Why does the Global South so often appear in Western media through crisis, chaos, or helplessness? My master’s thesis is a deep dive into how Western media narrates the Global South and why those narratives look the way they do.
I trace today’s reporting patterns - crisis, dependency, exoticism, spectacle, back to their colonial origins: scientific catalogues, imperial mapping, museum displays, missionary photography, and humanitarian iconography. Using discourse theory and postcolonial thought, I examine how these older ways of seeing still structure who speaks, who is seen, and what becomes news.
The thesis also looks forward: how journalists might unsettle these inherited frames through reflexive practice, collaborative reporting, or narrative forms that resist overexposure and allow opacity, plurality, and complexity to emerge.

Photojournalism holds the power to shape global perceptions, yet it remains deeply embedded in the
legacies of colonialism and unequal dynamics. Historically dominated by western perspectives, the
field often marginalizes other voices, perpetuating inequities in representation and knowledge
production (Mitra & Witherspoon, 2023).
This essay seeks to address the foundational issues and colonial legacies inherent in photojournalism,
and explore how decolonization and de-westernization can foster a more equitable and ethical
representation of global events, particularly in the context of power imbalances.

By analyzing the case of the Syrian civil war, this study will examine journalists’ perspectives on how the rise of algorithms has changed conflict news selection processes on social media and thus journalists’ gatekeeping role.
As algorithms increasingly shape which news stories are prioritized on social media platforms, they might be altering the traditional role of journalists in news selection and dissemination. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study combines quantitative content analysis of social media publications from three international outlets – Al Jazeera English, BBC and The New York Times – and qualitative semi-structured interviews of twelve newsworkers involved in the coverage of the Syrian civil war.
This research aims to highlight the evolving relationship between journalists and algorithms in the gatekeeping process concerning conflict reporting, offering insights into the changing dynamics of news selection in the digital age.