The Emotional Power of Visual: On the Representation of Migrants, Refugees and Aslyum Seekers in Global Visual Politics

Öz

Today, visual studies and emotional studies show a significant development by feeding each other. The triggering of feelings, emotions and thoughts by visuals that provide us reference in our making sense of the world, in other words, the emotional power of visuals constitutes the intersection point of these two sub-disciplines. As the common theme of these two fields, the visual representations of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in the media plays an important role in mobilizing and collectivizing a range of emotions on a global scale. The aim of this study is to analyse how immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are visualized and how these images turn into emotional and political outputs. These visual representations have the power to lead different emotions; while some visuals activate feelings of empathy and compassion and provide collective solidarity, others stimulate negative emotions such as fear and anger giving rise to securitization policies and practices of exclusion.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Visual Studies
• Emotion Studies
• Migration
• Migrant
• Refugee
• Asylum Seeker

Görselin Duygusal Gücü: Göçmen, Mülteci ve Sığınmacıların Küresel Görsel Politikadaki Temsili Üzerine

Öz

Günümüzde görsel çalışmalar ve duygu çalışmaları birbirinden beslenerek önemli bir gelişim göstermektedir. Dünyayı anlamlandırma ve yorumlamamızda bize referans sağlayan görsellerin hisleri, duygu ve düşünceleri tetiklemesi, başka bir ifadeyle görsellerin duygusal gücü bu iki alt-disiplinin kesişim noktasını teşkil etmektedir. Bu iki alanın ortak teması olarak göçmen, mülteci ve sığınmacıların medyadaki görsel temsilleri küresel ölçekte bir dizi duygunun harekete geçirilmesi ve kolektifleştirilmesinde önemli rol oynamaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı göçmen, mülteci ve sığınmacıların ne şekilde görselleştirildiklerini, söz konusu görsellerin nasıl duygusal ve politik çıktılara dönüştüklerini analiz etmektir. Bu görsel temsiller farklı duyguları kanalize etme gücüne sahiptir; kimi görseller empati ve merhamet duygularını harekete geçirip kolektif dayanışmayı sağlarken, kimileri ise korku ve öfke gibi negatif duyguları canlandırır, güvenlikleştirme politikaları ve dışlama pratiklerini beraberinde getirir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Görsel Çalışmalar
• Duygu Çalışmaları
• Göçmen
• Mülteci
• Sığınmacı

Kaynakça

1. Andersen, Rune S., Vuori Juha A. ve Mutlu Can E. (2014). Visuality. İçinde Aradau C, Huysmans J, Neal A, Voelkner N. (Eds.) Critical Security Methods: New Frameworks for Analysis. (ss. 85-117). Abingdon: Routledge.
2. Baele, S. J. ve Bettiza G. (2021). ‘Turning’ everywhere in IR: on the sociological underpinnings of the field’s proliferating turns. International Theory ,13, ss. 314-340.
3. Banks, J. (2012). Unmasking Deviance: The Visual Construction of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in English National Newspapers. Crit Crim, 20, ss. 293-310.
4. Beattie A. R., Eroukhmanoff C., Head, N. (2019). Introduction: Interrogating the ‘everyday’ politics of emotions in international relations. Journal of International Political Theory, 15 (2), ss. 136-147.
5. Bleiker, R. (2001). The Aesthetic Turn in International Political Theory. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30 (3), ss. 509-533.
6. Bleiker, R. (2015). Pluralist Methods for Visual Global Politics. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 43 (3), ss. 872-890.
7. Bleiker, R. (2018a). The Power of Images in Global Politics. 10.08.2020 tarihinde https://www.e-ir.info/2018/03/08/the-power-of-images-in-global-politics/ adresinden edinilmiştir.
8. Bleiker, R. (2018b). Mapping Global Visual Politics. içinde Bleiker, R. (Ed.). Visual Global Politics. (ss. 1-29). New York: Routledge.

