Rebecca Adelman on the photos of drowned 3-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, questions of ethical spectatorship, and how much of the debate surrounding the images obscures the complexities inherent in any act of looking at casualty photos.
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With its reliance on speculation, dependence on simulation, and occasional swerves into absurdity, CNN's coverage of Malaysia Airlines 370 indexes the incomprehensibility of this disaster, marked by the failures of so many systems that seemed to promise safety, visibility, and order.
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While failing to sell SUVs, the commercial offers visions of wartime American citizenship with which spectators are to identify: the forlorn dog, the crying wife, and the praying child.
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