Media representations of women fighters - reflections from a case study

Abstract: The representation of women in the public sphere during war-time has not been extensively studied. This study provides a further step in the examination of the visual framing communicated through the selection of photographs and images of women fighters in war and armed conflict, as covered by news websites. The focus is on the Syrian civil war in the period between 1 September 2014 and 31 December 2014 as a case study, also extrapolating to other war and conflict cases where relevant or appropriate. The aim is to explore how media visually represent women fighters; how these representations are framed and to what extent they might be biased, gendered or cliched. The data set is based on a sample of visual material and images of female combatants in Syria used in news items and illustrated reports published in 6 British and 2 Arab-based news websites. The sample is examined based on the analysis of “framing mechanisms" and is corroborated with secondary sources from peer-reviewed research on the topic. This empirical exploratory analysis of images used in media representations of war and armed conflict is not exhaustive, but will hopefully contribute to the existing discourse in better understanding media representations of women at war.