The extent to which newspapers display graphic images of death has rarely been studied in relation to the degree of the visibility of bodies, nor do many comparative analyses exist. This has led to a narrow understanding of how and why audiences are exposed to human suffering around the world. In examining newspaper images of the dead from the 2010 Haiti earthquake across 15 countries, this study develops a graphic image content scale to measure such visualizations. It finds significant differences in graphic images across the studied sample, both in terms of the amount of images and the degree of visibility of death. The study argues that major sociocultural influences, such as different religious traditions and societal levels of violence are part of the reason for the differences.
AdamsWC (1986) Whose lives count? TV coverage of natural disasters. Journal of Communication36(2): 113–122.
2.
AdayS (2005) The real war will never get on television: Casualty imagery in American television coverage of the Iraq war. In: SeibP (ed.) Media and Conflict in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 141–156.
3.
ArièsP (1974) Western Attitudes toward Death: From the Middle Ages to the Present. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
4.
BarthesR (1972) Mythologies. New York: Hill and Wang.
5.
BrothersC (1997) War and Photography: A Cultural History. London: Routledge.
6.
BurgessCBeaulierSHallJ (2009) Economic freedom and conflict: An empirical note. Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research10(3): 75–83.
7.
CampbellD (2004) Horrific blindness: Images of death in contemporary media. Journal for Cultural Research8(1): 55–74.
8.
CarruthersSL (2000) The Media at War. London: Macmillan.
9.
CastanosAJMuñozA (2005) Covering terrorism: 911 versus 311 in American and Spanish newspaper front pages. In: Media in Transition Conference, MIT, Cambridge, MA, 6–8 May.
10.
ChouliarakiL (2006) The Spectatorship of Suffering. London: Sage.
11.
EdwardsJLWinklerCK (1997) Representative form and the visual ideograph: The Iwo Jima image in editorial cartoons. Quarterly Journal of Speech83(3): 289–310.
12.
EliasN (1994) The Civilizing Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
13.
FahmySKimD (2008) Picturing the Iraq war: Constructing the image of war in the British and US press. International Communication Gazette70(6): 443–462.
14.
FischerRHankeK (2009) Are societal values linked to global peace and conflict?Peace and Conflict15(3): 227–248.
15.
FishmanJM (2001) Documenting death: Photojournalism and spectacles of the morbid in the tabloid and elite newspaper. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
16.
GriffinMLeeJ (1995) Picturing the Gulf War: Constructing an image of war in Time, Newsweek, and US News & World Report. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly72(4): 813–825.
17.
HallinDCManciniP (2004) Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18.
HallinDCPapathanassopoulosS (2002) Political clientelism and the media: Southern Europe and Latin America in comparative perspective. Media, Culture and Society24(2): 175–195.
19.
HanitzschT (2009) Comparative journalism studies. In: Wahl-JorgensenKHanitzschT (eds) The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York: Routledge, pp. 413–427.
20.
HanuschF (2008) Valuing those close to us: A study of German and Australian quality newspapers’ reporting of death in foreign news. Journalism Studies9(3): 341–356.
21.
HanuschF (2009) A product of their culture: Using a value systems approach to understand the work practices of journalists. International Communication Gazette71(7): 613–626.
22.
HanuschF (2010) Representing Death in the News: Journalism, Media and Mortality. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
23.
HermanESChomskyN (1988) Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon Books.
24.
HofstedeG (2001) Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations, 2nd edn. London: Sage.
25.
InglehartROysermanD (2004) Individualism, autonomy, self-expression, and human development. In: VinkenHSoetersJEsterP (eds) Dimensions of Culture in a Comparative Perspective. Leiden: Brill, pp. 74–96.
26.
InglehartRWelzelC (2005) Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27.
InglehartRWelzelC (2010) Changing mass priorities: The link between modernization and democracy. Perspectives on Politics8(2): 551–567.
28.
Institute for Economics and Peace (2010) Global Peace Index 2010: Methodology, Results and Findings. Sydney: Institute for Economics and Peace.
29.
JonesPKPuseyM (2010) Political communication and ‘media system’: The Australian canary. Media, Culture and Society32(3): 451–471.
30.
KeithSSchwalbeCBSilcockBW (2006) Images in ethics codes in an era of violence and tragedy. Journal of Mass Media Ethics21(4): 245–264.
31.
KellehearA (2007) A Social History of Dying. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
32.
KimYSKellyJD (2008) A matter of culture: A comparative study of photojournalism in American and Korean newspapers. International Communication Gazette70(2): 155–173.
33.
KingCLesterPM (2005) Photographic coverage during the Persian Gulf and Iraqi wars in three U.S. newspapers. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly82(3): 623–637.
34.
LomnitzC (2005) Death and the Idea of Mexico. New York: Zone Books.
35.
McElroyD (2011) A year on, Haiti still shows fault lines. The Daily Telegraph, 12 January, p. 16.
36.
McSweeneyB (2002) Hofstede’s model of national cultural differences and their consequences: A triumph of faith – a failure of analysis. Human Relations55(1): 89–118.
37.
MellorPAShillingC (1993) Modernity, self identity and the sequestration of death. Sociology27: 411–432.
38.
MoellerSD (1989) Shooting War: Photography and the American Experience of Combat. New York: Basic Books.
39.
MoellerSD (1999) Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death. London: Routledge.
40.
NeimeyerRWittkowskiJMoserRP (2004) Psychological research on death attitudes: An overview and evaluation. Death Studies28: 309–340.
41.
NorrisPInglehartR (2011) Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press.
42.
RaviN (2005) Looking beyond flawed journalism: How national interests, patriotism, and cultural values shaped the coverage of the Iraq War. The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics10(1): 45–62.
43.
SeatonJ (2005) Carnage and the Media: The Making and Breaking of News about Violence. London: Allen Lane.
44.
SilcockBWSchwalbeCBKeithS (2008) ‘Secret’ casualties: Images of injury and death in the Iraq war across media platforms. Journal of Mass Media Ethics23(1): 36–50.
SontagS (1977) On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
47.
StaudtCC (2009) From concealment to recognition: The discourse on death, dying, and grief. In: BartalosMK (ed.) Speaking of Death: America’s New Sense of Mortality. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp. 3–41.
48.
SufflaSSeedatMKarriemA (2010) Peace, its indices and implications for Swaraj. Social Change40(4): 439–457.
49.
TaylorJ (1998) Body Horror: Photojournalism, Catastrophe, and War. New York: Manchester University Press.
50.
TsangKJ (1984) News photos in Time and Newsweek. Journalism Quarterly61(3): 578–584, 723.
51.
UnderwoodD (2001) Secularists or modern day prophets?: Journalists’ ethics and the Judeo-Christian tradition. Journal of Mass Media Ethics16(1): 33–47.
52.
WalterTLittlewoodJPickeringM (1995) Death in the news: The public invigilation of private emotion. Sociology29(4): 579–596.
53.
WuHD (1998) Investigating the determinants of international news flow: A meta-analysis. International Communication Gazette60(6): 493–512.
54.
ZelizerB (1992) Covering the Body: The Kennedy Assassination, the Media, and the Shaping of Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
55.
ZelizerB (1995) Words against images: Positioning newswork in the age of photography. In: HardtHBrennenB (eds) Newsworkers: Towards a History of the Rank and File. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 135–159.
56.
ZelizerB (1998) Remembering to Forget: Holocaust Memory through the Camera’s Eye. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
57.
ZelizerB (2010) About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. New York: Oxford University Press.
