The Kenyan Famine (2009)
(Image source: http://www.zoriah.net/.a/6a00e55188bf7a88340115701a1945970c-800wi. Photographer: Nancy Farese.)
Photojournalism is a form of journalism that relays a story by the means of images (Wikipedia, 2009). A photojournalist is like a news reporter but differs in a way where decisions are often made on the spot and a camera is used to capture significant moments which are considered of having news value.
The power of the photograph (2007) is a transcript of a discussion amongst photojournalists about the impact of an art exhibition showcasing photographs of war. Wade Goddard, the curator of the gallery, said that the idea of exhibition was to produce a more global perspective of war and to touch the lives of those who have been affected by war. Goddard was working as a photojournalists for almost ten years before quitting the industry. According to Goddard, in the media industry there are editors and publishers who will have their own political or ideological views in telling a story. Hence, because of that photojournalism would not be able to live up to its true characteristics; being honest and unbiased.
Kress (1988) said that meaning making is dependent on an individual's attitudes, social relations, feelings and culture. So to relate this to the article, when editors and publishers of the media choose to tell a story based on their own views, they are not considering the possibility that readers may not see it in the same perspective.
Another example which can be related to this issue is the banning of photos depicting detainees being abused abroad by the United States. When questioned, President Obama refuted by saying that the publishing of the photos will not benefit the citizens' understanding of what really happened. He further added that the photos will only generate outrage within the region.
Randy Cohen (2009), writer of The Ethicist section of The New York Times Magazine, objected to Obama's decision by saying that photographs can communicate movingly as they are vivid symbols of the events they depict. Additionally, vivid symbols can help people understand events better.
In my opinion, I feel that it is not up to editors, publishers or authoritative parties to decide if a certain piece of information should be granted public accessibility or not. Regardless of its form; image or text, a reader's understanding will be tied to his or her previous experience or knowledge (Walsh, 2006). Hence, editors, publishers and authoritative parties should not assume that their own understanding is to be better than those of the readers.
References:
Cohen, R 2009, Neda, Obama and the Power of Pictures, viewed 15 November 2009, <http://ethicist.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/the-power-of-pictures/>.
Kress, G 1988, Communication and culture: An introduction, New South Wales University Press, Australia.
The power of the photograph, ABC Radio National, viewed 15 November 2009, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2051819.htm>
Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 24-37.
Wikipedia 2009, Photojournalism, viewed 15 November 2009, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism>.
0 comments:
Post a Comment