Media framing of contemporary war, soldiers’ visual self-representation, and AI-generated war photos...with Professor Katy Parry

For the first episode of a brand new season of The War We See, I'm joined by Dr Katy Parry, Professor of Media and Politics at the University of Leeds, whose research explores how conflict and politics are communicated, performed, and understood through visual culture. Katy's fascinating work on representations of war ranges from her enduring interest in media framing of military photography, as well as her incredibly varied work on the ways soldiers and military veterans represent themselves and are portrayed in popular media. In this insightful and wide-ranging conversation, we discuss British press coverage of the Iraq War, how military actors self-represent visually, and fast-moving developments in contemporary war imagery, including the arrival of AI-generated war visuals. Our conversation considers how visual representations do far more than depict war - they communicate key narratives, offer military actors a mode of expression, and influence what audiences believe they are seeing.Links to Katy’s selected photographs (in order of discussion):1. DALL-E 3 AI-generated image in response to the ‘create an image of a refugee’ prompt: https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/5a3e63d4-8843-4144-a2a9-7fe94c61d960/Chap3%20Parry%20Aiello%20AAM%20version%20War%20Faces.pdf [p.20].2. 'Britain's Camp Bastion Shame', front page of the i on Saturday, 10 May 2014: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Front-page-of-the-i-on-Saturday-10-May-2014-Front-page-image-reproduced-here-with-kind_fig1_3106127433. Abduljalil Abdulhassam watches as his grand daughter Miram, aged 12, holds a picture of her missing father Yassim in Shuhaba, southern Iraq. Dan Chung/Guardian/MOD Pool: https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/noartistknown/iraqi-abduljalil-abdulhassam-watches-as-his-granddaughter-holds-picture-of-her-missing-father-near/photograph/asset/8238742