MA Erasmus Mundus Master
Journalism, Media and Globalisation
(joint degree)
WHEN IMAGES DO POLITICS:
The Role of Agents in the Study of Iconic Photographs
by
Celso Augusto de Freitas Filho
Student ID: 11240407
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication
Master’s programme Communication Science
Supervisor: dhr. dr. Rachid Azrout
Date of completion: 3
rdMay 2019
Abstract
From time to time, photojournalism produces pictures that stand beyond many others published daily, such as the ‘Napalm Girl’ or the ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’. This research aimed to investigate to what extent discursive agents can influence the
audience’s perception of a photograph as iconic. In the literature of iconic photographs, these images’ iconicity is assumed to be stimulated by discourses from media and political actors, and the production and reproduction of appropriations. Therefore, an experiment was conducted with 152 participants, randomly assigning subjects to four different conditions with four manipulated news articles, using the context of the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Three of the stimuli took into consideration these levels of influence, against one purely factual about the Yemeni war. The responses were analyzed in order to investigate if the exposure to manipulated texts with high
references of iconicity might affect the participant’s perception of the image as iconic. The results show that, in some levels, the presence of a discourse corroborating the iconicity can influence positively the subject’s perception, however there was no significant difference among the conditions (p > .05). These findings were discussed in the realm of the recent studies in the field and the researches regarding the effects of visuals in communication.
This May media worldwide were publishing articles about the 30 years of the Jeff Widener’s photograph of a lonely man facing tanks in a protest in China in 1989. The powerful Tiananmen Square picture not only influenced the political discourse by the end of the Cold War, but also crossed generations being appropriated as an icon of the fight for the democracy and civil rights around the globe (Hubbert, 2014). As that image, only few other ones have conquered this ability to “exert power in the shaping of news, politics, and public opinion” (Andén-Papadopoulos, 2008, p. 6).
Many scholars, such as Hariman and Lucaites (2007), Hansen (2015), Mortensen (2015), and Perlmutter (1998), have been trying to investigate the
circumstances and characteristics that make these iconic photographs more relevant and recognizable than innumerous images published daily. They are taken as images widely reproduced, historical representations of events, with a strong emotional identification from the audience (Hariman & Lucaites, 2007). They are understood to have an agenda-settler power (Hansen, 2015) and consequently being an important part of the collective memory (Cohen, Boudana, & Frosh, 2018). But how can we explain this phenomenon?
Often in these researches, the analysis can either focus on the role of the visual elements behind the images, such as their composition or the semiotics (e.g.,
Chouliaraki, 2013; and Kurasawa, 2012), or on the contexts where the photos are published on and how a certain elite gives meaning to them (e.g., Batziou, 2011; and Spratt, 2008). This thesis emphasizes the latter, i.e. exploring the reproduction by social actors and the political use of the icon.
In the literature, these icons are often created and strengthened by the discourse of media and other political actors, and through the constant appropriation. They work
in some kind of levels of influence – where it is assumed that the more discursive agents reproduce and appropriate them, the more they are considered iconic (Dahmen,
Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018). Based on these assumptions, the research took a closer look on how discursive agents make use and consequently can reinforce the iconicity of photographs, guided by following research question (RQ):
RQ – To what extent do discursive agents influence the perception of a photograph as iconic?
Most of the previous researches about this topic were carried out through qualitative methods and quantitative content analysis. My objective was to test if their assumptions can also be found in the controlled environment of an experimental research. Hence, an experiment was conducted based on the theoretical framework around the studies of iconic photographs.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
In general, the power of visuals have been a topic of investigation for many scholars. In this academic field, images are assumed not only to help journalists framing issues, but they also being a powerful tool when forming opinions or influencing the audience’s political behavior (Powell, Boomgaarden, De Swert, & De Vreese, 2015; Iyer, Webster, Hornsey, & Vanman, 2014; Iyer & Oldmeadow, 2006). In this sense, iconic photographs are not that different from other images published every day. However, they go beyond that, embracing this idea of a photo which ‘made history’ (Hubbert, 20114; Brink, 2000).
The first step to analyze this phenomenon is going through the concept of what an iconic photograph is understood to be in academia. From religious symbols to brand
therefore, has become a symbolic reference or a representation of an issue (Hansen, 2015; Brink, 2000). Photojournalism can be included in this conceptualization. Iconic photographs can be perceived by the audience as an authentic representation and a symbol of a certain reality (Brink, 2000).
This research is guided by the main concept of iconic photographs developed by Hariman and Lucaites (2007), a common ground among these studies. They situate their concept from how broadly certain pictures are recognized and reproduced through time. Thus, these icons are “understood to be representations of historically significant events, activate strong emotional identification or response, and are reproduced across a range of media, genres, or topics.” (Hariman & Lucaites, 2007, p. 27)
In this literature, an analysis of visual icons can either look through the semiotics of the image, such as the visual elements that allow this symbolic relation with the audience, or/and the interaction between social actors who give meaning to the photo (Kurasawa, 2012). In this sense, iconic photographs are assumed to be influential not only by their visual powers, but also by the way discursive agents refer and make use of them (Hansen, 2015). This is an important understanding for the purposes of this
research. As explained in the introduction, the study focused on how discursive agents interact with these images and, in this way, can create or reaffirm their iconicity.
So, what does it take for a picture to stand among others? According to
Perlmutter, “there is no definitive production cycle describing how a picture becomes an icon” (p. 11). Yet, it is possible to find in the literature some understandings that can help us trace what can be considered an iconic photograph and how social actors can influence its iconicity.
