‘What would it mean to ‘visualise’ human rights? Can an abstract concept like ‘human rights’ really be presented in pictorial form? What is at stake in such a project of visualization and consumers of texts?’[1]
Visual representations of human rights can be ethically managed within online platforms by prioritising the integrity and safety of those depicted and implementing intellectually rigorous portrayals for participating audiences.[2] Online visual representations of human rights require critique as they convey poignant and symbolically loaded narratives, which are further perpetuated and complicated by the context of online modes of display.[3] The following analysis examines ethical issues within the historical context of human rights visualisations and the expansion of the internet and its respective instability as a display platform and its problematic online participation behaviours. It argues ethical boundaries of online visuals representations of human rights should aim to evade risks, such as dehumanisation, safety violations, censorship, aestheticization practices and compassion fatigue. Ethical management of human rights visuals displayed on online platforms can be achieved through symbolising empowerment, embracing freedom of expression, prioritising consent and safety, utilising abstraction and satire, guiding altruistic motives and implementing contextual frameworks. Moreover, online culture can ethically represent human rights by curating visual content which defends populations central to human rights violations and managing participation through mediated and sensitive methods.
This analysis emerges from the experience of sourcing artwork for an online academic journal, the Statelessness and Citizenship Review, whilst interning at the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness. I asked myself how I could ethically represent human rights issues around statelessness and evade degrading visuals through my management of online visual content. Whilst only sparingly referencing this experience, the essay draws upon the knowledge I built as I questioned and justified my visual choices. Within this context, this essay discusses the history of visual representations of human rights and the challenges of the internet before investigating ethical management strategies. Central to this discussion, despite its broad address of case studies, potential issues and responses, is establishing an online culture where the privacy and integrity of the subject are prioritised whilst maintaining an effectively meaningful representation of human rights.
Picturing human suffering: historical lenses and contemporary stages
Many ethical issues regarding visual representations of human rights have derived from the practice of conveying emotionally intense narratives of human suffering, rather than respectful and informed portrayals. These issues can be attributed to communication difficulties inherent in visual mediums. Compared to text describing and articulating human rights issues through detailed research and discussion and encouraging readers into investigation and contemplation, visual imagery asks audiences to create speculative narratives through vaguely connecting context, assumptions, associations and memories to visual prompts.[4] Within these boundaries, human rights visuals are inclined to implement emotive symbolism which easily influences naïve perceptions at the cost of minimising human rights’ inherent complexities.
Historically, human rights campaigns have employed photographs of vulnerable populations to viscerally prompt privileged audiences to recognise and mobilise against injustice.[5] This practice arose during the 19th-century: museum exhibitions featured photographs of the ‘primitive’ ‘Other’ to ‘form and give meaning to human suffering’ and, through appealing to Western audiences’ sympathies, advance colonialist ideals of intervening with foreign nations’ ways of life.[6] Continuing this rationale, 20th-century humanitarian organisations drove their philanthropic ventures through disseminating images of the subject desperate for assistance, prompting the liberal West to ‘protect’ the third world instead of exploring how multifaceted human rights issues can pragmatically be resolved.[7] It was not until the 1980s when the use of ‘shocking’ images was challenged. The ‘Image of Africa’ report challenged media representations of human rights crises and developed policies for NGOs to utilise positive images which, ‘respect the individual subjectivity, dignity, identity, culture and volition of those portrayed.’[8] However, whilst human rights representations began to develop away from symbols of suffering 30 years ago, the 21st-century has furthered complexities of ethical human rights representations with the rise of online visual culture.
Representation and related ethical concerns have evolved within the expansion of online modes of display and the continued predominance of visual representation in human rights discourse.[9] As a display platform, the internet has altered the visual representation of human rights in two significant ways:
- The internet has destabilised the display of human rights visual representations. Compared to books and exhibitions which provide three-dimensional display experiences with an intentional ordering of consecutive images contextualised and juxtaposed by text to create a meaningful narrative to the intentional reader or gallery visitor, the internet’s fluid structure does not offer stabilised context or premeditated audiences.[10] In a rather erratic format, a social media user could be absentmindedly viewing a photograph of a friend’s pet rabbit and, subsequently, view a shocking human rights photograph with complete lack of context, accompanying information or interpretational frameworks (Figure 1). Compared to the static visual display in an edited book or curated exhibition, online visual content is circulated on impulse with limited framing or intended outcome for the human rights issue represented. However, ‘shared’ between like-minded individuals across a globalised platform, a human rights visual can ‘go viral’ and provoke ‘widespread anguish and outrage,’ increase awareness and spark mobilisation.[11] Yet, uncontrolled, viral representations can be damaging, especially if infringing the safety of vulnerable populations or not efficiently guiding audiences towards solidarity or understanding.
Two images appearing consecutively on author’s personal Facebook newsfeed. Left image depicts a malnourished child without accompanying contextual information, juxtaposed by a comical image of a bunny. Ironically, both photographs exhibit their subjects on food scales.
