Analysing Visual Communication: 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.