The rise of an icon
According to Hansen (2015), iconic photographs stand as a document of what has happened. They have “a distinctiveness and an identity, a specific story about its gestation and circulation, and a ‘nodal point’ character.” (Hansen, 2015, p. 269) Taking these aspects into consideration, they could influence society in different ways, such as collaborating in the development of ideologies and identities, and guiding the way civic actors interact.
Nevertheless, they do not neither rise by themselves nor do politics alone (Hansen, 2015). Although photographs raise fewer public questions about its
veridicality and verisimilitude (Perlmutter D. , 1998), we have to consider photography as a polysemic medium, vulnerable to different interpretations and understandings. The framing applied to images, and how social actors highlight certain aspects of this reality, can produce different meanings to the photograph (Batziou, 2011).
Hence, the power of an icon is also connected to the way actors frame and appropriate it. “In other words, the powers do not come directly from the images but rather from the political and cultural contexts surrounding those images.” (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018, p. 276) Even though photojournalism can produce a variety of pictures which can somehow have the striking visual power of iconic photographs, a ‘discursive elite’, such as the media and politicians, can influence and affirm the image’s iconicity (Perlmutter D. , 1998).
To understand how these discursive agents affect the way a photograph is perceived, we can take a look at Perlmutter’s (1998) typology for this phenomenon. As he explains, the rising of an icon is connected to visual elements, contexts, and the way the images are reproduced and taken by an elite. In this matter, there are some factors
prominence and the frequency that this picture is reproduced by media or how important the event portrayed by the picture is. There is also the aspect that icons are easily
transposed to other contexts, such as the use of Joe Rosenthal’s picture in Iwo Jima in campaigns and advertisements through time, and how they become metonymies of a certain topic, i.e. they stand as representations of it.
From this perspective, we can take that this iconizing process is influenced by what kind of agents refer to the image, that can be either mass media or a certain political elite, and by the mechanisms they use to strengthen this iconicity, i.e. how the photograph is appropriated by them. Therefore, it is possible to see the rising of icons from three levels of influence: the prominence on media, the use by political actors, and through appropriations. Moreover, if we consider that our understanding of the reality is socially built by meanings produced and shared in society, based on a previous system of concepts and images (Hall, 1997), it is possible to assume that these levels not only influence the iconicity by itself, but can also lead individuals to perceive the photo as iconic. In this research, I analyzed how these three levels can work on activating an iconic status and which hypotheses can be expected from this process.
Levels of influence
“Iconic images do not arise organically; they are constructed.” (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018, p. 290) Proposing a ‘influence-network model’ to the iconicity of a photograph, Dahmen et al. (2018) investigate how certain triggers can activate the perception of a picture as iconic. They understand this process as a path where the rising of an icon relies on how the elite (media and political actors) and media
users (through reproduction on the internet and appropriations) embrace this status through their power of influence. They are constantly reproducing it, appropriating and giving meanings, consequently reinforcing its iconicity.
As exposed before, this research aims to analyze the way these three actors and mechanisms (mainstream media, political actors, and appropriations) can promote a new icon. Similar to Dahmen et al. (2018) study, this thesis assumes that the iconicity is built going through these levels of influence – starting with media and consequently with cumulative iconizing from triggers given by political actors and appropriations. However, it makes necessary to explain these levels separately.
The power of media.
According to Hariman and Lucaites (2007), the role of media is the first step for photojournalistic images to become iconic. After they are widely reproduced in media, they go through the process of becoming a reference to the issue. This can be explained by the attention that the media can choose to give to the photograph and its context. Moreover, Permultter and Wagner (2004) not only consider the frequency that this image is reproduced, but also how media treats it, such as giving it more prominence, a celebrity status or feeding a public debate about the photograph. But to what extent can the media influence this perception? The answer lies on their role in society.
Historically, the media hold this gatekeeping power to mediate the information and somehow pitch the public debate. “The mass media interact with the social and political spheres to form what I call a ‘public discourse’ defined as the sum of social accounts of an issue which then, if pressing, proceeds to be adopted by governments” (Buonfino, 2004, p. 31). This idea of an influence in the decision-making process when
between the so-callled ‘CNN-effect’ and the ‘compassion fatigue’.
The first refers to how coverage of conflicts and humanitarian crises can
constrain governments into action (Robinson, 1999). The second is the opposite – when audience cannot be sensitive and demand action, due to overexposure and other
problems (Cottle, 2009; Moeller, 1999). Taking this to the role of iconic photographs, the audience’s frequent exposure and the media’s influential ability bring the attention and strengthen the iconicity. “Moreover, elite media networks were established, and through prominent placement and frequency of repetition, icons were industrially created and industrially defined.” (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018, p. 282)
Even though the digital tools may have changed the way the audience receives information and how icons are replicated (Andén-Papadopoulos, 2008), the power of an elite media is still important in the way icons are presented (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018). This can either be from, for example, the prominence media give to the image (Perlmutter & Wagner, 2004), or by the way they adopt the photo as a visualization to certain discourses and contextualization (Israel-Garzón & Pomares-Pastor, 2017). In this way, if the media is referring to the picture as iconic, the audience will be more likely to assume it as iconic. Therefore, we can expect the hypothesis:
H1 – Participants will be more likely to perceive an image as iconic if the media is widely publishing, and referring to, this picture as iconic.
The power of political actors.
As presented so far, an icon is not capable to project political power by its own. It does it through the way actors appropriate and perceive it. “Icons are on the one hand
presented as if they have a self-evident foreign policy message, yet on the other hand, we frequently find competing constructions of what that ‘self-evident’ message is.” (Hansen, 2015, pp. 265-266) Hence, political actors can make use of these images to securitize issues, create and advocate policies, or even justify alternatives to certain situations (Hansen, 2015).