- Online modes of display have reduced gatekeeping and redefined participation in human rights visual representations. The rise of the ‘digital native’ has challenged the authority and control of human rights representations held by traditional media, governments and humanitarian organisations.[12] Participation on online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allow human rights issues to be communicated beyond hierarchical controls and, as a result, affect discourse.[13] For example, an ‘active online civil society’ in Arab Springs was critical in enabling democratization and social media is deemed the ‘new frontier of the feminist movement.’[14] Further, the ‘digital native’ can be both an audience member and producer, as they post original content and re-repost content created by others. As such, new forms of participation in human rights representations should be analysed, including the digital natives’ management skills and knowledge.
As evolving online platforms and participation behaviours effect human rights representations, effective strategies should be developed to ethically manage human rights visuals for the minimisation of negative or adverse outcomes.[15] Moreover, this essay aims to gain ‘sophisticated understanding’ of visual media’s developing ability to ethically ‘stimulate action and advocacy’ and sustain participation within new online platforms.[16] The following discussion analyses the creation, publication, circulation and interpretation of visual content, the ethical issues raised within online visual human rights representations and management techniques against possible challenges.
Post, re-post and repeat: Towards an ethical online visual culture within human rights discourse
A principal concern within human rights representations is establishing boundaries around the use of ‘the human,’ which can have dehumanising effects on the individuals or populations it depicts. Visualising ‘the human’ essentially acknowledges the human being within human rights discourse.[17] Such ‘proof of humanness’ allows audiences to ‘feel a similar sense of connectedness’ with those whose rights are being violated.[18] However, the moral rhetoric of characterising ‘the human’ to connect with the viewer is questionable. Motifs including blank eyes, bodily damage, innocent children (the ‘fetishized object’ of human rights photography) and ‘a body we all possess’ perpetuate visual stereotypes which personify the ‘Other’ as hopeless and in need of external assistance.[19] Witnessing human suffering through such ethnocentric and privileged lenses, ‘demeans subjects […] and reinforces inequality.’[20]
Visualising ‘the human’ as despondent has become increasingly problematic as digital infrastructure has increased circulation and, consequently, disempowered the portrayed subject en mass.[21] Human Rights Watch frequently publish visual content online to assist their human rights advocacy, such as a photograph of a drowned Syrian refugee child, Alan Kurdi, in 2015 (figure 2). [22] The distressing photograph of a child’s corpse hooked public emotion as it went viral on Twitter and, consequently, increased support for HRW.[23] Nonetheless, HRW admitted while the image of the ‘tiny, lifeless body’ provoked global outrage, human rights policies were not affected and the Mediterranean refugee death toll continued to increase.[24] Whilst the iconised body invoked widespread anguish, it did not effect change or understanding within the refugee crisis at large. As exhibited by HRW, an organisation can irresponsibly utilise online platforms by posting images of a suffering body to bolster their public image and, subsequently, further imbalance power relationships between privileged audiences and vulnerable populations. Furthermore, it is problematic to showcase ‘the human’ to incite emotion or promote a third party’s image.
The visual narrative of ‘the human’ should be sensitively crafted and informed by empowering symbolism, amplifying the subject’s voice and enforcing solidarity. This strategy was exemplified in My Stealthy Freedom Campaign. Using Facebook, Iranian women posted photographs of themselves unveiling inside the Islamic Republic to spread awareness of gendered oppression (figure 3).[25] Through this, ‘the human’ – the women in the photographs- symbolised empowerment and autonomy with their voice centralised and audiences being guided toward solidarity, rather than toward sympathising with an afflicted body.[26] Contrastingly, it can be argued visualising ‘the human’ central to a human rights violation should be avoided altogether. For instance, NGOs using visual material on online platforms to promote their campaigns can reframe ‘the human’ by circulating photographs of donors and activists to create a sense of community within human rights advocacy.[27] Moreover, human rights representations on online platforms should aim to convey ‘the human’ with, ‘strength, empowerment, and resilience’ rather than aiming to insinuate shock at the cost of demeaning the victim.[28]
Whilst human rights representations should empower subjects, there will inevitably be material distributed online outside this ideal ethical format and, as such, management should consider the ethics of controlling ‘offending’ images. As images continuously circulate throughout global online platforms, the safety of vulnerable individuals depicted can be compromised.[29] As such, a case can be made that dangerous imagery should be blocked from continued circulation in the public sphere. Management strategies could follow philosophies of 1970s LGBT activist group, GLAAD, who argued visual content causes ‘imminent harm’ to vulnerable groups.[30] GLAAD demanded TV networks block content, such as lobbying to pull TV show Work It from the ABC as its negative messages would result in workplace harassment of transgender people.[31] However, unlike TV networks, online platforms cannot be easily censored with the internet’s support of ‘freedom of expression’ which, positively, allows human rights discourse to transition away from authoritarian communication.[32] For instance, while traditional media was censored by the government, a video uploaded onto Instagram of the Roboski bombing in Turkey ‘awakened’ local citizens and informed global audiences of human rights violations occurring in Turkey and led to the Gezi Park protests.[33] Furthermore, visual content which is not directly ‘empowering,’ like bombing footage exhibiting physical injury, should not be censored as its online circulation aids free expression of human rights.
