing media such as camera phone picture messaging or even other Facebook photo-sharing capabilities such as profile pictures or large photo galleries. Whereas the galleries are a dynamic archive where other network members can add and remove photos by tagging, sharing, and so on, Facebook albums are a more fixed, formal mode of presentation. Only profile owners have total control over their albums.

⁵ This sense of urgency has been exacerbated by a popular photo-sharing service that began in 2012, Snapchat, which allows users to review a photo only once before it disappears into digital oblivion.

⁶ “Ka-Bar” is the contemporary popular name for the USMC combat knife.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Silvestri

Lisa Silvestri is an assistant professor of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University. She thinks most deeply about the ethical and moral dimensions of digital culture and the problem of war. Some of her recent publications appear in Media War & Conflict, The Review of Communication, and Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal. E-mail: [email protected]