Icons can influence the public opinion and pitch the public debate, as we’ve seen so far. Even though it can be complex to quantify this impact in politics, we should take into account that there is a relationship among icons and the political elite. In this sense, a political elite compete to give meanings to an icon (Perlmutter & Wagner, 2004). Political actors articulate their discourses to accommodate the icons. And they can even be punished or rewarded by the ways they react to them.
Though, this role of political actors does not necessarily have to include only politicians. For instance, in the recent picture of Aylan Kurdi, the refugee boy who was found dead in a beach, Slovic, Västfjäll, Erlandsson and Gregory (2017) demonstrated that his photos had a bigger effect on the audience’s discussion about the refugee crisis in Europe than all statistical reports of the number of dead kids in the crisis in Syrian. In another study, Kurasawa (2012) investigated how iconic pictures were used by
campaigns in the USA and in the UK to advocate about the famine crisis in Russia in the 1920’s. In the UK, for example, the NGO Save the Children used the iconic photos of starving families and quotes from the former Prime-Minister David Lloyd George to embrace the public opinion about the humanitarian crisis in Russia.
In general, visuals already have an ability to constrain political behavior
(Powell, Boomgaarden, De Swert, & De Vreese, 2015) and bring the political attention to certain stories through the CNN effect (Robinson, 1999). The power of iconic
aesthetic norms that can shape audience acceptance of political beliefs and historical narratives.” (p. 366)
In this process, as political actors continuously compete to make use of the photograph for their own political discourses, the image gain more attention and
consequently is more likely to become, and also be perceived as, iconic (Hansen, 2015). Based on these assumptions, there is the following hypothesis:
H2 – Participants will be more likely to perceive an image as iconic if they are more exposed to political discourses about it.
The power of appropriations.
So far, it is clear that media and other political actors play an important part on the way photojournalism can become iconic. In this competition to give meanings to the photograph, appropriations also play an important role. Appropriations are visual contents that embrace iconic photographs, giving them a meaning or association to a discourse, such as cartoons, memes, new icons, etc. (Mortensen, 2017) The process, as Mortensen (2017) indicates, is encouraged by the continuous appropriations of the image that come up from media and other social actors. And what do they do? They affirm the photo’s iconicity, sometimes refer to other icons or even promote new. According to her, “appropriations help shape and delimit discourses surrounding iconic images” (Mortensen, 2017, p. 1145).
Appropriations in this sense also help maintaining the high circulation of icons (Hansen, 2015). They are important for not only the production of icons, but also the society’s reception of them. Even when the intention is to produce a new icon,
appropriations still continue reaffirming the first’s iconicity and also help giving it a new contextualization. “They confirm and consolidate the iconic status by recycling the image in question. On the other hand, appropriations are also vital to their reception in today’s convergent, transnational media circuit.” (Mortensen, 2017, p. 1143).
Assuming that the internet and other digital tools are changing the way we communicate, such as through the blurring of how media is produced and consumed, and with the rising of what Castells (2009) call the ‘mass self-communication’, it is expected that this new scenario would influence the way society perceive an iconic photograph. The internet allows icons and their appropriations to be reproduced and shared in faster ways (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018). For instance, in an investigation about the effects of Aylan Kurdi’s photos, Mortensen (2017) analyzed how on Twitter there was much more attention to cartoons, memes and other appropriations than to the original images.
In this new digital age, information is not only spread faster, but also is achieving a broader transnational audience and empowering new actors in the public debate (Mortensen, 2011). Hence, certain images can quickly gain a status of iconicity, what it is coined by Mortensen (2016) as ‘instant news icons’ or by Perlmutter (2005) as ‘hypericons’. “They are selected images, which through rapid and wide
dissemination across media platforms become frames of reference for a large, sometimes even global” (Mortensen, 2016, p. 6).
Summing up, appropriations reaffirm the photograph’s iconicity, the audience will be more likely to agree to this iconic status if they are exposed to appropriations (Mortensen, 2017). Therefore, it is expected the following hypothesis:
H3 – The more appropriated the photograph is, more likely it is for the participants to perceive the image as iconic.
METHODS
As presented before, photographs can become iconic through the discursive agency of actors like media and politicians, and also through appropriations. Therefore, we can assume that the perception of a photograph as iconic (dependent variable) is affected by three levels of influence: media, political actors, and appropriations. In this research, these three levels were tested in an experiment.
Much has been said about how they interact in already iconic photographs, however, in the literature, there’s still a certain lack of accuracy of to what extent they can influence the discussion around new photographs. Moreover, the previous studies were based in other methods – for example, with content analysis (Mortensen, 2017). Thus, an experiment can give a new overview of the relationship among these variables.
Design
According to Babbie (2008), experiments are especially more useful for researches “involving relatively limited and well-defined concepts and propositions.” (pp. 246-247) Moreover, they also have the advantage to allow a certain isolation of the variable’s effect for observation through time. Therefore, this kind of method can allow me to analyze the extension of the influence of discursive agents in the perception of iconicity of photographs in a relatively controlled environment.
In order to test the hypotheses, I used the three concepts discussed before to make conditions to the future experiment. My manipulations were more focused on the textual content of how the photograph is presented than in the photograph itself (or its
visual contents). In an online survey-embedded experiment, participants were randomly assigned to four conditions: a controlled stimulus with the picture simply illustrating a factual news article, with no reference of iconicity; an article referring to how the picture has been highly used and contextualized as iconic by media worldwide (role of media); an article referring to how the picture has not only been published by media worldwide, but highly referred by political actors as iconic (role of political actors); and an article referring to how the picture has been used by media and political actors, but also highly appropriated by media users and other public figures throughout the internet (role of appropriations).