Rather than suppressing circulation, online platforms should embrace freedom of expression whilst promoting safe boundaries. In the digital age, visual content will circulate beyond the original post, resulting in individuals depicted being exposed to their opponent or oppressor and, consequently, revictimized or repeatedly humiliated.[34] For instance, whilst protest movements in Myanmar, Iran and Egypt gained international solidarity through the circulation of photographs and film on social media, their safety was risked by being exposed to hostile authorities.[35] Whilst content cannot be suppressed, promoting digital privacy can meditate potential harm.[36] For instance, WITNESS informs its online users on how to gain consent when using another person’s image, ensuring the subject understands the implications of their image being displayed online, including the worst case scenario.[37] WITNESS argues through gaining consent, the subject can shape how they portray themselves according to their personal assessment of risk.[38] Additionally, it would be beneficial to develop apps, such as Instagram, to include prompts when uploading visual material, such as asking whether consent was gained.[39]
Unfortunately, consent is impossible to sustain in current online culture. High levels of unmonitored participation, the rise of live-streaming and other ambiguous scenarios, like an individual posting a photograph of a human rights violation in the moment without desire of it being widely available in perpetuity, all undermine the possibility of systematic consent.[40] When consent cannot be explicitly granted or gained long term, there should be consideration of context to gauge risk – such as if subjects could be punished if the visual content was seen by a person of power – and provision of anonymity.[41] To achieve this, social media apps should allow the blurring of facial features when a user re-posts or live-streams visual content.[42] Conclusively, the platforms and participation of online culture should prioritise the privacy and integrity of the subject whilst also harnessing the powerful communication abilities online platforms grant.
The inclusion of artworks which conceptually symbolise human rights whilst combatting risks associated with realist mediums is another viable ethical strategy. UNESCO argues art enhances the capacity to confront social and cultural challenges.[43] Whilst not expressed in the context of online platforms, such statement contends for the power of artistic expression to ingeniously represent human rights. Compared to the factual undertones of photography which provides witness to human rights violations, the subjectivity of art does not seek to communicate ‘truth’ but, rather, its language, ‘takes familiar ideas from the realm of human rights and transforms their meanings in ways that speak across time and space.’[44] For instance, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica effectively conveyed human anguish and, alongside bringing global attention to civilian suffering during the Spanish Civil War, became, ‘an anti-war symbol,’ ‘the picture of all bombed cities’ and the ‘embodiment of peace’ (Figure 4).[45]
The implementation of artistic expression within online spaces should continue to pay heed to the integrity of victims and, if possible, pursue conceptual and abstract mediums. Contemporary artist Ai Wei Wei recreated the iconic HRW photograph by posing as an ambiguous subject washed ashore and symbolically personified the rising fatality rates within forced human migration (Figure 5). Compared to HRW’s documentary photograph which primarily bore witness to Kurdi’s demise, Wei Wei withdrew the victim’s body and drove contemplation of refugee rights within online discourse.[46] However, the image was criticised for allegedly ‘disrespecting Alan Kurdi’ by Wei Wei capitalising on his death for ‘PR’.[47] Moreover, the artwork’s lack of abstraction and reliance on photorealism continued to invade Kurdi’s dignity and integrity. As an intern, I was aware of photography’s disempowering effects when sourcing visual content to represent the aims of the Statelessness and Citizenship Review on their website. My colleagues established ‘abstract art’ was the preferred visual medium due to its ability to evade disrespectful representations of human suffering and, rather, open up a platform for conceptually developed representations of human rights. Through an open call, we received a range of valuable and perceptive human rights representations and, with careful consideration, elected an artwork which philosophically and complexly represented statelessness on our website. Furthermore, whilst not without its own ethical dilemmas, art can profoundly represent human rights within online platforms whilst also minimising the risks of realism.
The benefit of abstraction supporting philosophical discourse within online platforms is also achieved by memes.[48] Specific to online visual culture, memes intellectually and satirically represent human rights whilst administering solidarity as ‘cultural currency’ used by digital natives to communicate effectively online.[49] Penney suggests the meme’s satirical effect sidesteps ‘the power offending images have over vulnerable audiences’ whilst still allowing human rights discourse to be communicated visually in social networks.[50] For instance, online women’s rights discourse profited from the ‘Feminist Ryan Gosling’ meme. Its incorporation of generic Ryan Gosling photographs with witty theoretical text reduced negative emotions rampant in human rights discourse – like anger and frustration– and allowed versatile representations of women’s rights (Figure 6).[51] Similarly, when Cincinnati Zoo killed resident gorilla, Harambe, when a child entered its enclosure, digital natives were able to protest his treatment and represent animal rights ideas through the viral ‘Harambe’ meme (Figure 7).[52] Whilst not offering more than a quickly consumable reference, memes commendably allow digital natives to represent human rights issues through the juxtaposition of humour and intellect with minimal risks attached.
