Visual Politics, Protest, and Power: Who Shaped the Climate Visual Discourse at COP26?

Despite the importance of visual imagery for how people conceptualise issues in the news media, most research on journalism and communication prioritises textual media. This research examines the visual imagery accompanying news stories about the 2021 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow (COP26). Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyse over 1,300 images from eight UK news outlets using content and critical visual discourse analysis. We then contextualise these images, drawing on interviews and participant observation with key visual media actors including image agency photojournalists and news journalists, editors and correspondents. First, we find that the visual discourse of COP26 is limited to politicians and “talking heads” imagery, and images of protest. Second, we explore the journey that images take through the news media ecosystem, from the camera lens to the published news article, identifying the sources of power which act on visuals throughout this journey. Sources of power can be obvious (e.g., individual photographers), whilst others are obscured or misattributed (e.g., curation and editing). Overall, we empirically demonstrate the importance of understanding the networked nature of images and how they move through a complex globalised media ecosystem, rather than conceptualising them simply as static objects in the news cycle.

尽管视觉图像对人们理解新闻媒体中的各类议题至关重要，但当前绝大多数新闻与传播领域的研究仍优先关注文本类媒体。本研究聚焦2021年于格拉斯哥举办的联合国气候变化大会（2021 UN Climate Summit, COP26）相关新闻报道所配套的视觉图像展开分析。本研究采用混合研究方法，结合内容分析与批判性视觉话语分析，对8家英国新闻媒体的1300余幅图像展开分析。随后，本研究通过对图像机构摄影记者、新闻记者、编辑及通讯员等核心视觉媒体从业者开展访谈与参与式观察，为上述图像分析构建语境维度。其一，研究发现COP26的视觉话语仅局限于政界人士与‘发言人镜头（talking heads）’图像以及抗议活动场景两类。其二，本研究梳理了图像从拍摄到见报的完整新闻媒体生态流转路径，并识别出在此过程中对视觉图像产生作用的各类权力来源。此类权力来源有的较为显性（如个体摄影记者），有的则较为隐蔽或归属模糊（如图像策划与编辑环节）。综上，本研究通过实证分析证明，我们应当理解图像的网络化属性及其在复杂全球化媒体生态中的流转机制，而非仅将其视为新闻周期中的静态客体。