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Between Morality and the Market: The Circulation of Humanitarian Photography


 
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1. Title Title of document Between Morality and the Market: The Circulation of Humanitarian Photography
 
2. Creator Author's name, affiliation, country Lilie Chouliaraki; London School of Economics and Political Science; United Kingdom
 
2. Creator Author's name, affiliation, country Richard Stupart; University of Liverpool; United Kingdom
 
3. Subject Discipline(s)
 
3. Subject Keyword(s) humanitarianism, photography, moral economy, marketization, case study, Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF
 
4. Description Abstract

What kind of thing, morally speaking, is an image of suffering? Going beyond questions of representation, here we focus on the creation and circulation of such imagery to ask what we can learn about the ethics of images by examining the contexts and norms within which these move around. Using a 2022 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) controversy as its case study, we highlight the quality of humanitarian images as moral practice and trace 3 moral tensions that emerge as images circulate within and beyond humanitarian spaces. Through this discussion, we make 3 contributions to our understanding of the circulation of humanitarian images. We contribute to the recognition of the implicit norms governing not just the content of images but also their circulation and use; the identification of a dual economy of image circulation: a moral economy and a market economy that both come to shape these norms; and the observation that the ongoing rivalry between these 2 economies renders the norms of image circulation increasingly antagonistic in ways that threaten to undermine the very quality of humanitarian images as a moral practice.

 
5. Publisher Organizing agency, location USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
 
6. Contributor Sponsor(s)
 
7. Date (YYYY-MM-DD) 2025-01-06
 
8. Type Status & genre Peer-reviewed Article
 
8. Type Type
 
9. Format File format PDF
 
10. Identifier Uniform Resource Identifier https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22302
 
11. Source Title; vol., no. (year) International Journal of Communication; Vol 19 (2025)
 
12. Language English=en en
 
13. Relation Supp. Files
 
14. Coverage Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.)
 
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