Whilst the digital native can benefit from transmitting memes throughout their networks to represent human rights, such online participation of self-curating visual content can be deprecating. Human rights representations risk being trivialised as participation in online platforms is often associated with egotistic social media behaviours. Social media has a rife practice of minimising the complexity of human rights whilst increasing personal social capital by applying aesthetical considerations to visuals when ‘curating’ one’s social media profile. As human rights visuals share online platforms with rampant aestheticized practices, human suffering can be distorted for the sake of personal status. Anthropologist Mostafanezhad observed digital narcissism when volunteer tourists at a Chiang Mai women’s shelter took ‘selfies’ with resident children and excitedly uploaded these images to Instagram according to how they looked with the children.[53] She argued people circulate aesthetic images of themselves online with human rights symbolism, such as impoverished children, to provide their networks with the consumable ‘humanitarian gaze.’[54] Haslebacher, Varga, and Murphy articulated the ethical implications of such scenarios, arguing personal human rights photography posted on social media allows the digital native to contribute to ‘social sharing of emotion’, romanticise inequality and inflate their ‘social egoism.’[55]
Despite endemic unethical practices of aestheticizing human rights for social capital, the intersection between human rights and social media is not innately narcissistic.[56] In fact, social media has increased activism; visual material shared through hashtags on social media was pivotal in the development, organisation and participation of the movements, Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter.[57] Furthermore, the participation of digital natives should be nurtured due to the potential of their proficient visual literacy whilst finding methods to minimise potential narcissism.[58] For instance, online participation can be managed through educational recourses which make ethical frameworks accessible to digital natives. For instance, How to Communicate the World, an educational kit currently in digital circulation, encourages promoting dignity, gaining consent, questioning personal intentions and challenging stereotypes when posting human rights photography on social media.[59] Alternatively, fighting fire with fire can be effective as exhibited by Barbie Savior, an Instagram account which calls out problematic social media photography through mockery, causing introspection for digital natives (Figure 8).[60] Whilst digital natives may cross-contaminate their narcissist social media behaviour with human rights representations, they can be directed to altruistic online curating of their personal content.
Alongside egotism, online participation in human rights discourse also risks being ineffective due to lack of interpretational frameworks accompanying emotionally poignant images. As digital populations increase, ‘friends become curators of everyday news content’ through being visually exposed to and engaging with human rights issues and responding by sharing visuals with their networks.[61] For instance, in March 2013, Facebook users participated in LGBTQIA+ rights discourse by changing their profile pictures to symbolic small red squares and, within this viral digital visual activism, increased awareness and support for marriage equality.[62] However, online platforms becoming, ‘twenty-four-hour news cycle … preview[ing] all of the world’s anguish with just the click of a button,’ compels ‘arm-chair activists’ to reach their empathy thresholds and become desensitised as human rights visuals lose resonance.[63] Despite natural outrage experienced when confronted with human rights violations, the naive digital native’s impulsive ‘repost’ without sufficient understanding of the respective human rights issues can lead to guilt, shame and complicity in their restricted response.[64] Without defined frameworks or effective outcomes, large volumes of imagery being circulated lead to ‘slacktivism’ and ‘compassion fatigue.’[65]
Contrary to this practice, digital natives should be exposed to intellectually stimulating visual content which increases human rights awareness and action. Moreover, ethical management should ensure human rights representations create knowledge, rather than perpetuating endless melancholy. The consequences of compassion fatigue and ‘slacktivism’ can be regulated by implementing interpretational frameworks which guide public reaction. To achieve such ‘intellectual’ over ‘emotional’ readings within self-curated, overloaded online platforms, the visual material in circulation can be reframed with informed context, allowing viral images to become effective rather than causing further damage.[66]
Text alongside visuals can provide context, history and campaign information and allow digital natives to relate cultural and political knowledge to stay alert within the barrage of visual imagery.[67] For instance, one could ‘retweet’ the HRW photograph with a caption relating to the refugee crisis in order to disseminate essential knowledge, over empathy, within the mass consumption of the viral photograph. In addition, as it stands Figure 1 is a decontextualized image of a child with physical signs of starvation which leavs the viewer outraged but powerless in their lack of knowledge. However, it would be effective to provide a caption with data on social, cultural and political issues affecting this child, representative of an afflicted population, to allow the viewer to rationally interpret the image. Documenting the Now, an archival website defined as ‘a tool and a community developed around supporting the ethical collection, use, and preservation of social media content,’ also exhibits means of managing content by collecting circulated human rights imagery and attempting to establish effective context, meaning and information to high volumes of data for future online audiences. [68] As such, there should be active intervention to, ‘mobilise, foment, aggregate, shape and/or curate this content curated by others’, and allow images to become effective content in the ‘virtual vacuum of social media.’[69] By re-appropriating online visuals, digital audiences can thoroughly comprehend human rights and offer solidarity rather than being exposed to atrocity until fatigue.
