Visual depictions of the Rohingya crisis: Exodus, cultural othering, genocidal aggression and audience aversion to graphic portrayals

Abstract

The Rohingya people of Myanmar (formerly Burma) have been described by the UN as the ‘most persecuted ethnic group in the world’. Yet despite recognition of the Rohingya’s attempted eradication as a genocide, this humanitarian crisis is rarely the subject of intensive news coverage and largely flies under the radar of international media. When the Rohingya’s plight does appear in the news, media coverage tends to portray this religious and ethnic minority as a displaced people fleeing their native Myanmar rather than depicting the reality of genocide and the gruesome visual truth of systematic, violent elimination. To document how an ongoing genocide is visually framed in news and understood by audiences, this article develops an inventory of visual frames used in coverage about the crisis, then employs a ‘picture prompt’ method of soliciting responses from viewers to document how these frames are received and interpreted. Analysis of 2132 responses from 533 online participants reveals stark differences in viewer evaluations of more graphic portrayals compared to mundane depictions of the crisis. The study summarizes the consequences that viewer interpretations of images of conflict and mass displacement can have for humanitarian support and perceptions of event severity.