No abstract

Iconic images are those that rise to the forefront of our collective, visual public consciousness to become the defining, enduring image of an event: a naked Vietnamese girl screaming out in pain following a napalm attack, U.S. Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima, and a German dirigible engulfed in flames and falling to the ground. Iconic images have a discursive value that helps citizens navigate and understand the political and social contexts of complex events. Traditionally, news photographs became iconic largely through their prominent placement on the front pages of elite newspapers across the globe. But, undeniably, in the age of digital news, mobile phones/tablets, and social media, the media component has changed the equation for the formation of iconic imagery and collective visual consciousness. With the speed, ease of access, and abundance of information sources available in the current age, a volume of images can now represent a significant (or not so significant) event. This monograph traces the development of iconic image literature and then proposes a model termed the “influence-network model of the photojournalistic icon,” which predicts how photographs of events become iconic (or not).

The picture of 3-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, whose dead body washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015, was lauded as iconic after it went viral. Within hours, Aylan was a symbol, a hashtag and a meme. This project analyzes funerary Aylan memes to understand their meanings and functions as they proliferated in cyberspace. Through iconographic tracking and visual rhetorical analysis, the project expands the functions of memes from visual jokes and social and political commentary to tools of grieving and atonement. The study demonstrates how memes are deployed to subvert and renegotiate reality, in this case to create a ‘better ending’ for the child and seek reparations for his death. The project also suggests that the rhetorical powers of iconic images may be eroding in remix culture due to their digital appropriations.

The Situation Room photograph, which shows President Barack Obama and cabinet members watching the Osama bin Laden raid in 2011, remains the dominant official image of the event. Within hours of its public release, scores of Internet memes of the famous picture offered alternative interpretations of what had taken place in Pakistan during the military mission, often contradicting the president’s positive description of the operation. This qualitative interpretative study argues that many of the memes that proliferated through cyberspace symbolically subverted the bin Laden raid, disrupting and challenging its celebratory framing by the administration. The study highlights potential competition that Internet memes might pose to institutional accounts of the past and to icons themselves, suggesting possible fracturing of iconicity in remix culture.

A recent news image – that of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy washed ashore on the Turkish coast as a result of refugees fleeing the ongoing war in Syria – resonated with international audiences and world leaders, becoming a seeming catalyst for action. But, as time has shown, the effect was short-lived. Through survey data, this research explores iconic images and visual collective memory throughout history and into the era of digital news and social media. More specifically, the research considers connections between public acknowledgement, emotional reaction, and image recognition. Studying such relationships will help us to further understand the (in)disputable ‘power’ that famous photographs possess to imprint themselves onto people’s minds, thus leading to supposed effect and action.