CONCLUSION
The ethical management of human rights visual representations within online platforms fundamentally revolves around mediative measures which ensure visual material is safely and intellectually informed in its crafting and circulation. Ethical issues concerning visual representations of human rights, such as depicting narratives of human suffering while minimising an issues’ inherent complexities, have become more convoluted through the internet’s instability and participation behaviours. Yet, there are several strategies to assist the healthy management of human rights online visual culture. To evade degrading portrayals, especially when an image primarily serves a third party’s interest, ‘the human’ can be reframed to convey empowerment and gain solidarity from audiences. Nonetheless, as images of human rights atrocities permeate online spaces, provoking visuals should not be censored in preference of empowering representations. Instead, they can be managed through, firstly, embracing freedom of expression, and, secondly, promoting the safety of the individual depicted through gaining consent or ensuring anonymity. To minimise the dominance of hazardous realist representations, there can be an increase in employing alternative visual mediums, such as art and memes, which rely upon conceptual interpretations rather than eliciting shock as an image is circulated within highly active communication networks. However, it is such social networks’ practice of ‘sharing’ visual content which contributes to narcissistic and ‘slacktivist’ online behaviours which minimise the effectiveness of human rights portrayals. Nonetheless, such unideal participatory behaviours can be intercepted by increased online circulation of education tools and re-appropriating images with improved interpretational frameworks. Furthermore, representations of human rights can be successfully managed online through vigilantly created and disseminated visuals. Through these measures, online platforms can be a powerful tool for human rights representations, rather than an unstable stage supporting deprecating material.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Article 19.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Accessed November 01, 2018. http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/udhr/article_19.html.
Beeston, Kym. “How Social Media Is Changing the Way We See Conflict …” Open Security. December 19, 2014. Accessed October 27, 2018. https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/kym-beeston/sharing-witness-is-social-media-changing-way-we-see-conflict.
Brough, Melissa. “Fair Vanity: The Visual Culture of Humanitarianism in the Age of Commodity Activism.” In Commodity Activism: Social Action in Neoliberal Times, 174-94. New York: New York University Press, 2012.
Carpus, Chase T. “Fifteen Minutes of Shame: Social Media and 21st Century Environmental Activism.” Villanova Environmental Law Journal29, no. 1 (2018): 101-28.
Craven, Catherine. “How the Visual Arts Can Further the Cause of Human Rights.” E-international Relations Students. October 21, 2011. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.e-ir.info/2011/10/27/the-visual-arts-and-the-cause-of-human-rights-in-dealing-with-suffering-and-trauma/undefined.
Dickman, Laurel. “Daily Share: White Savior Barbie.” Wear Your Voice. April 19, 2016. Accessed November 04, 2018. https://wearyourvoicemag.com/more/pop-culture/daily-share-white-savior-barbie.
Fehrenbach, Heide, and Davide Rodogno. ““A Horrific Photo of a Drowned Syrian Child”: Humanitarian Photography and NGO Media Strategies in Historical Perspective.” International Review of the Red Cross97, no. 900 (2015): 1121-155.
Fisher, Thomas. “Challenging the White-Savior Industrial Complex.” The Plan Journal1, no. 2 (2017). doi:10.15274/tpj.2016.01.02.01.
Funnell, Antony. “Meet the Digital Librarians Saving Social Media Posts to Protect Human Rights.” ABC News, August 30, 2017. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-29/archivist-as-activist-human-rights-in-a-digital-world/8852068.
Gismondi, Adam, and Laura Osteen. “Student Activism in the Technology Age.” New Directions for Student Leadership2017, no. 153 (2017): 63-74.
Godfrey, Jane, Stephen Wearing, Nico Schulenkorf, and Simone Grabowski. “Constructing Identity through the ‘moral Consumption’ of Volunteer Tourism.” 1280-286. Proceedings of CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations, Sydney. 2016.
Gregory, Sam. “Cameras Everywhere: Ubiquitous Video Documentation of Human Rights, New Forms of Video Advocacy, and Consdierations of Safety, Security, Dignity and Consent.” Journal of Human Rights Practice2, no. 2 (2010): 191-207.
“Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso.” Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Accessed November 01, 2018. https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp.
Haslebacher, Christine, Peter Varga, and Catherine Hilary Murphy. “Examining the Motivations of Volunteer Tourists: Insights from Images Posted on Social Media.” 217-30. Proceedings of CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations, Sydney. 2016.
Hladiuc, Larisa. Redefining Civic Engagement in the Digital Age. Master’s thesis, Stockholm University, 2017.
Human Rights Watch. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.hrw.org/.
“Image of Africa Project.” Imaging Famine. Accessed October 28, 2018. http://www.imaging-famine.org/images_africa.htm.
Ivanovic, Mladjo. “Lives Rendered Invisible: Bearing Witness to Human Suffering.” Etikk I Praksis – Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 2015.
Mackie, Vera. “Putting a Face to a Name: Visualising Human Rights.” Cultural Studies Review20, no. 1 (2014): 213-36.
Monshipouri, Mahmood. “Human Rights in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Constraints.” Public Integrity19, no. 2 (2016): 123-35.
Mostafanezhad, Mary. “Volunteer Tourism and the Popular Humanitarian Gaze.” Geoforum54 (2014): 111-18.
