The Power of Pictures? Evaluating Evidence from the Case of Abu Ghraib

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Note: New Date and Location

Pictures may be worth 1,000 words, but just how much are they worth in shaping public opinion? Are unedited, uncensored, and profoundly disturbing graphic images more likely to materially affect public opinion than those typically shown on television and in newspapers and magazines? Are they more likely to influence opinion than explicit written descriptions of such images? Since the rise of the mass media, scholars, policy analysts, and political pundits have all been concerned about the power of media to shape public opinion. Nevertheless, consensus on the magnitude of such effects remains elusive.

Through experimentally-based research, Dr. Greenhill and her colleagues aim to help resolve this dispute as well as deepen the understanding of media effects in three ways. First, they push the potential limits of opinion change by introducing subjects to highly emotional and graphic images. Second, they seek to quantify the power of pictures by testing whether subjects react differentially to imagery and written descriptions of the same events. Finally, they seek to determine whether subjects will seek to hold accountable leaders whose rhetoric and actions are at odds.

Besides helping to compare the influence of images versus that of the written word, the researchers expect their results to bear directly on the understanding of the exercise of power and how much leeway the public is willing to grant those in positions of leadership. Moreover, the findings may aid members of the media, who must decide both how much information to demand from their governments and what kind of images they should publish in their capacity as conduits of the information citizens need to make informed political decisions.

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