Representations of violence have become visual commonplaces, bringing distant conflicts and faraway wounds close.[1035]

Over the last century different media from all over the world have offered audiences image after image of violence. They have come in many different forms: from grainy black and white film footage of the Battle of the Somme (1916), via the jerky colour Zapruder film of John F.

Kennedy's assassination in Dallas (1963) to countless pictures of a plane crashing into a skyscraper in New York (2001), or mobile phone footage of ‘democracy' protestors being confronted by masked gangs or armed police in Hong Kong (2019). These and other now familiar representations of violence have tended to dominate the collective memory in Europe and North America. There are many other images from around the world that also now circulate the globe: the mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945), a summary execution in a Vietnamese street (1968), a photograph of a young man carrying the body of 12- year-old Hector Pieterson in Soweto, South Africa (1976), a rare film of two women in the distance being hacked to death in the middle of a street during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and more recently films of hostages in Iraq being beheaded (c. 2014-16). Such representations have become ubiquitous, shaping how events are remembered and interpreted, so becoming part of a symbolic reservoir. Moments captured on film are often drawn upon metonymically to illustrate wider historical movements and fault lines. Technological advances have amplified the power of individual representations. Images both of actual violence and of its effects are invariably now digitised and easily available online. A few clicks on a smartphone or laptop, and these images, along with millions of others, are almost instantaneously available. A global history of past and present violence is there for the watching. With the development of the internet and the World Wide Web these traces of bloodshed are easily accessed, preserved and circulated.

In the pages that follow I analyse how audiences, journalists and producers interact with media representations of violence.

More precisely I examine the practices of revealing, representing, redacting, remembering and responding to images of violence, using a wide range of examples from different media. While recognising the power of vivid journalistic written and verbal descriptions of violence, this chapter primarily considers visual representations over the last two centuries, starting from the 1810s, in the decade before the first photograph (c. 1826), to the present day. As the previous chapter has considered cinematic violence, this one will concentrate upon non-cinematic examples, such as photographic portrayals of non-fictional violence. Other practices such as hiding, selecting, overlooking, forgetting and recollecting will be juxtaposed with these core practices of revealing, representing, redacting, remembering and respond­ing. My argument is that these related practices contribute to the way violence manifests itself around the circuit of communication, which begins with acts of creation and production of images of violence, and which is then followed by their dissemination, reception and recycling. Reflecting further on this circuit of communication and these related practices will help answer questions such as: Why do certain images of violence receive more attention than others? Why are some media representations of violence remembered and others easily forgot­ten? Before turning to these and related questions it is useful to reflect upon the recurring tension between reticence and exposure, discernible in the evolution of representations of violence.

More on the topic Representations of violence have become visual commonplaces, bringing distant conflicts and faraway wounds close.[1035]:

1. Violence and representations of violence abound in the literature of ancient and late antique Judaism and Christianity.
2. Biblical Representations of Violence
3. Part One Children and Women First? Violence Close to Home
4. PART V REPRESENTATIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF VIOLENCE
5. PART VI REPRESENTATIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF VIOLENCE
6. Representations of Violence in Imperial China
7. PART VII REPRESENTATIONS AND CONSTRUCTIONS OF VIOLENCE
8. Representations of Violence in Ancient Mesopotamia and Syria
9. Representations of War and Violence in Ancient Rome
10. African Ritual Violence: Close Combat in Western Africa and the Diaspora
11. Representations of war and violence were pervasive throughout the Roman world, displayed in homes and public spaces.
12. This chapter explores the visual sources for violence and warfare created over the millennium from 500 to 1500 in the lands where Islam became a major presence.
13. An Example of Conflicts Rather Than Passive Subordination and the Need for a Theory of Conflicts
14. Bite Wounds