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 18th, from https://dl.dropbox.com/u/35336835/Analysing%20Visual%20Communication/Lecture%2012_Photojournalism.pdf