Operation Iron Swords / Al-Aqsa Flood

Not too long ago, there was an unspoken ethos among human rights workers and journalists: Get tough, or get out. Two University of California, Berkeley, scholars, Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros, find a direct line from that haunting, slavery-era photograph to the shattering photos and videos of today’s wars and tragedies. In their new book, Graphic (Cambridge University Press, 2023), they explore how images can galvanize movements for social justice and the risks that arise when smart phones and social media convey horrifying images into our lives — and brains — every day, 24/7. The risk that viewers will suffer psychological harm is real, and the authors survey studies that show how exposure to second-hand violence via photos and videos can cause trauma.

For those reporting from conflict zones today, "the intent is often very different," said Koenig, co-director of the Human Rights Center and adjunct professor at Berkeley Law. "It's not necessarily to tell a story that informs and educates. It's specifically to shock — to catalyze some kind of response from an international community ... to let them know the horrors of what people are experiencing." The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — considered the bible for mental health assessment and treatment — concurred that workplace exposure to graphic images could cause secondary trauma.