Trial by Ordeal: Abu Ghraib and the Global Mediasphere

A significant social and cultural crisis is concentrated through photographs taken by military wardens at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. These photographs 'represent' critical issues, meanings and meaning-making processes, not merely of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, but of a broader global, cultural crisis. In order to elucidate these meaning and meaning-making processes it is necessary to re-theorize key elements of the photographs' cultural setting. In particular, the 'public sphere' within which the photographs appear and are circulated should be understood as a mediasphere, the convocation of public and private engagement and expressivity within the global, networked communication systems. This is not a 'clash of civilizations', but a complex and unfolding crisis of meaning within and through cultures, a fragmentation of ideology and knowledge. It is a trial by media ordeal which challenges key assumptions in the liberal, democratic tradition. These photographs will not necessarily change the course of the war on terror, but they should contribute to the interrogation of our own culture, identity and perspectives.