Sample
Between the 20th of April and the 8th of May, 219 respondents were recruited online, mainly through social media. Among them, 67 responses (30.5%) were filtered out of the data collection for not fully answering the questionnaire, which also included the manipulation check, or straight-lining behavior, when the subject gave the same answers to all the questions. Hence, the final sample was 152 subjects, which were randomly assigned to four conditions. The final distribution of the population inside the conditions was: 36 (23.6%) to the first condition, 39 (25.7%) for the second one, 38 (25%) for the third one, and 39 (25.7%) for the fourth one.
There was no demographic restriction to participation, except being over 18 years old. Within the final sample, 91 subjects (59.9%) were self-identified as female, 58 (38.2%) as male, and 2 (0.7%) as non-binary. The majority came from Latin American and the Caribbean (37.5%) and Europe (37.5%). Regarding the educational background, the majority has a master’s degree or is enrolled in one (59,9%).
Stimuli
The first step building the stimuli for the experiment was choosing the
photograph. In order to test if the participant’s perception of the image as iconic would change by the condition assigned to, I decided to choose a picture not taken as iconic in the past. It was a portrait of a Syrian refugee, taken by the AFP’s photographer Bulent Killic1. In the image, a little girl from a Kurdish background is trying to find refuge with her mother in Turkey, in 2014. The decision to use this image was made taking into consideration the visual elements analyzed in previous studies about iconic photographs (Binder & Jaworsky, 2018; Chouliaraki, 2013; Kurasawa, 2014) and photos that were considered iconic in the past, such as the Aylan Kurdi’s in 2015. The image invokes the human costs of the war in Syria, showing the suffering of a displaced child. Although the picture can be seen as visually powerful, it is relatively unknown. Hence, the picture would help avoiding participant’s bias and contamination when facing the textual manipulations.
The second step was transposing the photograph’s story to the context of the civil war in Yemen, a conflict that received relatively less attention from the media than the Syrian one. This was intended to avoid the participants’ bias for being previously exposed to the coverage of the Syrian war. The texts combined information from reports by The New York Times and The Guardian. I also created a narrative to the photograph, giving the girl the fictitious name Kaela Naji, who were seeking asylum in Aslam.
The texts had a similar size, focusing on the human costs of the conflict in Yemen, especially the famine crisis. The first condition reported the famine and the
number of displaced citizens. The photograph was contextualized as a portrait of one of the many refugees of the conflict. In the second, the story also explains how media worldwide were publishing the photograph and taking it as a real representation of crisis. For the third, the article takes information from the previous conditions and add how politicians and NGOs were also reacting to the photograph. Finally, the
agglutinated all these other frames, plus highlight how the image is going viral, inspiring appropriations.
Procedures
In the first part of the experiment, participants were asked to provide
demographic information about themselves: age, gender, educational background, and where they are from. This data collection was conducted in order to analyze if the exposure’s randomization was well distributed among the different demographics. It was also asked their level of English proficiency (from 1 = beginner to 4 = native
speaker) and their interest in following news about Yemen (from 1 = extremely interested to 5 = not interested at all). In the sample, subjects were varying from
moderately to slightly interested on Yemen (M = 3.76; SD = 1,073). They also tended to have an advanced level of English proficiency (M = 3,09; SD = 0,608).
The second part was the exposure. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Then, participants were invited to answer a questionnaire related to their perception of the photo, as it will be explained in the next section2.
Measures of iconicity.
After the stimulus, the questionnaire conducted was intended to measure the participant’s perception about the photograph’s iconicity. In a series of 7-points scales closed questions (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree), they were asked how they perceived the image in different ways. The questions were divided by three
operational dimensions based on the literature. For instance, if we retake Hariman’s and Lucaites’ (2007) concept, icons are understood to be seen by the audience as a
representation of an event, activating emotional reactions, and broadly reproduced in various genres. As seen before, we also know that icons can influence politics and be an agenda-settler in the public sphere (Hansen, 2015). Therefore, it is possible to come up with three dimensions that can indicate if a picture is considered iconic.
First, they can be highly seen as representation of an event and well-remembered through time (Hariman & Lucaites, 2002). For this dimension (Representation),
participants were asked to rate their agreement to 5 statements, such as ‘I could consider it as the visual representation of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen’. Second, icons are emotionally connected to the audience, not only by the story portrayed in the image, but also its context (Hariman & Lucaites, 2007). In this sense, for the dimension
‘Emotions’, participants were presented to 3 statements like ‘I felt very emotionally bounded to the photograph by itself’.
Finally, a third dimension, ‘Engagement’, analyzed how engaged they felt when presented to the photo. As seen in other studies from visuals, images can influence political behavior and opinions (Powell, Boomgaarden, De Swert, & De Vreese, 2015). The same can be expected from iconic photographs (Hansen, 2015). Hence, participants were presented to 5 statements to measure this engagement after the exposure, such as ‘I feel more engaged to know more and follow the news about the war in Yemen’.
In order to test the validity of these measurements, a principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted within the total of 13 items (5 for representation, 3 for emotions, and 5 for engagement). The analysis shows three dimensional scales: three components had eigenvalue above 1 (6.013, 1.635, and 1.192, respectively) and the scree plot showed a point of inflexion after the third component. The results indicate that the items are grouping according to the dimensions proposed for the study.
