Disaster Porn!. (May 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Recuber, Timothy
• Is Part Of: Contexts. Volume 12:Number 2(2013)
• Page Start: 28
• Page End: 33
• Publication Date: 2013-05
• Subjects: Timothy Recuber -- disaster -- disaster porn -- media -- suffering -- film -- journalism -- 2012; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 301.05
• DOI: 10.1177/1536504213487695
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1536-5042

Abstract

The term disaster porn has evolved over time, from an epithet directed at extreme depictions of suffering in the developing world, to a broader critique today of all sorts of disaster-related media—even fictional Hollywood blockbusters. Sociologist Timothy Recuber examines how disaster porn, in all its iterations and for all its flaws, is a vital political terrain in which publics are at least implicitly asked to struggle with the social significance of the suffering of others.