Week 12: Photojournalism

2) 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?

Stories are told every day. Almost everyone can access the news updates even via smartphones. People do not even need to buy a newspaper while you can just sit in front of the computer or laptop and browse the newspaper article online. Or even better, they can get access to news online from smartphones or via tablets. For example, in the social networking, such as Facebook, some people post stories from the newspapers. Nowadays, technologies are developing. With the new advance technology, photographs can be easily altered. Therefore, even a slight change in the photo such as editing the contrast will change the meaning of the photo. In my opinion, entertainments and truths will not coexist harmoniously in the world of photojournalism. This is because there has to be a slight change made by the journalist or the editor of the photo. Whether they will edit the photo or change the story a little so that the audiences can be attracted to the photo.

A photojournalist takes photo which he/she thinks it is interesting that will attract the audience’s attention. Thus, sometimes, the truths of the photos are manipulated by being edited, such as cropping. According to Woo, (2012), photographs have the “ability to manipulate the truth using specific methods of production.” For example, in figure 1 below:

Figure 1

It is shown in the photo that the soldiers are forcing the man to drink something, with a gun pointing towards the man’s head. However, the photo above can be manipulated by 

cropping the photo either on the right side or the left side.

Figure 2

In figure 2, in the middle is the original photo. On the left side of the photo is cropped showing that there is a soldier pointing a gun towards the man’s head. However, on the right side of the photo, shows that the soldier is sort of helping an injured man by asking him to drink.

Figure 3

In figure 3, is the Kevin Carter award winning photo. Carter as a photojournalists, tends to took this photo of a Sudanese child who is crawling to the United Nation Food Camp without even helping the child afterwards. Eventually, the child was eaten by the bird. And, Carter died because of guilt. The photo is not entertaining but it is interesting in attracting the audience, telling them how in Africa the children are starving and poor.

Most of the people out there are interested in stories which have good headings or headlines. The most news which is read by the audiences is the negativity of someone or something. I myself am included as the people who think negativity is a good story. Hetherington (1985) states, “Anything which threatens people’s peace, prosperity and wellbeing is news and likely to make headlines”.

In order to make an interesting story, sometimes the photojournalists will tend to make an incomplete story just to entertain the audiences. For example, the news about a woman who got raped, in the news, the journalist will take the photo of the victim, usually sitting on the bed, regretting, and only the woman will be blamed, such as, the woman is wearing a sexy clothing that is why she got raped. And it was as if it is the woman’s fault while it was actually the man’s fault. Was the man conscious when he raped the woman or was he drunk or drugged? The journalist did not mention those things.

Therefore, entertainment and truths cannot coexist harmoniously in the world of photojournalism.

References

Hetherington A., (1985), News, Newspapers and Television, London: Macmillan.

Woo, C. (2012), Photojournalism. Retrieved on November 18^th, from https://dl.dropbox.com/u/35336835/Analysing%20Visual%20Communication/Lecture%2012_Photojournalism.pdf

Week 11: Information Graphics

1)     Look at the following information graphic broken down into a series of 4 images and answer the following questions:

The original photograph is called “Skull with cigarette, 2007” by Chris Jordan. It has a caption below the photogtaphs 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?

“My graphics have a good story to tell, and the art of designing a good graphic is the art of telling a good story.” (Ryan & Conover, 2004, p.216)

“Visual communication relies both on eyes that function and on brain that makes sense of all the sensory information received” (Lester, 2006, p.1). Therefore, in order to convey a message, it is better to use visual aids. Barnard (2005), states that “‘Kalman says that graphics is a means of communication’.” So, the use of the skull graphic is acceptable in order to communicate with the audiences. According to Barnard (2005, p.153), “Graphic design is the production of the texts, imagery, and information that are communicated by the media and those texts, images and information graphics are undoubtedly both ideological and political. Story without a narrative is just incomplete. This is due to the hanging story which then create questions to the audiences. According to Lester (2006), the images which are combined with words are seen as more meaningful and powerful.

In the photo above, it shows the image of a skull. The image of the skull is actually an illustration of the graph which shows “Depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months”. The photographer tends to use this type of information graphic is probably because he/she wants to make the viewer of the image understand and also remember the image.

According to Barnard (2005, p.19), “Graphic design is the production of the texts, images and information graphics.”  Lester (2006), states that the information graphics “educates the producers and consumers in the ways that data and images can be combined to communicate complicated information quickly and memorably.” This shows that by using the data and images, both of them can make the audience understand the message quickly, thus they will remember the message conveyed from the data and image.