Neuendorf, Henri. “Ai Weiwei Recreates Photo of Drowned Syrian Child.” Artnet News. December 11, 2017. Accessed November 01, 2018. https://news.artnet.com/market/ai-weiwei-reenactment-drowned-syrian-toddler-417275.
Neumayer, Christina, and Jakob Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital Age.” The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies22, no. 2 (October 16, 2014).
Penney, Joel. “Responding to Offending Images in the Digital Age: Censorious and Satirical Discourses in LGBT Activism.” Communication, Culture & Critique8 (2015): 217-34.
Pruce, Joel R. “What Does Human Rights Look Like? The Visual Culture of Aid, Advocacy, and Activism.” In Political Science Faculty Publications, 50-72. University of Dayton, 2017.
Radi-Aid. How to Communicate the World: A Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers. 2017. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52720d41e4b024943bdf6241/t/5a0be22b0d9297328daa35e9/1510728260373/Saih-Social-Media-Guide-2017.pdf.
Riera, Taryn. Online Feminisms: Feminist Community Building and Activism in a Digital Age. Master’s thesis, Scripps College, 2015. Claremont Colleges. 1-96.
Sreberny, Annabelle. “Womens Digital Activism in a Changing Middle East.” International Journal of Middle East Studies47, no. 02 (2015): 357-61.
Sunderland, Judith. “The Death of a Small Syrian Boy.” Human Rights Watch. September 02, 2016. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/02/death-small-syrian-boy.
Tascon, Sonia. “Considering Human Rights Films, Representation, and Ethics: Whose Face?” Human Rights Quarterly34, no. 3 (2012): 864-83.
Tufeckci, Zeynep. “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age: Evaluating a Complex Landscape.” Journal of International Affairs68, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 1-18.
“Video & Photos.” Human Rights Watch. Accessed October 28, 2018. https://www.hrw.org/video-photos.
Vie, Stephanie. “In Defense of “slacktivism”: The Human Rights Campaign Facebook Logo as Digital Activism.” First Monday19, no. 4 (April 7, 2014). Accessed November 4, 2018. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4961/3868.
“Volunteer Abroad Programs.” GoAbroad.com. Accessed November 04, 2018. https://www.goabroad.com/volunteer-abroad.
[1] Vera Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name: Visualising Human Rights,” Cultural Studies Review20, no. 1 (2014), 213.
[2] ‘Human rights’ in this essay is used broadly, referring to gender, economic, political, sexual, religious and social rights in a range of cultural and geopolitical contexts.
[3] Heide Fehrenbach and Davide Rodogno, ““A Horrific Photo of a Drowned Syrian Child”: Humanitarian Photography and NGO Media Strategies in Historical Perspective,” International Review of the Red Cross97, no. 900 (2015), 1147.
[4]Joel R. Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like? The Visual Culture of Aid, Advocacy, and Activism,” in Political Science Faculty Publications, 50-72. University of Dayton, 2017, 53.
[5] Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1124-5.
[6] Melissa Brough, “Fair Vanity: The Visual Culture of Humanitarianism in the Age of Commodity Activism,” In Commodity Activism: Social Action in Neoliberal Times, 174-94 (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 177.
Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1125.
[7] Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1136.
Brough, “Fair Vanity, 178.
[8] Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1151-2.
“Image of Africa Project,” Imaging Famine, accessed October 28, 2018, http://www.imaging-famine.org/images_africa.htm.
[9] Brough, “Fair Vanity, 178.
[10] Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 221.
[11] Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1122.
[12] The ‘digital native’ is defined in this essay as the regular internet user who has technological capacity to produce and disseminate imagery online.
Brough, “Fair Vanity, 176.
Kym Beeston, “How Social Media Is Changing the Way We See Conflict …” Open Security, December 19, 2014, accessed October 27, 2018, https://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/kym-beeston/sharing-witness-is-social-media-changing-way-we-see-conflict.
[13] Christina Neumayer, and Jakob Svensson, “Activism and Radical Politics in the Digital Age,” The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies22, no. 2 (October 16, 2014), 15.
Mahmood Monshipouri, “Human Rights in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Constraints,” Public Integrity19, no. 2 (2016), 123.
[14] Monshipouri, “Human Rights in the Digital Age,” 119-21.
Taryn Riera, Online Feminisms: Feminist Community Building and Activism in a Digital Age (Master’s thesis, Scripps College, 2015. Claremont Colleges), 23.
[15] Monshipouri, “Human Rights in the Digital Age,” 123.
Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 53.
Mary Mostafanezhad, “Volunteer Tourism and the Popular Humanitarian Gaze,” Geoforum54 (2014), 116.
[16] Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 230.
Monshipouri, “Human Rights in the Digital Age,” 133.
[17] Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 225.
[18] Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 225.
