“I Am Burning, I Am Burning”

Abstract

This article draws on studies that explore forms of contemporary journalism which focus on the role played by the expression of emotions and feelings. We present results from a qualitative study which examined how British tabloid newspapers covered acid attacks on women between 2010-2016. Drawing on the notion of affect, we explore the extent to which journalists try and turn painful embodied states into rational discourse. The data analysed suggest that such experiences cannot be completely captured by language. The journalists make use of particular narrative strategies focussing on the incident of the attack by highlighting how pain was experienced by the individual. This often results in the women being singled out and isolated. While there is some discussion of the contexts in which the violence occurred, the wider sociocultural background is absent from the articles. We conclude that the focus on intense pain in the articles may enable a particular affective relationality to emerge that is felt by victims, journalists and audiences alike.

‘Scars: How Our Wounds Make Us Who We Are’: Improving appearance-based stigma, conceptualisation of beauty and body esteem through a documentary

“…Furthermore, existing media portrayals of visible difference often reinforce incorrect assumptions and negative attitudes. 12 For example, visible differences such as scarring are often used in film and television as a reason for a character to be bitter, evil or a victim. 12,13 There is a need for easily and widely accessible interventions aiming to promote understanding and acceptance of appearance diversity.…”

“…12 For example, visible differences such as scarring are often used in film and television as a reason for a character to be bitter, evil or a victim. 12,13 There is a need for easily and widely accessible interventions aiming to promote understanding and acceptance of appearance diversity. Such interventions may work to reduce stigma and thus improve the experience of those living with, and affected by, visible differences.…”

“…10 Another cause of this anxiety may be the learning of negative stereotypes, which are perpetuated through media depictions of those with differences. [11][12][13] Intergroup anxiety can be overcome through many components, two of which are knowledge about the outgroup and contact with those in it. 9 Therefore, providing education and a means of contact with the outgroup allows for individuals to readjust negative assumptions about those with differences, potentially reducing stigma against them.…”

Sacha Polak's Dirty God and the Politics of Authenticity

“…31 Although the victims (and perpetrators) were mostly male, it was the stories of young female victims that dominated the popular press. 32 As the public faces of the epidemic of acid violence, their scars became signifiers of a pathologized masculinity and its devastating effects. Dirty God shares the news media's focus on the disfigured female body, but unlike the tabloids -which detail exactly what happened, and what it felt like -Jade's story is told without flashbacks.…”

“…34 Their actual subject is not violence, but pain: indescribable, unprecedented pain. 35 Dirty God is not about pain; it is a closely observed study of human relationships -between friends and lovers, mothers and daughters. The tabloid accounts, by contrast, 'create a scenario of loneliness'.…”