The photographer above uses the skull image to represent the smokers who will eventually die because of smoking. He also included the different types of ciggarets in the photo. The purpose of the image is to inform and also remind the audiences about smoking that will cause death. According to Lester, (p.198), “Charts (graphs) were invented to display numerical information cocisely and comprehensibly and to show trends in the data that a reader might overlook in a verbal format.” However, the photographer above tends to choose to use data and images together to perform a powerful message to the audience.

“The best info graphic designs “draw the viewer into the wonder of the data”.” (Lester, 2006, p.197). This means that when an info graphic design attracts the viewer’s attention, that graphic design is the most powerful data conveyed. According to Ryan and Conover (2004, p.225), “The best illustration – whether it’s portraiture, editorial, or information graphics – starts with a good research.” This means that, in order to show an illustration by using information graphics, the photographer must have done a good research about the data.

As a conclusion, the photographer tends to convey the information by using the image of a skull is because he aims to let people know and also remember that smoking will cause death. According to Harris, (1999, p.204), “Legends are often critical to the understanding of a chart because they frequently contain information necessary for decoding the data graphics. The three major functions of legends are:

1.    To identify what the data graphics represent.

2.   To medicate certain characteristics of the thing represented.

3.   The quantitative information is encoded to enable the viewer to estimate the values that individual data graphics represented.”

Therefore, images with data is a better way to convey messages to the audiences.

References

Barnard, M., (2005), Graphic Design As Communication, p. 18-19, Routledge, USA and Canada.

Harris Jr., R. L., (1999), Information graphics: A comprehensive illustrated reference, p. 204, Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, USA.

Lester, P.M., (4th ed.)., (2006), Visual Communication: Images with messages, p.1-187, Cencage Learning, USA

Ryan, W. E., & Conover, T. E., (2004), (4^th ed.). Graphic Communications Today, p. 216-225, Cencage Learning, USA

Week 10: Games & Avatars

Do you agree that you are cyborgian in nature?

Cyborgs are considered as a half human and a half robot. I agree that humans are a cyborg in nature. This is because humans rely on something else rather than excepting the fact that they are not really capable of doing things naturally. For example, in figure 1, below:

Figure 1

In figure 1, it shows that the woman needs to wear her spectacles in order to see things. Without the spectacles, she would not be able to see things clearly. So, this is one of the evidence that humans are cyborgs in nature.

In figure 2, it shows that humans are wearing shoes to protect their feet from being dirty, hurt or infected by diseases.

Figure 2

What if human does not wear shoes for one whole day? Is it possible for them?

Another example is the use of technologies. Nowadays, the technologies are getting better and better.

With the use of technologies, humans tend to do their works easily. They become cyborgs because they are sort of wired to the technologies. Everywhere they go, they would bring these technologies around, such as their smartphones, tablets and also laptops.

In figure 3, it shows that humans need a vehicle to drive them to their destinations. They tend to feel comfortable with that situation. According to James (1996), the idea of us being cyborgs, a half-man, and a half-machine is when our capacities and capabilities are extended beyond our physical limitations.

Figure 3

Another evidence of humans is being cyborgs are they tend to create multiple selves of their identities through social networking or games. For example,

In Facebook or twitter, someone will make an account with a different personality of their selves. By doing so, they tend to have many friends and they communicate almost every day, even though they have not met each other face-to-face. This is because they tend to feel more convenient with the way they represent their selves in the social networking sites.

Another example of multiple identities is when humans interact with their family or friends. When talking to an elderly person, such as grandfather, father or mother, people tend to speak in a polite and respectful way. However, when people talk to someone who is younger than them, they tend to speak differently in order to fit in with the person they are talking to.

The other example of humans having a multiple identity is when they create an avatar of their selves in the games or social networking sites such as, The Sims.

In the virtual world, humans create their own avatar with their own desire. Humans tend to feel that they actually live in the game rather than the reality of their life. In The Sims, humans are able to feel free to do what they want. They can eat, sleep, take a shower, go to work, go to the mall, fall in love, make friends, and almost everything in life is also in the virtual world. As it is said, the virtual world is where they actually belong where they feel that they are free to do anything there.

