News values and human values in mediated terrorism: Photographic representations of the 2015 Beirut and Paris attacks by global news agencies

Abstract

This study explores the photographic representations of two terrorist incidents, the 2015 Paris attacks and the Beirut bombings, produced by the leading global news agencies. The study conducts a content analysis of the photographs produced by AP, Reuters and AFP to identify the recurring patterns of the images under the discourse of ‘othering’ and ‘grievability’. It is observed that the agencies represented the two incidents differently as they show distinctive patterns in their manners of portrayal. It is argued that the apparent ‘hierarchy of news values’ is accompanied by the ‘hierarchy of human lives’ within the photographic representations, whereby the photographs of the Paris attacks, recognized as an extraordinary event, speak of humanization in which lives of the sufferers are valued while the photographs of the Beirut bombings, seen as an ordinary event, speak of dehumanization, where lives are devalued. Implications for global journalism and news value are discussed.