Visual Cultures of Inhospitality

Bleiker, Roland; Campbell, David; Hutchison, Emma

doi:10.1080/10402659.2014.906884

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…But to represent a whole, complex crisis primarily through the imagery of innocent children and vulnerable women raises other issues. Overusing such visuals reinforce preexisting notions of the pathological weakness of refugees, stereotypical gender dimensions, and colonialist imagery of Eastern weakness (Bleiker et al, 2014; Dogra, 2012; Johnson, 2011; Wright, 2002, 2004, 2014). Disproportionate numbers of such images perpetuate stereotypical gender dimensions of women as fragile, vulnerable, helpless, and passive (Bleiker et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

Irom

2021

Media, Culture & Society

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The paper brings together two segments of contemporary humanitarian practice – celebrity advocacy and virtual reality (VR) – in order to more fully comprehend the relationship between emergent technologies and humanitarian advocacy efforts. Numerous VR documentaries intended to immerse audiences into the full experience of “distant suffering” have been crafted for audiences in the global North. Between 2015 and 2019, the United Nations invested in at least 21 VR documentaries covering crisis situations around the world. VR’s popularity is premised on the promise of bringing spectators and “distant sufferers” together through immersive experiences. Performances of humanitarian advocacy use traditional representational tools of Western humanitarian discourse. This leads to the question whether advocacy efforts using immersive VR flatten real and material differences that exist between sufferers and spectators in safe zones through the “illusion of co-suffering”? To what extent do such experiences risk “improper distance” by translating the irreducible alterity of other lives into familiar terms?

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

Irom

2021

Media, Culture & Society

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“…The representation of children and its iconographic value in humanitarian communication has been extensively explored by the literature. Scholars have shown how not only children (and women as we have seen the previous section) embody a particular kind of powerlessness, but also that they rarely look threatening (Malkki 1995(Malkki , 1996, symbolizing the humanitarian subject by excellence (Bleiker et al 2014;Burman 1994;Byrne and Baden 1995). By focusing particularly on NGOs' communication, Manzo has argued that "the iconography of childhood is a signifier of an NGO corporate identity" (Manzo 2008, 635).…”

Section: Infantilizationmentioning

confidence: 93%

Threatened, the Refugee as the Referent Object

Massari

2021

IMISCOE Research Series

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Since its inception, humanitarian communication has consistently represented beneficiaries as referent objects of a threat, as threatened. Images of victims, whether in the traditional representation of a sea of humanity’ (Malkki 1996) or in the more recent aesthetic style of the individual portrait, have consistently constituted the large bulk of humanitarian NGOs’ visual production. This chapter focuses on the representation of Syrian refugees as ‘threatened’ to show how this depiction of refugees is just another form of securitization, whereby Syrians are depicted as infantilized and passive victims in need of external intervention. In order to do so, it is worthwhile digressing to understand how remarkable have been the structural changes that humanitarianism has undergone over the last quarter century and how new relief assistance’ modalities, while seeking to putting individuals and their rights center stage have also primarily represented them in terms of victimhood.

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“…More recently, Bleiker et al (2013) have confirmed this trend, studying how Australian media represents refugees. The analysis showed that images of medium or large groups of people have prevailed in the visual depiction of people on the move, while pictures of individuals with distinguishing traits -commonly considered more likely to provoke feelings of empathy and compassion (Bleiker et al 2014) -have remained relatively absent. The effect of this dehumanizing visual framing, they argue, has been that of reinforcing an image of refugees associated with threat and security concerns, rather than a humanitarian challenge.…”

Section: Visual Representation Of Refugeesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanitarianism, Securitization and Humanitarian Communication

Massari

2021

IMISCOE Research Series

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To unpack the role that transnational humanitarian NGOs play in contemporary systems of governance and highlight how they contribute, through their visual production, to the securitization of the refugee issue, it is important to introduce the notions of humanitarianism, global governance, and securitization. Also, since NGOs do not operate in a vacuum but within a highly competitive media environment, it is equally important to reflect on the ways in which humanitarian ideals are translated into their communication strategies and how these fit within the larger communication landscape. This chapter presents the literature and the theoretical framework on which this book is based.

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Visual Cultures of Inhospitality

Cited by 32 publications

References 9 publications

Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

Threatened, the Refugee as the Referent Object

Humanitarianism, Securitization and Humanitarian Communication

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