In this modern era, humans tend to seek answers from Google rather than thinking using their brains for answers. Our dependence on the use of the technologies such as smartphones, laptops, tablets and also our cars shows that without them, we cannot perform our daily activities better. Therefore, these technologies serve as prosthetics, maintaining and reinforcing our physical bodies (Grenville, 2002).

In conclusion, humans are cyborgs whether they are conscious or unconscious. According to Clark (2004, p.3), “For we shall be cyborgs not in the merely superficial sense of combining flesh and wires but in the more profound sense of being human-technology symbionts: thinking and reasoning systems whose minds and selves are spread across biological brain and nonbiological cicuity.” For example, all the documents in the laptops, the pictures saved in the phone gallery, if all of those are gone, and humans will definitely feel the big lost inside their hearts.

Humans are wired with technologies, therefore they become cyborgs without even noticing.

References

Clark, A., (2004), Natural-born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the future of Human Intelligence, Oxford University Press, Inc., USA.

Grenville, B. (2002). The Uncanny: Experiments in cyborg culture. Canada: Arsenal Pulp Press.

James, J., (1996), Thinking in the future tense, Industrial and commercial training, 28(7), 28 – 32

Week 9: Cinema & Television

1)      Name your favorite television show and film. Explain how the film could shape a person’s identity.

Television shows and films are both powerful in order to shape a person’s identity. My favorite television show when I was a child is Tom & Jerry.

Everyone knows that in this television show, it shows that the cat and the mouse are always fighting. In almost all of the episodes of Tom & Jerry, there would be violence happening.

Figure 1

In figure 1, it shows the violence part of the cartoon in Tom & Jerry. In the photo, it shows that Tom is holding a fork while Jerry is holding a knife. As a child, they will be interested to watch this type of television shows as it has the power to attract the audience with the actions in the television show. Rubin (2008), states that children watch cartoon not just because of the colorfulness and action. Thus, they will tend to learn from television. My 5 year old sister as an example, she loves to watch Oggy & the Cockroaches show, she tend to love the violence part of the cartoon and sometimes she tends to follow the violence in the scene in the television show.

My favorite film is the confession of a shopaholic.

From this film, the way I see it, it shows the attitude of a woman who is really addicted to shop, and she pays almost everything that she bought using a credit card which makes her life full with debt. So, the purpose of the film is to make the shopaholics realize that not all the stuffs in the stores are original. For example, when Rebecca went to the store, she fought with a woman for Gucci Boots and she finally bought the boots. However, when she reaches home, she just realized that even the branded things that are on sale, does not mean that they are good in quality. Sometimes it just makes you regret buying those things.

By watching this film, it influenced me about myself. When I went to the stores, I tend to buy things that I don’t really need. Sometimes, those things are just a waste of money because I don’t necessarily need it. It makes me realize that not everything in the stores is necessarily needed. Therefore, every time when i go to the stores, I will ask myself "do I really need this?" before buying things.

In conclusion, television shows and films can affect the audience’s feelings and it can shape the identity of a person. According to Hartley (1999), TV is the institutional of knowledge. This means that people is learning from television and it can shape the person’s identity. Calvert (2004) stated that watching TV may help to form a person’s identity.

References

Calvert, C., (2004), Voyeur Nation : Media, Privacy, and Peering in Modern Culture, Westview Press, USA.

Hartley, J. (1999), Knowledge, television and the “textual tradition”. Uses of Television (pp. 55-70). London and New York: Routledge, Retrieved on November 18^th, 2012, from UBD E-brary Website.

Rubin, L. C., (2008), Popular Culture in Counselling, Psychotheraphy, and Play-based Intervention, Springer Publishing Company, LLC, New York, USA.

Week 8: Photography

3) How do captions and cut lines re-frame the meaning of an image?

In semiotics, we learned about anchorage. Anchorage is when a text is linked to the image so that the audience would be able to interpret the message easily. Captions and cutlines are considered as anchoring. It is powerful because it can anchor the message which is trying to be delivered to the audience. In this post, I will include some photos which are given captions or cut lines.

Figure 1:

“Not enough sleep will cause wrinkles, eye bags and restless face”

In figure 1, according to the caption, it shows that if you want to look beautiful, you must get enough sleep. And if you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll become like the second photo. However, if we changed the captions, it will re-frame the meaning of the photo. For example, in figure 2, below,

Figure 2:

“Before and After DRUGS!!”

