The Visualization of (In)Security Through Iconic Images

• Název práce v češtině: The Visualization of (In)Security Through Iconic Images
• Název v anglickém jazyce: The Visualization of (In)Security Through Iconic Images
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2017/2018
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Katedra mezinárodních vztahů (23-KMV)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Dagmar Rychnovská, M.A., LL.M., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 05.10.2017
• Datum zadání: 05.10.2017
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 12.09.2018 00:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Jinonice
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 28.07.2018
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 12.09.2018
• Oponenti: doc. PhDr. Vít Střítecký, M.Phil., Ph.D.

Seznam odborné literatury

Bibliography

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Buzan, Wæver, and de Wilde (1998) Security: A New Framework for Analysis, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Campbell, David (2002a) “Atrocity, Memory, Photography: Imaging the Concentration Camps of Bosnia-The Case of ITN versus Living Marxism,” Part 1, Journal of Human Rights, 1(1) pp. 1–33;
Campbell, David (2002b) “Atrocity, Memory, Photography: Imaging the Concentration Camps of Bosnia-The Case of ITN Versus Living Marxism,” Part 2, Journal of Human Rights, 1(2) pp. 143–172;
Campbell, David (2007) “Geopolitics and Visuality: Sighting the Darfur Conflict,” Political Geography, 26(4)
Dodds K (2007) Steve Bell's Eye: Cartoons, Geopolitics and the Visualization of the 'War on Terror. Security Dialogue 38(2): 157-177.

Dombrowski, Andrew (2015) Frames within Themselves: Treating Visual Imagery as a Variable in IR Ohio: Ohio State University < https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file? accession=osu1420621975&disposition=inline >

Griffin, Michael (1999) “The Great War Photographs: Constructing Myths of History and Photojournalism,” in Picturing the Past: Media, History, and Photography, ed. Bonnie Brennen and Hanno Hardt (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999), 131.

Hansen L (2000) ‘The little mermaid’s silent security dilemma and the absence of gender in the Copenhagen School.’ Millennium 29(2): 285–306.

Hansen L (2006) Security as Practice. London: Routledge.

Hansen, Lene (2011) ‘Theorizing the image for Security Studies: Visual securitization and the Muhammad Cartoon Cirsis’ European Journal of International Relations 17(1)

Hansen, Lene (2014) ‘How images make world politics: International icons and the case of Abu Ghraib’ Critical Security Studies 41(2)

Hariman and Lucaites (2006) “Public Identity and Collective Memory in U.S. Iconic Photography: The Image of ‘Accidental Napalm’,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, 3(1) pp 35-66.

Hariman and Lucaites (2011) No Caption Needed Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Hariman and Lucaites, “Dissent and Emotional Management in a Liberal-Democratic Society: The Kent State Iconic Photography,” Rhetoric Society Quarterly 30(3) pp 4- 31

Hariman and Lucaites, No Caption Needed Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007

Heck and Schlag (2012) ‘Securitizing images: The female body and the war in Afghanistan’ European Journal of International Relations 19(4)

Iyer, Aarti, and Oldmeadow (2006) ‘Picture this: emotional and political responses to photographs of the Kenneth Bigley kidnapping’ European Journal of Social Psychology 35(5)

Jenkins, Neale and Deno (1967) “Differential Memory for Picture and Word Stimuli,” Journal of Educational Psychology 58 pp 303-7

Kellner, Douglas (2004) '9/11, spectacles of terror, and media manipulation' Critical Discourse studies 1(1)

Lovelace, Angie (2010) ‘Iconic photos of the Vietnam War era: A semiotic analysis as a means of understanding’ The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications • (1) 1

McDonald M (2008) ‘Securitization and the construction of security’. European Journal of International Relations 14(4): 563–587

Mitchell, W.J.T (2011) Cloning Terror Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Mitchell, W.J.T. 1995. Picture Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Moeller F (2007) Photographic Interventions in Post-9/11 Security Policy. Security Dialogue 38(2): 179-96.

Neumann I and Nexon D (2006) Harry Potter and World Politics. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

O'Hegarty M, Pederson LL, Nelson DE, Mowery P, Gable JM, Wortley P. (2006) Reactions of young adult smokers to warning labels on cigarette packages. Am J Prev Med 30(6) pp4 67-73.

