Kathleenbuddcmp's Blog

I-Map

kathleenbuddcmp — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:36:11 +0000

Writing Plan

kathleenbuddcmp — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:11:18 +0000

Taking Brian Walski’s image as a starting point, discuss why journalism is ruled by a system of strict ethical guidelines, and give your opinion as to whether it is possible for journalism to give an objective account of reality, as these guidelines stipulate?

Writing plan:

Introduction

In history, as well as in fiction, there have been accounts of photographic manipulation.
Nowadays, photographic manipulation is commonplace in art, fashion and advertising, among others.
There remains one industry where it is not: journalism.
The following essay will establish why journalism is determined by strict ethical guidelines and whether it can indeed give an objective account of reality.

Body

I. The Liberal model (by Hallin and Mancini)

1) Features of the historical development of the model (early adoption of political liberalism, First amendment…)
2) Characteristics (low political parallelism, high professionalization of journalism)

II. Ethics

1) Ethics as part of understanding journalism as a public service (informative style, consensus on norms)
2) Example: Los Angeles Times Ethical Guidelines

III. An objective account of reality

1) The problem of objectivity

A) Can objectivity be reached? (background, context, system of values)

B) Audiences only have access to a second account of reality (the identity of the journalism lies between objectivity and subjectivity)

2) Active audiences (meaning-makers, freedom of interpretation)

Conclusion

The consensus on ethical norms and guidelines is a feature belonging to the liberal media system, due to similar historic conditions in the countries were it developed.
The ethical considerations which stipulate the objective account of reality are challenged by the problem of objectivity and, to a lesser degree, by the power of audiences in interpreting media output.
Although it is impossible to reach pure objectivity, it is the attempt to reach for the greatest possible objectivity which is important. Ethical guidelines exist to ensure this.

Summary of Findings

kathleenbuddcmp — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:36:50 +0000

The findings of this piece of research stem from the fact that Brian Walski was a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times at the time he took his photograph. Parting from this, I discovered that the L.A. Times belongs to the the media company Tribune, itself part of the North-American media system, which is generally categorized as a liberal model for media.

Although other classifications exist, according to Hallin and Mancini, the liberal model’s characteristics developed in countries such as Britain, Ireland and the United States, which shared similar historic conditions. For authors like Curran, the categorization of media systems should be made according to political and economic variables, which explains why Japan belongs to the same group as the United States and Britain.

The characteristics of the liberal model in Hallin and Mancini’s classification include low political parallelism and a high professionalization of journalism. These two features have in turn led to a tendency for an informative style of journalism, seen as a service to the entire population, as well as to the development of a consensus on journalistic norms and ethics.

There are general, as well as organization-specific sets of norms and ethical guidelines, usually made known to the public through the media organization itself. During his time as a staff photographer at the L.A. Times, Walski was therefore forced to comply to the newspaper’s ethic guidelines, which stipulate that “Photos and graphics must inform, not mislead”. There is an interesting observation to be made at this point, since the manipulation of photographs and images is accepted in other industries, such as art, fashion and advertising.

In parallel to this, findings show that the L.A. Times and the Tribune company target an American audience and, additionally, that audiences are meaning-makers rather than passive receivers, and create meaning from media output. At last, it is possible to argue that audiences never have access to the first account of reality due to the problem of mediation and objectivity.

List of References

kathleenbuddcmp — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:20:27 +0000

-Brian Walski Official Website, About
[Accessed on 20/10/2009]

-Britannica Online Encyclopedia, “Iraq War”
[Accessed on 21/10/2009]

-Colombo, Furio (1998) Últimas noticias sobre el periodismo: Manual de periodismo internacional, Anagrama

-Curran and Park (2000), De-Westernizing Media Studies, Routledge

-Dahlgren, P., Critique: Elusive Audiences, in Dickinson, R., Harindranath, R. and Linne, O. (1998) Approaches to Audiences, A Reader, Arnold, Great Britain

-Dyhr, Thomas J., (2003). “Just War in Iraq 2003″
[Accessed on 21/10/2009]

-Hallin and Mancini (2004), Comparing Media Systems, Cambridge Univeristy Press, chap. 1 & 7

-Irby, Kenneth (2003), “L.A. Times Photographer Fired Over Altered Image“, Poynter Online
[Accessed 22/10/2009]

-Los Angeles Times Ethics Guidelines
[Accessed on 29/10/2009]

-National Press Photographers Association [Accessed on 29/10/2009]

-Siebert, Peterson and Schramm (1956), Four Theories of the Press, University of Illinois Press

-Sontag, Susan (1977) On Photography, The Image World, Penguin, London & NY

-Tribune Company, “History”
[Accessed 22/10/2009]

-Tribune Company, “Tribune Company Pulitzers”
[Accessed 22/10/2009]

-”President discusses the future of Iraq” (February 26, 2003) The White House
[Accessed on 21/10/2009]

-”President Bush addresses the Nation” (March 19, 2003) The White House
[Accessed on 21/10/2009]

-Wikipedia.org, Brian Walski
[Accessed on 20/10/2009]

Study Diary

kathleenbuddcmp — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:03:52 +0000

After three weeks of research, I became slightly worried about the number of entries on my blog. Although questions were raised from one entry to another, there was hardly enough time to follow up all the paths, and turn the research into a real process. More time, perhaps even three additional weeks, would have been required in order to really go in depth into all the elements that Brian Walski’s picture offered. Instead of that, I seem to have concentrated on one main aspect only: journalism. Although this is a subject which I am passionate about, I do not feel I discovered anything I did not know before, except for some details, such as a specific newspaper’s code of ethics. Being a perfectionist, I can say that I am rather disappointed with my performance, although I know I found enough material to write a good essay plan.