The reliability tests proved that the dimensions are reliable, with Cronbach’s alpha above .70 (Representation: .849; Emotions: .913; Engagement: .760). Therefore, the scales can measure respectively levels of how representative the picture is, how emotional response it has, and how engaged respondents felt after seeing the picture. In the analysis, these items were clustered into mean scores for each dimension. The measurement for representation had M = 4.89 (SD = 1.34). The emotional measurement had M = 4.60 (SD = 1.61). And the engagement had M = 4.56 (SD = 1.17).
Randomization check
The subjects were randomly distributed among the four conditions presented before. This randomization proved successful after the analysis of the demographics. There was no significant difference for age between the four groups, F (3, 148) = .76, p = .518. Participants also showed low interest in the situation in Yemen (M = 3.76, SD = 1.07), with no significant difference3 between the groups, F (3, 148) = 2.3, p = .079. Moreover, it was not found any significant difference when it came to gender4 (X2(3, N
3 Even though there was no significant difference, the p-value was close to .05. However, a covariate
analysis showed no statistically significant effects of the subjects’ interest in the conflict in Yemen to their perception of the photograph’s iconicity after the exposure in the experiment.
4 During the experiment, two subjects were self-identified as ‘non-binary’ and one chose not to provide
.433), or subjects’ level of English6 (X2(6, N = 152) = 2.33, p = .887).
Manipulation check
After the questionnaire, the participants were asked to rate three statements (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree), each of them concerning a different focus related to the manipulated conditions, such as ‘The article explains how the media worldwide is publishing the photo of the little girl, taking it as an iconic representation of the crisis in Yemen’ (condition 2). Also, in a scale from 1 to 7, participants were asked to rate how trustworthy they evaluated the news article.
5 The number of participants from ‘Middle East and Northern Africa’, ‘Oceania’, and ‘Sub-Saharan
Africa’ was too small. As for gender, for this test, I merged these regions with ‘Asia’.
6 The number of participants with a basic level of English was also too small. As for gender and region,
A series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs) was run, in order to compare all four conditions for each item used to check if the manipulations worked. As shown in the Table 1, the results indicate that the manipulations were successful. In the first item, subjects exposed to this manipulation scored more than the ones in the first condition (i.e., with no manipulated reference to iconicity), F (3, 148) = 19.381, p < .001. In the second item, subjects exposed to this manipulation (i.e., conditions 3 and 4) scored more than the other ones, F (3, 148) = 23.193, p < .001. For the third item, subjects exposed to this manipulation (i.e., condition 4) scored more than the other ones, F (3, 148) = 21.802, p < .001. Moreover, regarding the item related to how trustworthy the stimulus was for them, the ANOVA shows that most subjects believed the story was trustworthy, with mean scores above 4.8 in all conditions, with no significant difference among the groups, F (3, 148) = 1.472, p = 0.224.
Analysis
After the data collection, two types of analysis were conducted. First, a series of analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were carried out to understand how the three
dimensions (dependent variables) were influenced by each condition of the experiment, analyzing them separately.
Another series of ANOVAs was used combining the conditions. Assuming that the independent variables work as levels of influence (e.g., the media’s role could be found in three of the four conditions), I merged conditions by each level and compared to the other group which was not exposed to this level.
4, against condition 1 (no iconicity); then, political actor’s role combined conditions 3 and 4, against merged conditions 1 and 2 (no mention to political actors); and finally, condition 4 (appropriations’ role) compared to all previous conditions combined (1, 2, and 3, with no use of appropriations).
RESULTS
Role of media
The first hypothesis (H1 – Participants will be more likely to perceive an image
as iconic if the media is widely publishing, and referring to, this picture as iconic)
assumed that subjects exposed to references to iconicity from the media would be more likely to perceive the photograph as iconic.
As presented in the Table 2, the first series of ANOVAs, where the conditions are compared separately, shows that the 39 subjects exposed to the condition 2, which manipulated how the media were referring to the photograph as iconic, tended to perceive the image as a representation of the conflict slightly more (M = 4.89, SD = 1.18) than subjects selected to the first condition (M = 4.75, SD = 1.47), where no iconicity is attributed, F (3, 148) = .20, p = .892. However, due to the high p-value, this increase is not statistically significant.
Moreover, when it comes to the emotional dimension (F (3, 148) = .97, p = .407), it was reported a small decrease on the mean scores from subjects assigned to the first condition (M = 4.81, SD = 1.69) to the ones on this second condition (M = 4.23, SD = 1.18). In this dimension, there is also no significant difference. The same pattern was found when we look at their engagement to the conflict in Yemen after the
exposure (F (3, 148) = 2.49, p = .062): subjects had M = 4.82 (SD = 1.24) in the first condition and M = 4.24 (SD = 1.07) in the second condition.
The second series of ANOVAs combined conditions 2, 3, and 4, where media referred to the picture as iconic, and compare against condition 1, with no reference of iconicity. As presented in Table 3, the analysis showed a similar result. Regarding the sense of representativity, subjects exposed to conditions where the media played a role in the iconicity were slightly more likely to see the photo as iconic (M = 4.93, SD =
not statistically significant, F (1, 150) = .527, p = .469.
Within the other dimensions, the result is opposed to this one, but still with no significant difference. In emotions, subjects assigned to the first condition (M = 4.81, SD = 1.69) scored higher than the others (M = 4.53, SD = 1.59), F (1, 150) = .807, p = .370. The same pattern was found regarding the engagement dimension: participants on the first condition (M = 4.81, SD = 1.24) had bigger mean scores than the others (M = 4.48, SD = 1.14), F (1, 150) = 2.291, p = .132.
