Abstract
This manuscript investigates the facts of publication of the images of the Nanking Atrocity (December 1937–January 1938) in <em>LIFE </em>and <em>LOOK</em> magazines, two widely read United States publications, as well as the Nanking atrocity film clips that circulated to millions more in American and Canadian newsreels some years later. The publishers of these images were continuing the art of manipulation of public opinion through multimodal visual media, aiming them especially at the less educated mass public. The text attempts to describe these brutal images in their historical context. Viewing and understanding the underlying racial context and emotive impact of these images may be useful adjuncts to future students of World War II. If it is difficult to assert how much these severe images changed public opinion, one can appreciate how the emerging visual culture was transforming the way that modern societies communicate with and direct their citizens' thoughts.
Highlights
In 2008, the seventieth anniversary of the Nanking Atrocity passed with limited international interest in the event that marked Japan's depredations in the Chinese capital city of Nanking (Nanjing) from December 1937 through January 1938
This study will investigate the facts of publication of the images from Nanking in the weeks and months following the event, in LIFE and LOOK magazines, two new United States photograph journals competing with each other and with the newsreels
The publication of the still and moving atrocity photographs were a kind of novelty, signaling a shift in what public decorum would tolerate
Summary
Media and Communication is an international open access journal dedicated to a wide variety of basic and applied research in communication and its related fields. It aims at providing a research forum on the social and cultural relevance of media and communication processes. Editors-in-Chief Professor Bradley Greenberg, Departments of Communication and Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University, USA Professor Elisabeth Klaus, Department of Communication, University of Salzburg, Austria. Managing Editor Mr António Vieira, Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, Portugal.
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