KMT 2017 nr 4 Download PDF

Magdalena Hodalska

Compassion 2.0: How Internet users share “virtual care”?

Cite: Magdalena Hodalska, Współczucie 2.0: Jak internauci dzielą się „wirtualną troską”?, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2017( 31) nr 4, s. 180-198.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.31.10

Compassion 2.0 manifests itself when images of babies in war zones hit headlines and appear on news and social media sites, where Internet users turn them into vehicles of emotions. In September 2015 a body of Alan Kurdi, a toddler dressed in red T-shirt, was found on a Turkish beach, where Nilufer Demir took memorable photos of the drowned 3-year-old refugee. Alan’s afterlife in cyberspace began when Internet users started cutting the image of his body out of the original photo- journalistic frame to paste it into different contexts, charged with meaning and rhetorical power. The article explores visual metaphors that media users employed to create their own stories about Alan, which went beyond the narratives prevalent in traditional media and shows how “virtual care” is shared in a global village, where Compassion Fatigue (Moeller 1999) gives way to Compassion 2.0 which starts with a click and becomes one of online activities.

About authors

Magdalena Hodalska

ORCID: 0000-0001-9620-5913