University of Kwazulu-Natal

Graphic Photos Managing Disturbing Images In The Digital Age

Bonisiwe Shabane
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graphic photos managing disturbing images in the digital age

Graphic photos have become an increasingly controversial topic in our digital age. We’re constantly exposed to powerful and sometimes disturbing images through social media, news outlets and personal devices. As content creators and consumers we often struggle with the ethical implications of sharing such visuals. We’ve witnessed how graphic images can spark social movements document historical events and raise awareness about important issues. Yet we must carefully consider the impact these photos have on viewers particularly vulnerable audiences and those directly affected by the depicted events. While some argue for complete transparency others advocate for more measured approaches to sharing sensitive visual content.

Graphic photos depict disturbing content including violence, injury, death or other distressing scenes that create strong emotional responses in viewers. Their distribution through digital platforms presents complex challenges for content moderators, publishers, and audiences. Graphic photos fall into several distinct categories: Content warnings alert viewers about graphic photos containing potentially disturbing material before exposure to the content. These warnings create a buffer zone that enables individuals to make informed decisions about viewing sensitive imagery. Today, many of us are being exposed to graphically violent or harrowing imagery at a rate never experienced in the pre-digital age, from police shootings to bombings to floods and other climate disasters.

Yet most social media users have never been taught how to safely engage with content that may be deeply upsetting. The photos and videos captured by mobile phones and uploaded by everyday social media users can be especially challenging: People post information that they think will grab attention, including that which is raw and... And disturbing content may appear in our feeds at any time to surprise or unsettle us. We started using science-based strategies for minimizing the harms of viewing graphic content when we launched the Human Rights Center Investigations Lab at UC Berkeley in 2016. From day one of the lab, our students were exposed to hundreds of videos from the war in Syria. Viewed to analyze and corroborate online information for human rights and legal organizations, these raw videos featured frightened people watching fighter planes dropping cluster bombs, distraught family members searching for loved ones, and homes...

Thanks to colleagues at Amnesty International, we knew from the get-go that we had to think about how to keep our students as safe as possible from secondary trauma or other ill effects. Over time, the lab’s investigations have shifted from Syria to Myanmar to Sudan to the United States, and many other places where human rights violations and injustice persist. Throughout, we’ve continued to help students navigate the emotionally challenging and often graphic, painful imagery—learning a lot from them about what works and what doesn’t. Our aim has been to find alternatives to the tough-it-out route that is common for human rights investigators and journalists—and to acknowledge that traumatic imagery can affect us all through our exposure to news... In doing this work, we saw how the tactics used by professionals can be used by anyone who is attached to their phone and potentially swimming in graphic imagery. We are asking: How can we all stay engaged with what’s happening in the world while minimizing the risk of anxiety, depression, ruminations, or other negative effects?

Our book, Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in Our Online Lives, explores this digital moment and includes suggestions collected from researchers and activists around the world for minimizing the potential harms of exposure to graphic... Here are a few tips experts say are particularly effective. Posted February 7, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker In the news, CEOs of the biggest social media corporations were grilled by U.S. Capitol lawmakers about all the risks to children from their online platforms. (1) Under pressure from parents and politicians, social media companies promise to implement systems to protect identities, conduct age verification, and limit young people from accessing inappropriate content.

Parents are rightly concerned about the effects of kids being exposed to adult-only sexual content. Beyond pornography, another potentially toxic category is violent "traumatic media"—extremely graphic and violent videos from crime scenes, wars, and disasters. Such images can be harmful to children and vulnerable adults. In journalism, it is often said: "If it bleeds, it leads." Ratings follow the most sensational headlines, and gory stories of crime and violence often receive the most views. Historically, the "news" took days or weeks to arrive. Today, video-sharing platforms supply instant, real-time images from around the world.

This includes videos of violent events, now streamed to our digital devices. Videos of real violence—war, disaster, and crime—are easily accessible and widely shared. As prosecutors, we have jobs that require us to view explicit, often very graphic, unsettling evidence. You can’t simply avert your eyes because a child’s safety is at stake, and a criminal must be brought to justice. Nonetheless, there are ways to guard your senses and your sensibility in strategizing how to work sensitive cases. You don’t want to have these images pop up and one of the video clips start running through your mind at the family dinner table, causing you to become quiet and withdrawn.

On the other hand, you must dutifully examine such evidence in order to do your job. So where is the happy medium? How do you cope? Thankfully, there are tips and tactics to lessen the psychological impact of viewing graphic evidence for a living, and coping strategies to recharge. George W. Burruss et al.

(2018) examined the issue of vicarious trauma due to viewing graphic evidence within the context of investigating Internet crimes against children. They found that investigators regularly encounter psychologically harmful materials in the course of working cases involving child pornography and sexual exploitation, and that such exposure directly and indirectly enhances the likelihood of experiencing trauma. They emphasize the necessity of management to monitor investigators for indications of emotional stress or secondary trauma, and also highlight the value of wellness programs as well as psychological counseling for digital investigators to... They note that some agencies encourage, while others mandate counseling services after a certain number of hours viewing graphic content. Other researchers have acknowledged the value of positive coping strategies. Thomas J.

Holt and Kristie Blevins (2011) examined job stress and satisfaction among a selection of digital forensic examiners, and found that although analysts did in fact experience a moderate amount of work stress, they also... Forward Authors Reviews Press Experts Contact In today’s information age, we can watch graphic events daily, like the livestream of a mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, or video of a Burmese soldier shooting a man in broad daylight. And it’s not just overt violence: We might stumble upon an apartment complex imploding, swallowing up 98 people in a matter of seconds; stampeding fires, tsunamis, and earthquakes, all images that can be as... What was once a rare glimpse into the world’s horrors is now commonplace on our handheld screens. The video of George Floyd's murder is not the first viral image to capture the world’s attention and it won’t be the last.

But the video may well be among the most catalytic of our times, given the pandemic, which dramatically increased peoples’ viewing time online. This video, in this time, marks a moment in the history of graphic content and raises the question of when, how—and even if—we should be watching what others post online. In Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in Our Online Lives, we draw upon the experiences of those who work closely with user-generated content to help answer these questions and make sense of this moment. We talked with reporters at major news outlets and researchers who have looked closely at the effects of disturbing online content on human rights workers and journalists. We learned from people who have led teams at major social media platforms, as well as the content moderators tasked with watching thousands of hours of disturbing posts, ranging from terrorism to the sexual... We picked the brains of neuroscientists, professors, and psychologists—as well as teenagers and young adults who have grown up in the era of social media—to understand how graphic and distressing content affects all of...

As academics, as journalists, and as human rights researchers and investigators, we wrote this book because we see the value of people engaging with difficult content in order to better understand our world; to... But we also recognize the need to learn from those who are shifting the paradigm—from the traditional and often macho approach of “hardened” journalists, war crimes investigators and human rights workers who spent decades... In Graphic, we provide practical tips and suggestions for how people can minimise the risk of psychological harm from viewing graphic and other upsetting material online.

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