Representations of Victimhood in Media Reporting of Armed Conflicts

Victimhood in media discourse refers to how individuals or groups subjected to harm are represented and made visible to the public. These representations shape whether audiences respond with empathy or emotional distance, in particular as it pertains to mass violence events such as wars. News texts can humanize suffering by providing personal detail, evocative language, and contextual depth; or they can neutralize it through detached, fact-focused reporting. The extent to which people are perceived as “worthy victims” depends not only on the words and images chosen but also on the surrounding narrative—whether the event is framed as intentional harm or an unfortunate incident, whether victims are named and individualized or rendered as anonymous masses. In this way, media reporting does not merely record suffering but actively constructs hierarchies of victimhood, influencing who appears deserving of compassion and whose suffering remains invisible or muted.