Imaginative geographies of distant suffering: two cases of the Syrian Civil War on television

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F18%3A00101983" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/18:00101983 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2017.1312695" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2017.1312695</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2017.1312695" target="_blank" >10.1080/14649365.2017.1312695</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Imaginative geographies of distant suffering: two cases of the Syrian Civil War on television

Original language description

The paper builds upon distant suffering studies and the ‘analytics of mediation’. It observes how television performances of suffering expose spectators to dispositions to feel, think and act towards each instance of suffering. It analyses the news coverage of civilians’ suffering in the Syrian Civil War that was presented by Czech public television broadcaster. The interpretation of imaginative geographies expands the analysis because of the need for more spatially sensitive approaches to distant suffering. Imaginative geographies coproduce diverse spacetimes and distant suffering studies often overlook how media performances are shaped according to spacetimes where suffering occurs. Two spacetimes are contrasted here; the Syrian Civil War before and after the Islamic State gained prominence in it. In both cases, the aim is to interpret in what ways the distance is translated into difference through imaginative geographies and how it shapes television performances of suffering. The analysis shows that Orientalist imaginative geographies appear in both cases. However, while in the first case imaginative geographies empower pity and dispositions to act towards suffering, in the second case they do not. It is because of the difference between Bashar al-Assad as a local Oriental persecutor and the Islamic State as the global threat.

Czech name

—

Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50700 - Social and economic geography

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2018

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Social & Cultural Geography

ISSN

1464-9365

e-ISSN

1470-1197

Volume of the periodical

19

Issue of the periodical within the volume

6

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

25

Pages from-to

764-788

UT code for WoS article

000439910700004

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85016468577