Icons

These and many other photographic images are icons of a global public culture. They stand out among the thousands of photographs that are disseminated by media institutions every day. Their circulation persists long after the initial coverage of the specific event. Although the designation “iconic” appears frequently in media commen - tary on images ranging from smiley buttons to the latest celebrity gesture, the iconic news image has specific features that shape a distinctively public mentality. We define iconic photographs as those photographic images appearing in print, electronic or digital media that are widely recognised and remembered, are understood to be representations of historically significant events, activate strong emotional identification or response, and are reproduced across a range of media, genres or topics (Hariman and Lucaites 2007: 27).