Week 12: Photojournalism: The Best of Both Worlds.

It is said that news must be as entertaining as it is truthful. Do you think both can coexist harmoniously in the world of photojournalism?

Week 12, which is the last of week of lecture, is about photojournalism. Can news be entertaining and truthful at the same time in the world of photojournalism? Before answering the question, what is photojournalism? Chapnick (1994) define photojournalism as “a very special breed of photographer who thrives in a challenging, story-telling, sometimes dangerous profession.” It is quiet difficult for news to be entertaining and truthful in the same time as there is a “loop hole” in the ethics of photography.

Gross, Katz and Ruby (2003), states that photojournalist and editor has been “long known full well that all images are manipulated and thus have long engaged in and countenanced a variety of image-altering practice.”  In today world of technology, a photograph could be altered in many ways but in the photojournalism world not all alteration of photographs is acceptable. With this alteration, it will make the news more entertaining and less truthful, but this doesn’t happen all the time. Some alterations are made just to make the photograph clearer, but some of the alterations make the original photograph to look bias and very subjective.

One of the many alterations that makes the news more entertaining and less truthful is which is acceptable in the photojournalism world is adding in important details or the cropping out of very important information. With this alteration, the photo will be no longer truthful; it will change the true picture into a lie.

Another alteration is by giving caption to the photo. This alteration doesn’t involve the picture at all, but it involves with giving meaning to the picture. It is truthful by titling it with the author’s name, or just telling the place of when it was taken and of what, but captioning a photograph makes the audience feel something. This feeling that the audience get from the photograph is sometimes bias and subjective. This is called anchorage. With this power, a photograph that looks so truthful could be view in a different way, thus making it a lie but entertaining.

There are still some in the news industries who use unacceptable manipulations on photograph that isn’t obvious to the audience eyes. With this type of manipulations, it makes the photograph more entertaining and even less truthful. The manipulations are like editing and distortion of main subject of photograph, deceiving the world on how the photograph was made and the use of an application that could significantly change the image.

In conclusion, it is quite difficult for a photograph to be both entertaining and truthful as the news wants it to be more entertaining so that the company will gain more profit and also to create biasness. It is hard to handle the truth of news sometimes and sometime the truthful news are just dull, thus making it more entertaining is the way to go.

Reference List:-

Chapnick, H. (1994). Truth Needs No Ally: Inside Photojournalism. United States of America: University of Missouri Press.

Gross, L., Katz J. S. & Ruby, J. (2003). Image ethics in the digital age. MN: University of Minnesota Press. 

Week 11: Information Graphics: Who say data and graphs must be boring?

Tutorial Question: Look at the following information graphic broken down into a series of  4 images and answer the following question:

The original photograph is called "Skull with cigarette, 2007" by Chris Jordan. It has a caption below the photographs which reads: "Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months". Why didn't the photographer just present the information in numbers? Why explain the statistics in graphical form? 

This week, which is week 11, is the week of information graphics. Tidwell (2011) define information graphic as "to communicate knowledge visually rather than verbally." If the photographer just present the information in numbers, no matter what brand it is shown on the graph, the only thing that matters will be the total of  number of deaths. Another reason is because of the range of months that is being used is only 6 months, which is too short to put on a data. There's also not much data to compare it to, even though there is different brands but it is still cigarette. In numerical form, there will be too much data for the audience to read. 

With explaining the statistics in graphical form, as shown above, where it is very stimulating and interacting. With graphical form, it attracts the attention of the eye of the audience. Another reason is showing it in graphical form, it shows the story of the death because of what and by what brand. This is called Narrative, where Altman (2008), define it as "the practice of story-telling." The images tell a story of where deaths come to those who smokes, and when zoomed in, it shows of the brands of cigarettes that causes this deaths. With the help of the subtitle that comes with the photos help the audience further understand the picture. The subtitle of the image acts as an anchorage, to shape how we see things.

In graphical form, the audience able to read picture in a sequence. According to Tracey and Morrow (2006, p.51), people organize the knowledge they have learnt into knowledge structure or schema, this is called Schema Theory. This graphical form is not narrative but also instructive, showing the step-by-step instruction of  why and how. Other else from Interactive and Narrative, it also exploratives, where the audience is allow to discover and explore the intention of the graphic designer. With graphical image also you could persuade people, where McQuarrie & Phillips (2008) state that rhetorics has been mainly worried on how to say it than what to say. 

In conclusion, it is better to present it in graphical form than numerical form is because in graphical for, it is able to persuade people on the reason of death is because of smoking of every brand of smoke, it also tells a  story, it is more instructive and let the audience explore what is the photographer is trying to say. The reason on why not to use numerical form, there'll will be too many data for the audience to read.

Reference list:-

Altman, R. (2008). A Theory of Narrative. New York: Columbia University Press

McQuarrie, E. F. & Phillips, B. J. (2008). Advertising Rhetoric: An Introduction. In McQuarrie, E. F. & Phillps, B. J. (Eds.)., Go Figure!: New Directions in Advertising Rhetorics. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. 

Tidwell, J. (2011). Designing Interfaces (2nd ed.). CA: O'Reilly Media Inc.

Tracey, D. H. & Morrow, L. M. (2006). Lenses on Reading: An Introduction to Theories and Models. USA: Guilford Press.