Tascon argues further that the human face is used in visuals to recognise the subject’s human intellect and spirit which, therefore, justifies their deserved freedom and dignity. The human face representing human subjectivity emerged from the European Enlightenment through humanism theories, which also heavily influenced Western philosophers’ ideas of human rights. Thus, when a suffering human face is exhibited, it indicates freedom, dignity and intellect are at stake which will ‘readily evoke proper emotions’ in response to violating the human. (Sonia Tascon, “Considering Human Rights Films, Representation, and Ethics: Whose Face?” Human Rights Quarterly34, no. 3 (2012), 867.
[19] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,”51, 66.
Further, viewing the “spectacle of suffering” of a “remote” and “exotic” “other” only benefits the audience and, as such, ‘the human’ symbolises weakness in contrast to their privilege. (Tascon, “Considering Human Rights Films,” 867.)
[20] This representation of individuals in the developing world insinuates the state’s failure to protect and perpetuates colonial narratives of the West needing to intervene helpless underdeveloped nations. Moreover, the suffering child builds upon this idea of the state failing as ‘the father’ and prompts the Western viewer to become the fraternal protector. (Fehrenbach and Rodogno. “A Horrific Photo,” 1128, 1144).
Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 50.
Tascon, “Considering Human Rights Films,” 867.
Mostafanezhad, “Volunteer Tourism,” 115.
[21] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 70.
Zeynep Tufeckci, “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age: Evaluating a Complex Landscape,” Journal of International Affairs68, no. 1 (Winter 2014), 1.
[22] Human Rights Watch is an NGO who conduct ‘research and advocacy on human rights.’ (Human Rights Watch, accessed October 28, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/.)
“Video & Photos,” Human Rights Watch, accessed October 28, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/video-photos.
[23] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,”62.
Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1136.
[24] Judith Sunderland, “The Death of a Small Syrian Boy,” Human Rights Watch, September 02, 2016, accessed October 28, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/02/death-small-syrian-boy.
[25] Annabelle Sreberny, “Womens Digital Activism in a Changing Middle East,” International Journal of Middle East Studies47, no. 02 (2015), 359.
[26] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 71.
Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 229.
Tascon, “Considering Human Rights Films,” 878-81.
[27] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 69.
[28] Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 67.
[29] Sam Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere: Ubiquitous Video Documentation of Human Rights, New Forms of Video Advocacy, and Considerations of Safety, Security, Dignity and Consent,” Journal of Human Rights Practice2, no. 2 (2010), 197.
[30] Joel Penney, “Responding to Offending Images in the Digital Age: Censorious and Satirical Discourses in LGBT Activism,” Communication, Culture & Critique8 (2015), 223.
[31] Penney, “Responding to Offending Images,” 223.
[32] Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every individual has the right to ‘freedom of expression,’ including expressing opinions without interference through media (“Article 19,” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, , accessed November 01, 2018, http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/udhr/article_19.html.).
Penney, “Responding to Offending,”227.
Monshipouri, “Human Rights in the Digital Age,” 130.
Tufeckci, “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age,” 7.
[33] Tufeckci, “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age,” 3-4.
[34] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 201-4.
[35] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 201-4.
Neumayer and Svensson. “Activism and Radical Politics,” 10.
[36] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 201.
[37] WITNESS is an online platform designed to harness the capacity of the everyday internet user by allowing them to capture and share evidence of human rights violations through methods which do not endanger creators or those filmed (Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 194).
Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 204.
[38] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 204.
[39] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 205.
[40] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 204-6.
Antony Funnell, “Meet the Digital Librarians Saving Social Media Posts to Protect Human Rights,” ABC News, August 30, 2017, accessed October 28, 2018, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-29/archivist-as-activist-human-rights-in-a-digital-world/8852068.
[41] Neumayer and Svensson,”Activism and Radical Politics,” 8.
[42] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 205.
[43] Catherine Craven, “How the Visual Arts Can Further the Cause of Human Rights,” E-international Relations Students, October 21, 2011, accessed October 28, 2018, https://www.e-ir.info/2011/10/27/the-visual-arts-and-the-cause-of-human-rights-in-dealing-with-suffering-and-trauma/undefined, 12-3.
In addition, those effected by a human rights violation can use art to represent their experiences in way words cannot articulate whilst also not having to implicate their identity in the process (Craven, “How the Visual Arts,” 12.)
[44] Craven, “How the Visual Arts,” 10-2.
[45] Craven, “How the Visual Arts,” 9.
Commissioned by the United Nations and inspired by eyewitness accounts of a bombing of a Spanish village by Nazi and Italian warplanes in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. “Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso,” Guernica by Pablo Picasso, accessed November 01, 2018, https://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp.
[46] The photograph has appeared on prominent online platforms, including the Guardian and the Washington Post.
[47] Henri Neuendorf, “Ai Weiwei Recreates Photo of Drowned Syrian Child,” Artnet News, December 11, 2017, accessed November 01, 2018, https://news.artnet.com/market/ai-weiwei-reenactment-drowned-syrian-toddler-417275.
[48] Memes, whilst difficult to define, can be described as online comics shaped by satirical social commentary which are easily shareable as a visual product.
[49] Riera, Online Feminisms,44-7.
Penney, “Responding to Offending,”228.
