#Humanity washed ashore. Visual metaphors and emotions in social media
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RIS BIB ENDNOTE#Humanity washed ashore. Visual metaphors and emotions in social media
Publication date: 28.10.2018
Media Research Issues, 2018, Volume 61, Issue 2 (234), pp. 209 - 223
https://doi.org/10.4467/22996362PZ.18.015.9110Authors
#Humanity washed ashore. Visual metaphors and emotions in social media
In 2015 almost 3000 refugees died trying to cross the Sea to Europe. 3-year-old Alan Kurdi was one of them. Together with his mother and brother, the boy drowned when a boat carrying migrants sank at dawn of September 2, 2015. His body was found on a Turkish beach, where Nilüfer Demir took memorable pictures of the boy and a policeman cradling Alan in his arms. The photos appeared on front pages around the world, in news and social media. The toddler has become a tragic human face of the humanitarian crisis, a symbol, an icon, an emblem, and emotional vehicle allowing thousands of Internet users to express their grief and outrage and manifest their compassion through sharing the dramatic images of Alan and creating their own stories about the boy’s afterlife. Visual metaphors generated in this unprecedented way provide us with insight into the sentiments of media consumers, who watch the evening news and create their own narratives refl ecting their feelings about Europe’s refugee crisis. Extremely strong emotional response of social media users who shared and disseminated the images of Alan, hash tagged #Humanity Washed Ashore, is the focus of my paper which demonstrates how Internet users manifest their views and express what words cannot express, resorting to metaphorical representations that can be discussed in terms of storytelling. My study investigates how the stories created by media audiences go beyond the narratives prevalent in traditional media and what it tells us about Compassion 2.0, fear, grief, anger and other emotions in the digital age.
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Information: Media Research Issues, 2018, Volume 61, Issue 2 (234), pp. 209 - 223
Article type: Original article
Titles:
#Humanity washed ashore. Visual metaphors and emotions in social media
#Humanity washed ashore. Visual metaphors and emotions in social media
Institute of Journalism and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University, prof. Stanisława Łojasiewicza 4 30-348 Kraków
Published at: 28.10.2018
Article status: Open
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND
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EnglishView count: 3398
Number of downloads: 1320