A Solidarity Framework for Representing Suffering: Resisting a Desensitizing Status Quo of Normalizing Social Injustice

Media representations of suffering are regularly critiqued for contributing to desensitization. Grounded in media studies, journalism studies, psychology, and political philosophy, I develop a solidarity framework for media practitioners who seek to resist the normalization of what they define as suffering due to social injustice. By concretizing people's immediate needs (moral solidarity), accounting for collective resistance already underway (political solidarity), and representing a pattern of suffering due to structures that transcend an isolated incident or single issue (social solidarity), this framework provides a way for media practitioners to challenge the minimization, isolation, and abstraction of social injustice that perpetuates suffering.