Hence, even with the increases, the results are not statistically different. Therefore, these findings cannot support the H1.
The second hypothesis (H2 – Participants will be more likely to perceive an
image as iconic if they are more exposed to political discourses about it) expected that
if the stimulus were showing political actors affirming the photo’s iconicity, participants would be more likely to perceive the photograph as iconic.
In the first series of ANOVAs, comparing the conditions individually, as shown in the Table 2, participants exposed to the condition 2 were more likely to perceive the image as a representation of the conflict in Yemen (M = 4.92, SD = 1.29) than in the other two previous conditions (1 and 2). However, when they were asked to rate their emotional connection to the image, the mean score (M = 4.68, SD = 1.59) was lower than to the ones’ exposed to the first condition and higher than to the second condition. Regarding their engagement, participants in this condition had a similar response to the ones assigned for the first condition, but they were more likely to feel engaged than subjects in the second condition. Nevertheless, as shown before, these findings were not significant different (p > .05).
In the second series of ANOVAs, where the role of political actors was the combination of conditions 3 and 4, subjects scored higher in all dimensions when compared to the other two conditions (1 and 2, combined). Regarding the sense of representativity, this group had M = 4.95 (SD = 1.36), while conditions 1 and 2 combined had M = 4.82 (SD = 1.32), F (1, 150) = .634, p = .555. For the emotional dimension, these conditions scored M = 4.69 (SD = 1.60), against M = 4.51 (SD = 1.64) for the previous conditions combined, F (1, 150) = .477, p = .491. Concerning the engagement, the political actors’ condition had M = 4.60 (SD = 1.17) and the previous conditions combined M = 4.52 (1.18), F (1, 150) = .293, p = .647.
However, as the other series, this kind of comparison also could not find a significant difference within the groups. Hence, it is not possible to support the H2.
Role of appropriations
The third hypothesis (H3 – The more appropriated the photograph is, more
likely it is for the participants to perceive the image as iconic) is related to the role of
appropriations and how they influence the perception of the image as iconic.
When mentioning that the picture is being highly appropriated on the internet, added to references from media and political actors (condition 4), the first series of ANOVAs shows that participants assigned to this condition were more likely to
perceive the image as a representation (M = 4.98, SD = 1.44), in comparison with each of the previous condition separately, as presented in the Table 2. However, it is not possible to find a significant difference among them (p > .05).
In the dimension related to the emotional connection, subjects had mean scores slightly higher (M = 4.70, SD = 1.62) than any other iconized conditions (conditions 2 and 3), but lower than in the comparison to the first condition (M = 4.81, SD = 1.69). Concerning the engagement, this condition had a higher mean score (M = 4.40, SD = 1.12) than the condition 2, but lower in the comparison to conditions 1 and 3.
In the second series of ANOVAs, I compared the fourth condition, the only one concerning appropriations, with a combination of all the other three previous conditions. Regarding the representativity dimension, subjects exposed to appropriations (M = 4.98, SD = 1.44) scored slightly higher than the rest (M = 4.85, SD = 1.30), F (1, 150) = .276,
p = .600. In the perspective of emotions, this condition had M = 4.70 (SD = 1.62), also
higher than the others combined (M = 4.56, SD = 1.61), F (1, 150) = .191, p = .663. However, this tendency was not met regarding the dimension of engagement, where condition 4 had M = 4.40 (SD = 1.12), against M = 4.62 (SD = 1.19) from the rest
combined, F (1, 150) = .1.029, p = .312. Nevertheless, even with this different result, it is still not able to find a significant difference among the groups (p > .05).
Hence, these findings unable the study to support the H3.
DISCUSSION
This research aimed to investigate to what extent discursive agents can influence the audience’s perception of a photograph as iconic. As seen before, the rise of an icon involves discourses from media and political actors, and the production and
reproduction of appropriations. In the online experiment, subjects were randomly exposed to four manipulated news articles, using the context of the ongoing conflict in Yemen. Three of the stimuli took into consideration these levels of influence, against one purely factual about the Yemeni war. The responses were analyzed in order to investigate if the exposure to manipulated texts with high references of iconicity might affect the participant’s perception of the image as iconic.
The perception was operationalized in three different dimensions: by the way participants perceive the image as a representation of the conflict in Yemen (Hariman & Lucaites, 2007), by how emotionally connected they felt to the photograph (Cohen, Boudana, & Frosh, 2018; Perlmutter, 1998), and how engaged they were after the exposure (Hansen, 2015). By the first look, it is possible to see that subjects assigned to conditions with higher levels of iconicity were more likely to perceive the image as iconic. They had higher mean scores for items related to the first dimension, the representativity of the photograph. However, as presented in the previous section, it is not possible to establish a significant difference among the groups (p > .05).
insight for the discussion around iconic photographs. The research design, making use of an experiment, was something new in this topic, especially when we look at previous studies where the methodology was mostly qualitative (e.g., Hubbert, 2014; Kurasawa, 2012; and Hariman & Lucaites, 2007).
Moreover, the study can be added in the new discussions related to the rising of icons in the realm of the new digital technologies and the role of social media in the dynamic of iconizing (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018; Mortensen, 2017). In this literature, much has been said about how social media and the internet itself can add new triggers to the iconizing process, such as promoting the so-called ‘instant icons’ (Mortensen, 2016) and how they can experience a viral effect that not necessarily last long enough to remain as an icon through time (Dahmen, Mielczarek, & Perlmutter, 2018). Hence, new studies about iconic photographs should take into consideration how the internet potentialize this process, as well as the role of the audience.
