Agonised, localized and politicized : the visual representation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in online news

Abstract

This article investigates the visual representation of the Russo-Ukrainian War in online news media, focusing on the perspectives of Ukraine’s two greatest aid providers: the US and the EU. The concept of visual metonymic framing, which sheds light on how news images frame war through metonymical relations, is introduced. A metonymy-based image analysis is conducted on the featured images of randomly sampled articles from CNN News and Euronews in the first two years of the war, proposing potential motivations for differences between the two news portals. The findings reveal the agonized, localized and politicized nature of news images, emphasizing human suffering, local impacts and politicized representations. The research suggests that visual metonymy not only renders complex events more comprehensible but also actively shapes public perception, offering fresh insights into the communicative dynamics of conflict reporting.