Graphic Images?

[Richard]

What on earth are graphic images?
The Channel 4 News tonight discussed an attack on a black youth and warned viewers that some 'graphic images' were about to be shown.
Did they not really mean 'explicit' or does that typically have sexual connotations?
Surely 'Graphic' means non-representational and has been twisted into a different meaning by the media in the absence of a better term?

'Unsettling images' would seem preferable.
Yet 'Graphic Images of Violence' seems here to stay.

[seahermit]

"Graphic images" is actually tautology - saying the same thing/saying something twice. Graphos means image/drawing.

Rightly or wrongly, "graphic" as an adjective has come to be understood as meaning extremely clear/vivid/therefore hard-hitting and maybe shocking in relation to a picture/image and I confess to using it in that sense myself.

That is not "wrong" - there are no rules in language, only conventions and these change over time as people use words in new ways or apply new meanings to them. The primary purpose of language is to be understood by other people and that is the only thing that matters. There are thousands of Emglish words which have a modern meaning utterly different to the original literal meaning - "sinister" means left-handed, nothing bad about it. But if someone has his LEFT hand on the butt of his sword, better watch out - he might suddenly swipe at you from an unexpected direction!

I have always been fascinated by the way that language changes, evolves and even reflects the history taking place over time. Words and their meanings tell a lot of stories - if you study them and decipher them.

There are no rules, only sometimes language which may be inappropriate to the circumstances. Thus, cockney is not bad English, it is merely colloqial English. A beak (magistrate!) leaned over from his high chair and asked the hairy biker in the dock "Pray, tell me what gear were you in as you approached the brow of the hill?" Answer: "Same gear as I'm in now, Guv. Leather jacket and jeans."

[Derek Jempson]

It's similar to an announcement that I once heard before the start of a television programme:

"This programme contains mild language."

I know what was meant by that, but the phrasing could have been better. It made me laugh anyway!

[Richard]

The media has to operate guidance-labeling to rate content according to types of potentially disturbing scenes, violence, sex and language used.
Depending on the codes assigned, some are mandated to require an 'on-air' announcement.