Nevertheless, what can be said regarding my results? The incapability to support the hypotheses brings light to some discussions related to the literature and the research design. As seen before, the study of iconic photographs not only look at how discursive agents play a role in this iconizing, but also should take into account the visual elements that make the image iconic. For instance, Kurasawa (2012) indicates how
personification was an important iconographic typification for the photos about the Russian famine in the 1920’s. In his analysis, close-ups, for example, helped demonstrating the emotions and personifying the humanitarian crisis. This kind of assumption is also connected to what Perlmutter (1998) call the ‘striking composition’, when there is this idea that the photograph managed to register the decisive moment and this visual accomplishment reinforces the icon’s representativity.
In my experiment, some of these visual characteristics were taken into consideration when I chose the photograph of the Syrian girl – for instance, it is a portrayal with a dramatic composition (Chouliaraki, 2013). However, the manipulations were focused on the texts. Thus, we can also question if the visual elements had some influence in the subjects’ perception during the experiment. Would the findings be different if I decided to go with another picture? What was the role of this photograph by itself in the way participants responded?
Moreover, another aspect of the iconic photographs can also play an important part in this process. As seen before, icons become part of a public memory about a specific event. This is a process that takes time, as suggested by Hariman and Lucaites (2007) and other scholars. This characteristic of being widely recognized is also connected to the context where the icon is included (Cohen, Boudana, & Frosh, 2018). For instance, in their research about icons in Israel, Cohen et al. (2018) found out that the recognition of historical iconic pictures was influenced by age (elder would recognize more images than younger) and the context of the image inside the Israeli society. Bringing this to my own experiment, a further investigation can try to analyze how these variables may intervene in the iconography.
Another plausible explanation for the results found in this study concerns the limitations of the research. First, in order to lure more participants, the online
experiment had to be shortened on its design, with only one news article reporting the image’s iconicity as part of the stimulus. In this case, a longer stimulus would prolong the survey and, consequently, make it more difficult to recruit subjects online. This aspect of the design was a barrier when it comes to further explore characteristics of the iconizing process, such as the high frequency of the picture’s exposure on media
(Mortensen, 2017), like exposing them to various cartoons and memes.
Finally, the sampling limitation may also have influenced the outcomes. Even though the experiment reached more than the minimum of 30 participants per condition in order to run the ANOVAs, a larger sample size, in general, provides us more reliable results (David & Sutton, 2011). This limitation is connected to the way I conducted the experiment. There was no funding for collecting responses (the participants were volunteers) and most of the recruitment was made through social media or private approaches. Hence, if this study managed to have a larger group of respondents, would it indicate a different outcome, especially considering the p-values?
To sum up, as Hariman and Lucaites (2018) explain, iconic photographs are an important part of public culture. Even though it is hard to predict when one image can gain this particular status, research on the topic still has a lot of ground to conquer in order to understand this phenomenon, especially how it is socially constructed, and the changes imposed by the rise of digital tools. This study can be placed in this moment, when I attempted to analyze how discursive agents can influence iconicity. Although I was not able to support the hypotheses, the questions raised through process can inspire future researches.
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APPENDIX A: Stimuli
Stimulus 1: News story about humanitarian crisis in Yemen with no reference of iconicity
Stimulus 2: News story about how the media worldwide is referring to the image as iconic
Stimulus 3: News story about how media and political actors are referring to the image as iconic
APPENDIX B: Experimental survey
The online survey-embedded survey was structured in four main parts: a questionnaire about the participants’ demographics; then, the subjects were randomly assigned to one of four stimuli (stimuli presented on Appendix A); a second questionnaire presented questions related to the three dependent variables (also described on Appendix C) and the manipulation check. The full experimental survey can be seen below:
Start of Block: Introduction and Informed Consent
Informed consent Dear participant,
I would like to invite you to participate in a research study about media effects to be conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School of Communication, a part of the University of Amsterdam.
It is important to note that the following questionnaire is fully anonymous and your participation comes with no risks. We will not be able to identify the participants, so you should be free to answer according to your opinions and beliefs. We will only use the answers gathered for academic research, and under no circumstances your data will be transmitted to other parties or used for commercial purposes.
You must be above 18 years old to be part of this study. Participation is
always voluntary and all participants can refuse to participate in the research and can pull out at any time. Please note that you have up to 24 hours after completion of the survey to withdraw your permission for the use of your data in the research.
Due to design matters, this survey works better on laptops and desktop computers. It still works with mobile devices, but you may have to zoom in to read and visualize some elements presented during the survey.
You are welcome to contact the principal investigator in the study
(celso.defreitasfilho@student.uva.nl) for any questions.
If you agree to participate, please go to the next page.
Introduction This survey will take around 10 minutes (or less). First, we will ask you
some questions about you, such as your education and your age. Then, you will be presented to a news story. After that, we will ask you to answer a questionnaire related to the article.
Due to the nature of the questionnaire, it is essential that you take the time to
carefully read the questions and look carefully to the material that we will show you.
Please make sure that you have fully understood the information that is presented to you, and if needed read the instructions twice.
Thank you!
End of Block: Introduction and Informed Consent Start of Block: Demographics
Intro Demographics We start with few questions about yourself, which will help us to
interpret the results.
Gender What is your gender?
o
Male (1)o
Female (2)o
Other (3)Age How old are you (please, provide only the numerical answer, for example 25 or
32)?