Rauer (2006) ‘Symbols in Action’ in Social Performance: Symbolic action, cultural pragmatics and rituals eds. By Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Resende & Budryte (2013) Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates London: Routledge

Roland Bleiker (2015) ‘Pluralist Methods for Visual Global Politics’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies 43(3)

Schlag, Gabi (2012) ‘Imagining Terrorism: 9/11, Osama bin Laden and Hillary's Hand’ Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Conference of Millennium Materialism and World Politics 20-22 October London: LSE

Sentilles, Sarah (2017) ‘How We Should Respond to Photographs of Suffering’ The New Yorker < https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/how-we-should- respond-to-photographs-of-suffering >
Shapiro MJ (2007) ‘The New Violent Cartography.’ Security Dialogue 38(3): 291-313

Stritzel H (2007) ‘Towards a theory of securitization: Copenhagen and beyond.’ European Journal of International Relations 13(3): 357–383.

Van Leeuwen and Jewitt (2004) Handbook of Visual Analysis London: SAGE Publications

Vuori J (2010) ‘A timely prophet? The Doomsday clock as a visualization of securitization moves with a global referent object’ Security Dialogue 41(3): 255–277

Weber C (2006) Imagining America at War. London: Routledge.

Wei, He (2015) Images and the construction of international security: a securitization studies perspective Foreign Affairs Review 32(4)
Weldes J (1999) To Seek out New Worlds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

William A. Callahan (2015) ‘The Visual Turn in IR: Documentary Filmmaking as a Critical Method’, Millennium - Journal of International Studies 43(3), pp. 891-910,

Williams MC (2003) ‘Words, images, enemies: Securitization and international politics.’ International Studies Quarterly 47(4): 511–531.

Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

Introduction: Background/ Rationale
The visual sphere has come to challenge the hegemony held by textual field. “The atom bomb burst into the American consciousness not through the written word, but a photo” and it was “television [which held] an integral part of what made the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) the event that was 9/11”.( Dombrowski 2015: 1).
While the ‘Linguistic Turn’ brought with it an emphasis on language, the Pictorial/Visual turns have taken images to the forefront in order to assess how they fit in to the practice and study of IR. Since then, scholars have ventured into this inquiry, yet it is still a growing topic of investigation (Schlag 2012; Hansen 2011, 2014; Callahan (2015), Bleiker 2015; Bleiker, Campbell, Emma and Nicholson 2013; Campbell 2002a, 2002b, 2007; Rauer 2006; Dodds 2007; Sharpiro 2007; Neumann and Nexon 2006; Welds 1999; Moeller 2007; Weber 2006). Within the dissertation to follow this proposal, the main research puzzle will focus on such an examination of images and their role within security.
The development of modern technologies has transformed the way people produce, receive and view mass visual communications. While only a small fraction of a states population may physically be present to witness an international event first hand, the rest of the population, and the world, view such events through visual imagery. Whether it be access to 24-hour television news coverage, social media, or the digitization of magazines and newspapers, access to, and availability, of this imagery has never been greater. Such an increase in modernity has amplified the amount of coverage and the speed at which images are circulated.
Still photos, which will be the object of analysis to the subsequent dissertation, are of great significance because “as many studies have shown, visual images are recalled more quickly and for a longer time than words.” (Lovelace 2010: 26; Jenkins, Neale and Deno 1967; Anglin & Levie 1985). The ability of images to circulate also increases their potential power “for the simple reason that they can reach more audiences than words” (Hansen 2011: 57). Anyone can see an image for himself or herself, which then makes it more real to their own lives. They have now looked, witnessed, and thus experienced an event within their own time and space. Images could consequently be seen as a universal language. In this way, visuals transcend borders allowing people to see what they normally could not on their own, to otherwise remote and distant times and spaces.
It is important to note that there is something about showing and seeing a visual that is somehow more powerful than reading written text or listening to verbal cues (Resende and Budryte 2013; Bleiker 2015; Heck and Schalg 2012; Iyer, Aarti, and Oldmeadow 2006; O'Hegarty et al. 2006). An example to emphasize the power of visuals, are the warnings that can come before them. Think ‘this image may contain objectionable material’, ‘view at your own risk’ or ‘graphic content’. Verbal/written cues never come with such warnings and one should consider why (Bleiker 2015: 875). It is therefore essential to continue such research on images, specifically in relation to different security issues.
Since people are gaining their knowledge of significant world events through visual imagery and the access to and availability/circuability of such imagery, that has the capacity to be seen by all, is ever increasing, one can now see why this area of research is important, and consequently the topic of my subsequent dissertation.
Research Question: Aims and Objectives
The current, yet provisional, RQ and working title is thus: ‘The Visualization of (In)Security Through Iconic Images: Do the iconic images of the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki, The falling man of 9/11, the polar bear on a melting ice cap, and the boy on the beach influence peoples understanding of security issues (specifically Nuclear Power, Terrorism, Climate Change, and The Refugee Crisis) in the West? Why or why not? While this RQ and subsequent dissertation may be viewed as ‘new’ in regards to the combination of photographs, it is also shedding light on and pulling from the already researched topics of visual securitization, the Pictorial and Visual Turns, iconic images, and images in international security.
Most inquires into this area of research usually focus on one issue and pertain to graphic images (Hanse 2014; Heck and Schlag and 2012; Hariman and J Lucaites 2001, 2003, 2011; Kellner 2004; Lovelace 2010; Mitchell 2011; Sentilles 2017;). It is therefore important to question other images across different issues. My RQ will help to add to the knowledge about the impact of images by looking into a variety of different photographs (not just graphic ones) across a diverse range of issues (without limitation to just one).
The overall aim and objective of my RQ is to show that images do have a significant role within security studies by examining how images work on the observer. How what we see (or do not see) can potentially influence our understandings of what different security issues mean. Thus, the images that become iconic, and therefore repeatedly circulated for long periods of time, may have the ability to shape or form particular understandings of certain issues.
The predicted outcome is that my dissertations findings will show that it is not just graphic images or one specific issue that can have an impact on the general public’s understandings of security, but a diverse range of iconic images can continue to represent and aid in the understanding of nuclear power, terrorism, climate change, and the refugee crisis. Consequently emphasizing that images clearly play a role within the political/international sphere and that they are essential to understanding events and instances that happen within the global arena.
Literature Review
In regards to the RQ, there are three main areas of literature to analyze: (1) The Copenhagen School (CS) and their emphasis on the ‘speech act’ and the subsequent critique of such a focus, (2) Attention to images, the Pictorial/Visual Turns, and (3) Existing research on Iconic Images.
(1) CS and its Critique