9. Bleiker, R. (2019). Writing Visual Global Politics: in Defence of a Pluralist Approach—a Response to Gabi Schlag, “Thinking and Writing Visual Global Politics”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 32, ss. 115–123.
10. Bleiker, R., Campbell, D., Hutchison E. ve Nicholson X. (2013). The visual dehumanisation of refugees. Australian Journal of Political Science, 48 (4), ss. 398-416.
11. Bleiker, R., Campbell, D. ve Hutchison E. (2014). Visual Cultures of Inhospitality. Peace Review, 26 (2), ss. 192-200.
12. Bozdağ Ç., Smets, K. (2017). Understanding the Images of Alan Kurdi With “Small Data”: A Qualitative, Comparative Analysis of Tweets About Refugees in Turkey and Flanders (Belgium). International Journal of Communication, 11, ss. 4046-4069.
13. Callahan, W. A. (2020). Sensible Politics: Visualizing International Relations. New York: Oxford University Press.
14. Chouliaraki, L., Stolic, T. (2017). Rethinking media responsibility in the refugee ‘crisis’: a visual typology of European news. Media, Culture & Society, 39 (8), ss. 1162-1177.
15. Crilley, R., Manor I. ve Bjola C. (2020). Visual narratives of global politics in the digital age: an introduction. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, ss. 628-637.
16. Dauphinée, E. (2007). The Politics of the Body in Pain: Reading the Ethics of Imagery. Security Dialogue, 38 (2), ss. 139-155.
17. Hansen, L. (2011). Theorizing the Image for Security Studies: Visual Securitization and the Muhammad Cartoon Crisis. European Journal of International Relations, 17 (1), ss. 51-74.
18. Hansen, L. (2015). How images make world politics: International icons and the case of Abu Ghraib. Review of International Studies, 41, ss. 263–288.
19. Hansen, L., Adler-Nissen R. ve Andersen K. E. (2021). The visual international politics of the European refugee crisis: Tragedy, humanitarianism, borders. Cooperation and Conflict, 56 (4), ss. 367-393.
20. Harman, S. (2018). Making the invisible visible in International Relations: Film, co-produced research and transnational feminism. European Journal of International Relations, 24 (4), ss. 791–813.
21. Hutchison, E. (2014). ‘A Global Politics of Pity? Disaster Imagery and the Emotional Construction of Solidarity after the 2004 Asian Tsunami’. International Political Sociology, 8 (1), ss. 1-19.
22. Hutchison, E. (2016). Affective Communities in World Politics: Collectives Emotions after Trauma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23. Jaskulowski, K. (2019). The Everyday Politics of Migration Crisis in Poland: Between Nationalism, Fear and Empathy. Switzerland, Cham: Springer International Publishing-Palgrave Pivot.
24. Johnson, H. L. (2018). Refugees. içinde Bleiker, R. (Ed.). Visual Global Politics. (ss. 244-250). New York: Routledge.
25. Khatib, L. (2012). Image Politics in the Middle East: The Role of the Visual in Political Struggle. New York: I. B. Tauris.
26. Lenette, C., Miskovic, N. (2018). ‘Some viewers may find the following images disturbing’: Visual representations of refugee deaths at border crossings. Crime Media Culture, 14 (1) ss. 111-120.
27. Malkki, L. H. (1996). Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and Dehistoricization. Cultural Anthropology, 11 (3), ss. 377-404.
28. Moeller, S. D. (2018). Compassion Fatigue. içinde Bleiker, R. (Ed.). Visual Global Politics. (ss. 75-80). New York: Routledge. Oranlı, İ. (2016). Ranciére’de Siyasi Olanın ‘Estetik’ Boyutu: “Siyaset Üzerine On Tez” ve ‘Duyumsanır Olanın Paylaşımı’. Mimar Sinan Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 14, ss. 108-116.
29. Rancière, J. (2000). Le Partage du sensible: esthétique et politique, Paris: La Fabrique-éditions.
30. Rancière, J. (2009). The Emancipated Spectator. (G. Elliot, Çev.). London: Verso.
31. Rose, G. (2001). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
32. Sajir Z., Aouragh M. (2019). Solidarity, Social Media, and the “Refugee Crisis”: Engagement Beyond Affect. International Journal of Communication, 13, ss. 550-577.
33. Shepherd, L. J. (2017). Aesthetics, Ethics, and Visual Research in the Digital Age: ‘Undone in the Face of the Otter’. Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 45 (2), ss. 214-222.
34. Smets, K., Mazzocchetti, J., Gerstmans L. ve Mostmans, L. (2019). Beyond Victimhood: Reflecting on Migrant-Victim Representations with Afghan, Iraqi, and Syrian Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Belgium. içinde d’Haenens, L., Joris, W., Heinderyckx, F. (Eds.), Images of Immigrants and Refugees in Western Europe: Media Representations, Public Opinion and Refugees’ Experiences (ss. 177-198). Leuven: Leuven University Press.
35. Stocchetti, M. (2011). Images: Who gets what, when and how. içinde Stocchetti, M., Kukkonen, K. (Eds.) Images in Use: Towards the critical analysis of visual communication. (ss. 11-37). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
36. Wright, T. (2000). Refugees on Screeen. Refugee Studies Centre: University of Oxford, 15.08.2022 tarihinde https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/publications/refugees-on-screen adresinden edinilmiştir.
37. Zhang, X., Hellmueller, L. (2017). Visual framing of the European refugee crisis in Der Spiegel and CNN International: Global journalism in news photographs. The International Communication Gazette, 79 (5), ss. 483-510.
38. National Museum Australia, 2022, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/postwar-immigration-drive
39. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/world/middleeast/omran-daqneesh-syria-aleppo.html
40. https://www.dw.com/en/eu-countries-decline-to-help-italy-with-mediterranean-refugee-crisis/a-39585373
41. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38420779