In figure 2, above, the caption is changed to “Before and After DRUGS!!” When the viewer of this photo looks at the caption, they will automatically say that the drugs can affect the looks of a person.

Captions and cut-lines are the most essential part of the photo. The audiences tends to seek captions or cut-lines which are interesting, something which has the power to attract their minds to read the story. For example, in the newspaper, the readers will search the caption or cut-lines which interest them. Captions and cut-lines are considered as having the higher priority in the newspaper. This is because, if the captions or cut-lines are boring, the audiences will not continue reading the story. 

A cutline is necessary because of the functions provided such as identification, description, explanation and elaboration (Luebke, 1989). A cutline also tells the reader of “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “how” in the photograph so that the viewer can understand the meaning of the photo.

In conclusion, photographs usually show reality and the moments of events, and a photograph with captions or cut-lines will therefore make the photo even more powerful to convey meanings or information to the audiences. Therefore, captions or cut-lines are significant to tell the story of the picture or to send the message to the intended viewer (Askew & Wilk, 2002). Without the captions or cut-lines, the photo will remain meaningless and the viewer of the photo will not fully understand it. Thus, sometimes, the photos are also manipulated by putting the caption or cutlines which will reframe the meaning of the photo. According to Stovall and Mullins (2005), cutlines is a description of the caption that is associated with the photograph. Captions or cutlines are necessary when it comes to photojournalism because they answer the questions which are often asked by the viewer, such as explanation, descriptions or elaboration of the photo.

References

Askew, K. M., & Wilk, R. R., (2002), The anthropology of media: A reader. Victoria, Australia: Blackwell.

Luebke, B. F., (1989), Out of focus: Images of women and men in newspaper photographs. Sex Roles, 20(3), 121-133, doi: 10.1007/BF00287986

Stovall, J. G. & Mullins, E., (2005), Writing cutlines or captions, from http://www.jprof.com/onlinejn/webjn-cutlines.html , retrieved on 18^th November, 2012.

Week 7: Narrative

1)      Why is narrative important when shaping a visual image to the audience?

“Narratives are important in more ways than we might imagine.” (Berger, 2007. p.52)

Everyone is telling stories every day. It is a part of a daily routine; when you meet your parents, siblings or your friends, you would definitely start telling stories with each other. Stories are told from generation to generation, even before technologies are invented. Telling stories could be done from verbal to non-verbal way of communicating. As an example of a verbal way of telling stories is a verbal conversation on the phone with a friend or face-to-face conversations. However a non-verbal narrative is such as the newspapers, it tells stories to the audiences about what happens around the world. According to Lamarque (1994), “narrative” in general terms is story telling. In telling stories, the narrative involves sequence of events, actors, time and also location. Narrative exists in every media texts.

The structure of the narrative usually follows the Aristotle’s structure which consists of the beginning of the story, the middle and the end of the story. However, the structure can be the other way around (Lamarque, 1994). For example, the middle starts first, then the end and continued with the beginning of the story.

In figure 1, it shows the structure of the narrative which starts with the beginning of the story, middle and the end of the story. The narrative in figure 1 was clearly pointed out in order to make the audiences understand the story. Thus, it is important that the narrative of the story is interesting and also understandable by the audiences. By adding words to the visual ad, it will be more powerful; the message sent to the audience can be understood well.

Another example is when a person is reading a novel or a story book. From my experience, during reading the novel, we will experience the fact that the characters in the novel will appear the way we wanted them to look like. For example, it is said in the novel that the man is tall, handsome with fair skin and looks smart. The reader of the novel can imagine the man and will continue reading the novel if they are interested, or even if they are not interested with the narrative in the novel, the reader will make their own imageries of the man as they desire. A story consists of semiotics, where the audiences can make an assumption or premises of the story (Chatman, 2004).

Moreover, in movies, the audiences are watching the story as if they are in the movies as well, as if they are the characters in the story. According to Lewis P. Hinchman & Sandra K. Hinchman, (1997, p.10), “Narrative opens to us to “the realm of the ‘as if’”.  That is why the effect of the movie will affect the audiences, such as crying and laughing. Therefore, narratives are important in shaping the visual image of the audiences. A well narrated story will make the audiences interested to watch or read the story.

In conclusion, narrative is an essential part of a story. Without a good narrative, the story will not reach the audiences’ attentions. The importance of narrative is to make sure that the audiences’ are interested in reading, listening and also watching the story and eventually the audience will remember the story. According to Berger (2007, p.51), “And we make sense of texts by seeing every action and every character in terms of the binary oppositions that exist in all texts – oppositions whose meaning we all know.”