The CS has made great contributions to the study of securitization, and still does. Three prominent scholars within the CS, Barry Buzan, Ole Wæver, and Jaap de Wilde, heavily discussed the concept of securitization in their 1998 book ‘Security: A New Framework for Analysis’. They defined securitization as a ‘speech act’, emphasizing linguistics as superior within their theory (1998). The problem here is that they, and other CS scholars, pay little attention too the significance that images can play within security and securitization theory. Various authors have since criticized this narrow attachment to speech/text, and emphasize the importance of the study of images (Hansen 2000, 2011, 2014; McDonald 2008; Moeller 2007; Stritzel 2007; Vuori 2010; Williams 2003).
Michael C. Williams is heavy on his critique off CS. He highlights that the effect of modernization and its subsequent increase of visual communications around the world is not taken into account within the CS (Williams 2003: 511). He also stresses “an examination of the ways in which images may function as communicative acts, analysis of how meaning is conveyed by images, as well as an assessment of how images interact with more familiar forms of verbal rhetoric” could be essential in understanding a broader meaning of security (Williams 2003: 527). Lene Hansen goes even further when she states images can “constitute something or someone as threatened” and “securitizing actors [may] argue that images ‘speak security’” (2011: 51). Such a critique of the CS has influenced the ‘turns’ that have come to follow the ‘Linguistic Turn’.
(2) Pictorial/Visual ‘Turns’
Introduced by W.J.T Mitchell in 1994, and stressed by Roland Bleiker (2015), the ‘Pictorial Turn’ is evidence of the call, and response, for research on the importance of images in IR. “The picture now has a status somewhere between what Thomas Kuhn called a ‘paradigm’ and an ‘anomaly’, emerging as a central topic of discussion in the Human Sciences in the way language did” (Mitchell 1995: 1). It was at the start of the 1990’s that Mitchell declared the ‘Pictorial Turn’ and expressed that “although we have a thousand words about pictures, we do not have a satisfactory theory of them” (1994: 9). The ‘Pictorial Turn’ was really the first expeditionary inquiry to the study of images in IR. It exposed that we didn’t know what images were, their relationship to text, how they work on observers, producers, and the rest of the world, or what is to be done with them (Mitchell 1995: 9). While there have been many scholars since to lead inquiries into this field (Schlag 2012; Hansen 2011, 2014; Callahan 2015; Bleiker 2015; Campbell 2003; Rauer 2006; Dodds 2007; Sharpiro 2007; Neumann and Nexon 2006; Welds 1999; Moeller 2007; Weber 2006), my research will fill some of the gaps by looking into mostly non-graphic images, as well as analyzing images from a diverse range of security issues (both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’).
The ‘Pictorial Turn’ can be seen in parallel to the ‘Visual Turn’. “The recent visual turn… in security studies is a reaction to the omni-presence of images in a globalized (media) world” (Shclag 2012: 2). HE Wei expressed that “the visual turn in contemporary social culture has highlighted the images ontological status and its role in the social construction in symbolic systems” (2015: 111). William Callahan further discusses the importance of images by stressing that the ‘Visual Turn’ may be able to improve research within IR on self/other relations (2015: 1). While all three authors place value on the ‘Visual Turn’ and thus are relevant to the aims of this dissertation, their perspectives and empirical research differs. Each piece of literature generates a gap to be filled. Callahan (2015) focuses on films, whereas I will be focusing on still images. While Schlag (2012) does concentrate on still images, she limits herself by only looking into one security issue, terrorism. I on the other hand will aim to show the relation images have to a variety of issues.
The work of Lene Hansen (2006, 2011, 2014) has significantly influenced my research and subsequent RQ. Her methodological frameworks in both her 2011 and 2014 publications have helped placate the issue of a lack of proper methodology within this field of images and IR. She also emphasizes that images are different from words due to their immediacy, circulablity and ambiguity (2011: 55). This analysis fits right in with the continual development of modern technologies and its effect on the spread of images. The immediacy is now faster, the circuablity vaster, and the ambiguity even greater. This makes images potentially all the more powerful. Gabi Schlag’s (2012) use of the iconological approach to viewing images pertaining to terrorism will also be helpful to look back on for my research into multiple issues.
(3) Iconic Images
According to Robert Hariman and John Lucaites, iconic images are “images (photographs) that appear on paper, electronics or data media, which record the history of important events, activating strong emotional identities or responses” (2007: 27). Iconic images do not just record history, but they themselves are able to create new moments. Viewers “see not only the image… but also think of more important [or other] events or historical memory” (Wei 2015: 81). W.J.T Mitchell calls them “world pictures” that are “circulated and instantly recognized… require[ing] only minimal cues, visual or verbal to be called to mind” (2011: 142) While Michael Griffin spoke of “great pictures” and described them as typically symbolizing “national valor, human courage, inconceivable inhumanity, or senseless loss” (1999: 131)
Such iconic images are ones that continue to be circulated even after the initial period of being taken and/or distributed. ”What characterizes iconic images is their ability to remain in circulation and be emotionally responded to over longer periods of time” (Hansen 2014: 275). While “longer periods of time” is open to interpretation, some scholars define iconic images as images that have been in continual circulation for at least a decade (Hariman and Lucaites 2007). Conversely, this leaves out the potential for ‘instant icons’ propagated by David Campbell (2002a: 1). Opening up the possibility for images to become icons quicker than a decade suits the current acceleration of modern communications and media technologies. Regardless of how long it takes an image to reach iconic status, they are first and foremost, “free standing images, widely circulated”, “recognized by everyone, [seen as] representations of historically significant events, activate strong emotional responses, and are regularly reproduced across a range of media, genres, or topics (Hansen 2014: 287; Lovelace 2010: 36; Hariman and Lucaites 2001: 4-31). Within that definition there is no emphasis on a designated time needed to pass in order for an image to be iconic. Instead it is left open to societal and contextual interpretation.
While most of the literature seems to focus on images of a graphic nature and in regards to one single issue, my RQ will try to close those gaps by looking into images of a less graphic form, while also trying to show that images can affect the representations and understandings of both hard and soft security issues. Thus it is from the aforementioned literature that my dissertation will gain its starting point.
Methodology
I will address my question by looking into four still photographs (See Appendix). Each photo will fall under one of the four issues. I specifically chose those four issues to show that images can affect security issues across the spectrum from ‘hard-security’ to ‘soft-security’.
For the issue of Nuclear Power, the photo chosen is of the mushroom cloud over Nagasaki taken in 1945 by Charles Levy. Listed among TIMES’s 100 most iconic photos it was taken before the prevalence of color photography, that we have today, and it captures one of the only two uses of nuclear weapons on a population. It is thus a significant photo that displays a significant world event. The Photo chosen for terrorism is the falling man taken by Richard Drew on 9/11. This photo was chosen due to its difference to other photos taken on the day. It is not a wide panning shot of the catastrophic violence that took place, but a narrow still image of a single person falling. While it may convey death upon further inspection, it is not gruesomely graphic which makes it unique. It is also listed by TIME online among the 100 most iconic photos. The photo chosen for Climate Change is of the lone polar bear standing on a melting piece of ice taken by ARTICNET in 2006 for a TIME magazine cover. It was chosen due to its symbolic nature, as well as its iconicity that has lasted years in regards to an ever-changing security issue. Lastly, the photo chosen for the refugee crisis is of the boy, Alan Kurdi, on the beach in Turkey, taken by Nilufer Demir in 2015. This image was fast spread on both news sites and social media so I felt it could be a suitable way to represent the idea of an ‘instant’ icon, one that has not been in circulation for a least a decade but still has traits of an icon. It is also listed by TIME online among the 100 most iconic photos. I have chosen TIME as a source for my images due to its long-standing and large influence as a globally circulated source of news.
As of now, my version of a mixed methods approach would look something like this:
(1) Research (Primary/Secondary) into the available literature in order to examine theoretically how images may influence peoples understanding of security issues
(2) Image Analysis
a. Looking at the iconic image itself  drawn from Content Analysis and Lene Hansen’s Method (Van Leeuwen, Jewitt 2004; Hansen 2011,2014)
i. The formal composition of the image (what do we actually see? The Denotative Meaning and constitutions of the image)
ii. Its immediacy, circuability and ambiguity
iii. Strategies of depiction
b. Possible analysis of appropriations to emphasize iconic status (Hansen 2011,2014)
i. Are appropriations used to further represent and create understanding? For the original issue? A new issue? Both?
c. Survey (and/or interviews) to see how these images influence peoples understandings of security issues today
i. Survey Monkey
ii. Potential questions (work in progress)
1. Before showing the images- where do you get your information on world events? What do you do more often: read/listen to everything fully or glance at the images quickly/ have the TV on in the background? When you think of [insert issue] what image(s) come to mind?
2. After seeing the images –
a. Denotative meaning- What do you see? What does this image show? When did it take place? Where? Where you physically present at this event?
b. Connotative meaning – What does this image mean to you (as an individual)? What does this image mean to your population (The west)?
c. Peoples Understanding – Do you feel that [image X] has shaped your understanding of the security? Why or why not?
The idea of a survey and/or interviews is still a work in progress, but if carried out properly, it could add great value and data to my research. As Roland Bleiker emphasized “our understanding of terrorism [and other security issues]… is inevitably intertwined with how images dramatically depict events” and that the complexity of these images require mixed and multiple methods pulled together in order to understand the links between images and security (2015: 872).
Conclusion: Limitations
With the use of a survey there is the risk of sampling bias. I will alleviate this by making creating it on Survey Monkey in order to reach a broad and diverse group of participants that will hopefully represent the western population. It is also important to take into consideration the possibility of researcher bias. As I do come from a western-centric background I will need to be reflexive in my research and how I conduct the analysis of my images and the surveys/interviews. My choice in photos may be viewed by some as a limitation, both quantity and quality. In regards to quantity, the time and space limits on my dissertation, in my opinion, will only allow for four images if they are each to be discussed well. Thus where Schlag (2012) was limited to one issue, I am limited to four. While it may be more than others have done, it also may be less. As for quality, while I have justified my reasoning for choosing the images for my dissertation, it could still be seen as opinion based and therefore leaves open the space for others to continue this type of research with their own choice of photos. One last limitation, and possible struggle, will be the limited information on methods for images and IR. While there are many texts on visual components and methods, “they rarely engage political and international themes” (Bleiker 2015: 873). However, my research and subsequent dissertation will do its best to work through this limitation with the application of a mixed/multiple methods approach.
Timeline:
October-January/February – Continue research (narrow down if necessary)
February – Design survey and/or interview questions
March – Test survey and/or interview questions; Begin content analysis of photos
April – Implement survey and/or interviews; Cont. content analysis
May-July – Analysis and write up
July 28th – Submission of Dissertation