Visual communication in times of war. Empathic reception of online visuals from the wars in Ukraine and Israel

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Marion G. Müller
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 544959697

The overarching goal of this project is to shed light on emotional reception processes in German audiences of online war visuals from the wars in Ukraine and Israel. The topic of this suggested project targets a comparison of emotional reactions of recipients distant to the actual warfare, measuring their experienced empathy or apathy with specific visual motifs of photographs and videos published in online media. In a nutshell, this project focuses on empathic or apathic reactions to visual stimuli depicting war. While war visuals have been a staple of visual communication research since its inception, the majority of media and communication publications is using content-analytic approaches to identify e.g., media framing patterns and journalistic biases. There are only few reception-analytic studies in visual communication that strive to analyze audience reactions to the exposure of war visuals. Most of these studies are also focusing on legacy media like television or print. What is lacking, is a current approach that covers current wars and current online reception processes of war imagery. To fill this void is the aim of this research project. At the core of this project are four research questions: RQ1: What are the visual patterns of online war reporting comparing the Russia-Ukraine war with the Hamas-Israel war? RQ2: Which visual patterns elicit what type of empathic reaction in which audiences? RQ3: Which visuals are eliciting non-empathic (apathic) reactions in recipients and why? RQ4: What are recommendations and potential guidelines for audiences, journalists, decision-makers in dealing with online atrocity imagery, and in strengthening resilience in beholders of war imagery? To answer these RQs, a complex mixed-method design was developed, combining qualitative methods of visual categorization (iconography-iconology) with experimental methods (eyetracking), image sorting approaches (Q-sort factorial analysis), and qualitative expert interviews in a comparative visual communication framework. The project has four expected outcomes: First, a significantly improved understanding of visual reception processes in the context of war, including the relationship of visual patterns and empathic reactions to them. Second, a deepened understanding of the role that online visuals play in the Russia-Ukraine and the Hamas-Israel wars. Third, this project breaks novel methodological ground. To the best of our knowledge, iconology, eyetracking, Q-sort and expert interviews have not been combined before in a single research design. And fourth, during the research project, specific guidelines will be drafted for audiences, journalists and political decision-makers how to improve visual coping strategies in the future.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants