Conflict and violence have always had a significant presence in media circulation. Newspaper publishers and politicians, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer (1998) are both attributed with popularising the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leads”, in reference to their prioritisation of graphic media to sensationalise and dramatise the Spanish-American War (1998). The limitations of 1890s media circulation enabled Hearst and Pulitzer to foster a narrative focused on the horrific nature of the atrocities being committed by the Spanish in Cuba. With this being widely considered the first “media-war”, audiences were more engaged and receptive to the reporting of the conflict, allowing them to steer a public reaction of a demand for US intervention and war.

Before even conventional modern forms of media circulation like newspapers, narratives were already being formed through depiction of conflict. Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, “Charge of the Light Brigade” (1854), presented readers with a narrative of heroic tragedy, backdropped by a catastrophic manoeuvre in the Crimean War.

Narratives are a crucial part of understanding an image. An image, or even description of conflict, on it’s own only documents the event. When placed within a wider context, a narrative forms. This narrative can effect what we believe the image is trying to show, and influences how we react to it. Images and narratives are inherently tied in media circulation; every image in a newspaper is accompanied by a “story”, a version of events surrounding that image. Through this context, the story surrounding the image, the narrative is formed.

Over the past century, there has been dramatic shifts in how media circulates. What was once seen through newspapers, became witnessed through TV, and eventually in the 21st century, through digital channels such as social media.

This question poses implications for both designers, and for users. It is vital for designers to consider how the platforms they create to circulate media, whether that be traditional or digital platforms, allow for the development of narratives surrounding images and how that impacts users. Similarly, it is crucial for users to understand how the ways in which the media they consume through these platforms can be manipulated to envoke different reactions from them.

This research will first explore an array of historical and modern conflict, examining how images have been circulated through media platforms of the time, and analysing how this has lead to image narratives being formed. Once a sufficient spectrum of conflicts have been explored, the findings will be compared and contrasted to form a set of insights in response to the question.