References

            Berger, A. A., (2007), Media and Society: A critical perspective, p. 51-52, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., USA.

Chatman, S., (2004), Story and Discourse. Retrieved November, 16, 2012, from http://www.icosilune.com/2009/01/seymour-chatman-story-and-discourse/

Hinchman, L. P., & Hinchman, S. K., (1997), Memory, Identity, Community: The Idea of Narrative in the Human Sciences, p.51-52, SUNY Press, USA.

Lamarque, P. (1994). Narrative and Invention: The Limits of Fictionality. New York and London: Routledge.

Week 6: Ancient Art of Rhetoric & Persuasion

1)      Before coming to class, bring a print advertisement that you believe persuades the reader rhetorically. Explain your case using the concepts learnt this week.

Rhetoric is defined as a form of persuasion (Garver, 1994). Rhetoric in advertisements is more concerned with the style rather than the content. It is claimed that rhetoric in advertising is emphasizing more towards how to present the ad rather than what to present to the audience (McQuarrie & Philips, 2008, P.4). In this post, I will include a photo which could persuade the reader rhetorically. It has been said that all the persuasions must have an argument. Therefore, without an argument, it is not called a persuasion.

Figure 1

In figure 1, it shows a picture of a light bulb. Well, it is an ordinary light bulb, but there differences between this light bulb and the ones that we used at home or at school. The light bulb is created for the global society in order for them to start saving energy. It is different from the long light bulb or the round ones which are common everywhere we go. Thus, the light bulb does not only save energy, but also saves money. For example, a person used to spend hundreds of dollars just to pay for the electricity bill. By using this light bulb, it will decrease the amount of electricity used and will lower the bill of the electricity. Moreover, there would be extra money for the person to buy other things they need.

So, the argument here is:

1.       Using the light bulb can save electricity.

2.      Using the light bulb can save money.

3.       Therefore, the light bulb saves electricity and money.

In addition, by buying this light bulb and using it in the houses, colleges and workplaces, it will lessen the energy used and also will save the environment. As we all know, Brunei is considered as the country which has the highest usage of electricity. For example, have you ever been to UBD? Sometimes, you can see that the air conditioners are not switched off and some lights are still switched on in the morning. Even in the streets or roads, sometimes the lights are still switched on during morning. According to the permanent secretary (Power and Downstream) Hj Jamain Hj Julaihi, “For a small economy like Brunei, the current rate of energy consumption is not sustainable in the long term” (bt.com.bn). So, why should anyone waste the electricity while some place some where there are still people who do not have electricity because they cannot afford it? Even during lectures, the room would be filled with many switched on light bulbs even when you don’t necessarily need them.

Another thing is, we learnt this term in semiotics, it is called ‘anchorage’. According to Sells & Gonzalez, (2002), “Anchorage is text (such as a caption) that provides the link between the image and its context; the text that provides relevance to the reader.” Without the captions, people will not know what the ad is trying to tell the audience. Basically, in figure 1, the printed ad wants the audience to receive the message about saving the electricity. By having captions to anchor the message, it would capture the audiences’ attention towards the advertisement. The purpose of the ad in figure 1 is for the awareness of the public about how important electricity is, and we should start saving energy because energy consumption would not be sustainable for longer term.

In conclusion, visual rhetoric plays an important role in advertising, whether the advertisement is advertised using different types of medium such as television or newspapers. The printed ad of a photo will be more persuasive when it is added with captions to anchor the attention of the audiences. Rhetoric can manipulate our minds and also change our perception. In this case, perhaps it will affect people who are concerned about saving money as well as saving electricity.

Refrences

Garver, E. (1994). Artistotle's rhetoric: An art of character. USA:University of Chicago Press.

McQuarrie, E. F. & Philips, B. J. (2008), Go figure! : New directions in advertising rhetoric, USA, M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Sells, P., & Gonzales, S. (2002). The language of advertising, Retrieved from http://www.stanford.edu/class/linguist34/Unit_03/anchor-relay.htm on November 14th, 2012.

Noor, A, (2012), Solar panel prices key to viability, Retrieved from http://www.bt.com.bn/news-national/2012/04/15/solar-panel-prices-key-viability on November 14th, 2012.