[50] Penney, “Responding to Offending,”218, 229.
[51] Riera, Online Feminisms, 42.
[52] Chase T. Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame: Social Media and 21st Century Environmental Activism,” Villanova Environmental Law Journal29, no. 1 (2018), 123.
[53] Mostafanezhad, “Volunteer Tourism,” 111.
[54] Mostafanezhad, “Volunteer Tourism,” 111.
In this practice, volunteer tourists also perpetuate colonial narratives by depicting the West saving the ‘Other.’ (Mostafanezhad, “Volunteer Tourism,” 115).
[55] Christine Haslebacher, Peter Varga, and Catherine Hilary Murphy, “Examining the Motivations of Volunteer Tourists: Insights from Images Posted on Social Media,” 217-30 (proceedings of CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations, Sydney. 2016), 220.
It should be noted, however, digital natives only echo aesthetic and consumable human rights visualisations disseminated by humanitarian organisations. Goabroad.com, a tour provider, promotes volunteer programmes by promising those with a ‘higher calling’ with ‘authentic experiences’ and ‘intercultural encounters’ by ‘serving others’ alongside images of smiling, happy Western youth engaging with the disadvantaged ‘Other.’ (Haslebacher, Varga, and Murphy, “Examining the Motivations of Volunteer Tourists,” 219 & “Volunteer Abroad Programs,” GoAbroad.com, accessed November 04, 2018, https://www.goabroad.com/volunteer-abroad.). Similarly, Invisible Children appeal to personal ego by promoting elite tours (packaged as humanitarian work) to American high school students through online marketing videos promising ‘personal growth’ and adventure in exoticized Ugandan displacement camps (Brough, “Fair Vanity, 184-7).
[56] Jane Godfrey, Stephen Wearing, Nico Schulenkorf, and Simone Grabowski, “Constructing Identity through the ‘moral Consumption’ of Volunteer Tourism,” (proceedings of CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations, Sydney. 2016), 1281.
Whilst digital natives, like volunteer tourists, are reacting to consumer culture and promoting their social capital through human rights photographs, they also have altruistic motives – like responsibility and morality- within these online human rights activities. (Godfrey, Wearing, Schulenkorf, and Grabowski. “Constructing Identity.”)
[57] Adam Gismondi and Laura Osteen, “Student Activism in the Technology Age,” New Directions for Student Leadership2017, no. 153 (2017), 63.
[58] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 195, 201.
[59] Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 205.
Radi-Aid, How to Communicate the World: A Social Media Guide for Volunteers and Travelers, 2017, Accessed October 28, 2018, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52720d41e4b024943bdf6241/t/5a0be22b0d9297328daa35e9/1510728260373/Saih-Social-Media-Guide-2017.pdf.
[60] Laurel Dickman, “Daily Share: White Savior Barbie,” Wear Your Voice, April 19, 2016, , accessed November 04, 2018, https://wearyourvoicemag.com/more/pop-culture/daily-share-white-savior-barbie.
[61] Larisa Hladiuc, Redefining Civic Engagement in the Digital Age (Master’s thesis, Stockholm University, 2017), 15.
Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 194.
Mladjo Ivanovic, “Lives Rendered Invisible: Bearing Witness to Human Suffering,” Etikk I Praksis – Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, 2015, 62.
Beeston, “How Social Media.”
[62] Stephanie Vie, “In Defense of “slacktivism”: The Human Rights Campaign Facebook Logo as Digital Activism,” First Monday 19, no. 4 (April 7, 2014): , accessed November 4, 2018, https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/4961/3868.
[63] Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame,” 102, 119.
Ivanovic, “Lives Rendered Invisible,” 64, 67-8.
However, it can be argued these actions allows effectual micro level contributions to human rights issues (Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame,” 104.)
[64] Ivanovic, “Lives Rendered Invisible,” 62.
Beeston, “How Social Media.”
Penney, “Responding to Offending,”218.
Whilst NGOs have historically relied on audiences to bear witness through shocking photographs to galvanise them, there is evidence these images cause more desensitisation and denial than knowledge and action. In the advancement of social media and camera phone technology, lack of efficient engagement has only grown (Beeston, “How Social Media.”)
[65] Slacktivism is defined as ‘the tendency to click on links or like posts rather than taking concrete actions or steps’ (Tufeckci, “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age,” 8).
Compassion fatigue is defined as, ‘the idea that as humans, our threshold for empathy is limited, and if constantly faced with tragedy or sympathetic issues, we will eventually begin to tune out’. (Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame,” 119).
Tufeckci, “Social Movements and Governments in the Digital Age,” 8.
Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame,” 119.
[66] Fehrenbach and Rodogno, “A Horrific Photo,” 1149-50.
[67] Ivanovic, “Lives Rendered Invisible,” 64.
Pruce, “What Does Human Rights Look Like?,” 55.
Mackie, “Putting a Face to a Name,” 230.
[68] Funnell, “Meet the Digital Librarians.”
[69] Carpus, “Fifteen Minutes of Shame,”125.
Gregory, “Cameras Everywhere,” 193.