Education What is the highest level of education you have been enrolled in?
o
Less than high school (1)o
High school (2)o
Bachelor's degree (3)o
Master's degree (4)o
Doctorate's degree (5) Page BreakRegions Where are you from (if more than one, please choose the one you most feel
connected to)?
o
Asia (1)o
Europe (2)o
Latin America and the Caribbean (3)o
Middle East and Northern Africa (4)o
North America (5)o
Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, etc.) (6)going on in Yemen?
o
Extremely interested (1)o
Very interested (2)o
Moderately interested (3)o
Slightly interested (4)o
Not interested at all (5)English Level Finally, how would you rate your English proficiency?
o
Beginner (1)o
Intermediate (2)o
Advanced/Fluent (3)o
Native speaker (4)End of Block: Demographics Start of Block: Intro stimulus
Intro Stimulus Thank you!
Now, you will be presented to a news story regarding the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Please, read everything carefully in order to accurately answer the questions afterwards.
End of Block: Intro stimulus Start of Block: Stimuli End of Block: Stimuli
Start of Block: Intro to dimensions
Intro Dimensions
Thank you!
AFP photographer, Bulent Kilic. In the next section, we will ask you some questions related to the image and the article.
End of Block: Intro to dimensions Start of Block: Dimensions
statement. Regarding the image published with the story... Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) Neither agree nor disagree (4) (5) (6) Strongly agree (7) When I see this picture again, I will probably remember the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I could consider it as the visual representation of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. (2)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I could consider it an iconic photograph. (3)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I will probably remember this picture when I see news about Yemen. (4)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
The picture changed the way I see thecrisis in Yemen. (5)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Emotions Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement.
Regarding the image published with the news story... Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) Neither agree nor disagree (4) (5) (6) agree (7) Strongly I felt very emotionally bounded to the photograph by itself. (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I felt strong emotions to the little girl's drama portrayed in the photograph. (2)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
The photograph helped me feel more emotionally connected to the ongoing crisis in Yemen. (3)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Page BreakEmotions_types Still regarding your emotions to the photograph, how did you feel when
facing the image and reading the article? Definitely
not (1) (2) (3) Neutral (4) (5) (6) Definitely yes (7)
Angry (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Empathetic (2)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Sad (3)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Anxious (4)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Page BreakEngagement Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each
statement. Regarding the image published and the news story... Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) Neither agree nor disagree (4) (5) (6) agree (7) Strongly I am more aware of the ongoing crisis in Yemen now. (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I feel more engaged to know more and follow the news about the war in Yemen. (2)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I am feeling more empathetic about the human costs of the conflict. (3)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I would engage in an online campaign or a public demonstration to stop the war and helpthe children in Yemen. (4)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
I would share on social media or 'like' posts related to what I've just read andseen. (5)
Start of Block: Extra questions
Q26
The survey is almost over.Before we are done, we would like to ask you few more questions related to your experience participating in this study.
Q28 What do you think was the goal of this study?
Manipulation_check How well do you remember the news story you have read? Based
on the information provided in the story, please indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statements regarding the article's content.
Strongly disagree (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Strongly agree (7) The article explains how the media worldwide is publishing the photo of the little girl, taking it as an iconic representation of the crisis in Yemen. (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
The article explains how politicians and NGOs are talking about the photo of the little girl, taking it as a representation of the crisis in Yemen. (2)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
The article explains how the photo of the little girl is going viral on the internet and social media, as people are being more aware to the crisis in Yemen. (3)o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Page BreakNot real/trustworthy at all (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Quite real/trustworthy (7) (1)
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Q30 Finally, do you have any comments about this study or the questionnaire?
________________________________________________________________
End of Block: Extra questions Start of Block: Final statement
Q22 Important disclaimer:
All the materials that you saw in this study were manipulated and does not fully
correspond to the still tragic reality of the conflict in Yemen. They were created
exclusively for the needs of our study. The little girl in the picture is actually a Kurdish girl. The photo was taken by the AFP photographer Bulent Kilic in the civil war in Syria.
The materials were created for a Master's thesis research about iconic photographs in photojournalism. The manipulated news story and the photograph you saw were chosen based on previous studies about the visual and discursive elements that might influence the iconicity of an image.
As explained before, this study has only academic purposes. Your data is fully
anonymous, and under no circumstances we will release the data publicly without your agreement or use it for anything else beyond this study.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your assistance with this research, which we greatly appreciated.
Please go to the next page.
APPENDIX C: Dependent variables
After the stimulus, subjects were asked to rate statements concerning three dimensions connected to their perception of the photograph: representativity, emotional, and engagement.
Table B.1 Item wording
Representativity 1. When I see this picture again, I will probably remember the humanitarian crisis in Yemen
2. I could consider it as the visual representation of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen
3. I could consider it an iconic photograph
4. I will probably remember this picture when I see news about Yemen
5. The picture changed the way I see the crisis in Yemen Emotional 1. I felt very emotionally bounded to the photograph by itself
2. I felt strong emotions to the little girl's drama portrayed in the photograph
3. The photograph helped me feel more emotionally connected to the ongoing crisis in Yemen
Types of emotions 1. Angrya
2. Empathetica 3. Sada
4. Anxiousa
Engagement 1. I am more aware of the ongoing crisis in Yemen now
2. I feel more engaged to know more and follow the news about the war in Yemen
3. I am feeling more empathetic about the human costs of the conflict
4. I would engage in an online campaign or a public demonstration to stop the war and help the children in Yemen
5. I would share on social media or 'like' posts related to what I've just read and seen
Note: All items are scored on a scale ranging from “Strongly disagree” (1) through “Strongly agree” (7)
