Abruzzi Facebook’s images: the iconic net-presentation of an earthquake

Alessandra Micalizzi

IULM University – Communication dept.

alessandra.micalizzi@iulm.it

Thinking, Doing and Publishing Visual Research:The State of the Field?

International Visual Sociology Association - University of Bologna 20-22 July 2010

Framing the research…

Social Representation of Moscovici (1961): the result of a social process that is:

«collective elaboration of a social object by the community for the purpose of behaving and communicating»

A social representation is made up of:

Conceptual dimension Iconic dimension A narrative structure (Di Fraia, 2005) socio-

narrative representation

Framing the research: the concept of “net-presentation”

The Net is a narrative technology that integrates a lot of communicative languages (such as video, audio, textual etc)

The Net is also a collective environment of great exchange and circulation of contents that construct the common sense

So it is a privileged social place where negotiate the conceptual as well as the visual dimensions of the social representation

With the expression Net-presentation I indicate the results of this process in the specific case of the earthquake in Abruzzi

Framing the research: virtual images

In the world wide web circulate a lot of virtual images

that have the following characteristics. They are:

Digital: manipulability

Shared: open circulation and multi-authorial

products (sometimes “orphan” without a precise

origin)

Ri-mediatized: the results of trans-media

circoulation

Framing the research: virtual images and collective memory

«l’immagine è un mutaforma. Un desiderio. Un pensiero. Una proiezione. Una rappresentazione. Un calco. Un impasto. Un coagulo. È ciò che è stato. Ma a volte non lo è affatto (…) tradizione, traduzione, tradimento» (E. D’Amico, 2009)

(I hope it is a good translation)

«the image is a shapeshifter. A wish. A thought. A projection. A representation. A cast. A dough. A clot. It is what it was. But sometimes not at all (...) Tradition, translation, betrayal»

Framing the research: the collective trauma

Studies about the collective elaboration of traumatic emotions describe two common processes:

The need of social sharing of emotions (by narrating to others) Rimè 2008

The importance of reconstruction a collective narrative about the event, negotiating different stories, images, objects of memory, experiences etc --> the trauma becomes more acceptable by the consciousness (Pennebaker, 2004)

The research

Methods, sample and results

The goals of the research

The results I propose in the next pages are a part of a wider research carried out in order to answer to this question:

Could the Net be considered a new socio-anthropological context where sharing and elaborating collective traumatic emotions?

More specifically, the research wants to understand:

The goals of the research

More specifically, the research wanted to understand: the characteristics of the fragmented narratives

shared on Facebook; the motivations (of Facebookers) connected with the

act of publishing personal feelings in a public space; the expectations about the effects of the posting

action; the functions of the Net in order to elaborate a

collective trauma; the collective representation of the earthquake (above

all on a visual level) on Facebook.

Objectives: the Net-presentation

What characteristic have the images proposed in the

groups about the earthquake opened on Facebook?

What are the conceptual and emotional messages

proposed by the images?

What is the facebook’s net-presentation about the

earthquake that emerged?

Methods and sample

Narrative qualitative content analisys of 21.000 posts of the first 5 groups about the earthquake;

E-mail interviews with authors of the posts (25 on 100 contacts);

visual analysis of 500 photos, chosen in order to represent the first 500 groups

The schedule for qualitative analysis

The theme: What kind of content is proposed on the picture? Real: a framed part of the reality Symbolic: icons, pictures, social symbols etc

The subject: what or who is the main character of the picture? The earthquake The helpers The victims The offenders The territory

The schedule for narrative analysis

The hedonic tone connected with the image proposed Positive Negative Neutral

The level of activation of what is represented:

Active action Passive action Neutral

The analysis: three macro-themes

Doing: (30,5%) rescue Denunciation

Being: (53,3%) people catastrophe the past

Giving: (16,2%) support memory mourning

Images of doing

Sub-typology Theme Subject Hedonic activation

rescue Real/symbolic Helpers Positive Active

Denunciation Symbolic offenders Negative Active

denunciation

rescue

Images of being

Sub-typology Theme Subject Hedonic activation

People Real Victims Negative Passive

Catastrophe Real/symbolic Territory Negative Passive

Past Real/Symbolic Territory Neutral/Positive

Passive

Catastrophe

The past

people

Images of giving

Sub-typology Theme Subject Hedonic activation

(emotive) Support

Symbolic Helpers Positive Active

Memory Symbolic Guilty Negative Active

Mourning Symbolic Victims Negative Active

MourningSupport

Memory

The Net-presentation

rescuecatastrophe

People

DenunciationPast

Emotive support

Mourning

Memory

Symbolic

Real

Negative

Positive

rescue

Tragedy Re-action

Re-membering Hope

SoccorsiCatastrofe

La gente

DenunciaPassato

Supporto emotivo

Lutto

Memoria

Simbolico

Reale

Negativo

Positivo

Soccorsi

Catastrofe Re-azione

Re-membering Speranza

Characteristics of images

Trans-media images

Rhetorical

Without specific cues connected with L’Aquila (the

content is “earthquake” not “L’Aquila earthquake)

Focused on the tragic aspects of the event

Recursive (redundant)

Low quality images (because of re-mediatization)

The Net-presentation

The net presentation is congruent with the characteristics described before, so it is:

Coherent with the collective imaginary about an earthquake

Reductive: limited to familiar representation of the event

Negative: semantic connected with the idea of a disaster

A map of the net-presentation of the Abruzzi earthquake

(conceptual)

CRAIarmy

desperation loneliness

Destroyed country

memorymourning

helpersCaritas

Disruption

Fire fighters

Tent camps

Move to action

solidarity

funeral

Italian flag

reconstruction

commemoration

suffer

participation

compassion

helpers

Civil Protection

How we were

New houses

People

A map of the net-presentation of the Abruzzi earthquake

(iconic)