Photojournalism and Iconic Images in a Digital Age: Editorial Coverage of the Deliberations Over the Alan Kurdi Photographs

• In Event: Journalists’ Discourses About Journalism: Negotiating Professional Practices and Boundaries

Abstract

This article investigates how editorial coverage critically reflects on the role and impact of “iconic” photojournalistic images in today’s digitalized media landscape. Specifically, we examine reactions to the photographs of Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian refugee whose drowned corpse washed ashore in 2015. We analyse editorial content (editorial leaders, opinion columns, guest columns, letters to the editor) around this imagery in Danish, Canadian and British papers over a four-month period, from 2 September 2015 to 2 January 2016. The analysis reveals four issues central to editorial deliberations, namely: a) editorial boundaries and iconicity in a digital age; b) instantaneousness and historical photographic precedent; c) social media and the impact on photojournalism; and d) authenticity, compassion and the representational quality of images. This article accordingly points to a media ecology that has disturbed previous visual practices to a point where the norms governing photojournalistic communication are being reconsidered and redrawn.

Authors

• Mette Mortensen

• Stuart Allan, Cardiff U

• Chris Peters, Aalborg University Copenhagen