The following are some points that I should have liked to investigate before the deadline for the research process, but could not due to a lack of time:

-Documentary photography: the engagement of the photographer in its subject, as opposed to photojournalism; documentary photography’s relationship to art photography, its unclear boundaries.

-Composition: connotative and denotative meaning, psychoanalysis, gender analysis, pictorial elements.

-Ethics in the digital age: How are they being challenged? What are the means to control photographic manipulations nowadays?

I would also have liked to talk to more people about the photo and asked them what questions the image raised for them, in order to understand the different readings that are allowed by one “text”.

Photographic manipulations 2

kathleenbuddcmp — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:29:01 +0000

In her book On Photography, Susan Sontag reflects on the value we give to photographs as evidence: “the images that have virtually unlimited authority in a modern society are mainly photographic images; and the scope of that authority stems from the properties peculiar to images taken by cameras” (Sontag, 1977, 153). Most people, she argues, are more likely to trust a fading snapshot than ten paintings, given that a photograph is “a material vestige of its subject” (Ibid). It is ironic to think how blindly we trust photography, when the technology to alter images is ever-growing and hardly fool-proof.

Furthermore, it is interesting to think that, whereas Walski was accused of manipulating the truth and breaking ethical standards, thus tarnishing his reputation and credibility as a reporter (not to mention being fired from his post), photographic alterations are commonplace in a number of other industries, such as fashion, advertising and even art. To state only one example, fashion campaigns have shaped our perception of beauty (especially female beauty) into something which no longer has any roots in reality.

References:

Sontag, Susan (1977) On Photography, The Image World, Penguin, London & NY

Meaning

kathleenbuddcmp — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:54:57 +0000

Ripped from its context, Walski’s image could be “read” in very different ways, raising the question of audiences as “meaning-makers” rather than passive receptors of information.

Audience studies is a branch of research in mass communication. The approaches to audiences in the past have been conflictual, and there has not been a clear agreement among researchers, academics, or even media practitioners, on what the true object of study of audience studies is, whether effects of the media on groups of people, individual responses of people to media output, context, or any other.

The dominant approach to audiences until the late 1960s’ was the social scientific approach, also known as the behavioral effects tradition, which focused on the –often negative, effects of the mass media on audiences (Dahlgren in Dickinson et al. 1998, 299). One example of this tradition is the hypodermic-syringe model, developed in the 1950s’, which focused on the effects of media, particularly television, on passive, “sponge-like” audiences.

In the 1960s’ and 1970s’, audience research experienced a shift in paradigm, from what media texts do, to what texts mean to audiences; from how to get better knowledge of audiences, to what kind of knowledge is desirable; and to a search for the true nature of audiences (Ibid, 298).

A clear example of the shift in paradigm from audiences as passive, influential victims of the powerful media, to audiences as active viewers, is John Fiske’s approach to audience studies in the 1980s’. Fiske’s theory can be understood as a reaction to the much too deterministic view of how meaning is generated from people’s encounter with the media (Ibid, 299). The approach introduced the idea of polysemic media, which underlies the assumption that media texts allow for different interpretations by active audiences, who are considered as “meaning-makers”. Fiske goes as far as to claim that the appeal of the media is precisely its polysemic quality; the fact that different social groups and subcultures may read different meanings in media output. Thus, the audience is seen as a grouping of active, sense-making viewers, which find pleasure in responding to media in a certain fashion (Ibid, 300).

Although this theory has its limitations, it takes into account the individual differences of the media receptors, enabling them to construct meaning out of media output, an idea which had been overlooked by previous models. The approach was simultaneously developed and extended by David Morley’s “Nationwide” study in 1980, which took audiences’ context into consideration as well.

References:

-Dahlgren, P., Critique: Elusive Audiences, in Dickinson, R., Harindranath, R. and Linne, O. (1998) Approaches to Audiences, A Reader, Arnold, Great Britain

Photographic manipulations 1

kathleenbuddcmp — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:36:54 +0000

In history as well as in literature, there have been many instances of photographic alterations. It is common knowledge, for example, that enemies to the communist cause in the Soviet Union of Lenin and Joseph Stalin were air-brushed from public record photos. In George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, photographic images are also manipulated to change history, and to erase opponents to INSOC from general memory. It is important to note that these cases, both real and fictional, are concerned with the modification of the past, while Brian Walski’s photograph attempted to distort the present.

Photographic manipulations in history were usually carried out by governments with propagandistic interests, to gain support from the population. Seen from this angle, it is strange that Brian Walski should depict a British soldier protecting Iraqi civilians in an image intended for an American audience. Had his intention been to gain the support of the public for the war, he would certainly have used an American model, rather than a British one in an act of nobility.

Additionally, the low political parallelism and party affiliation of the American media system, makes it difficult to assume that Walski’s photographic manipulation was moved by any kind of political interest. Rather, Walski was concerned with pictorial and esthetic elements, creating an image worthy of winning a Pulitzer, had it only been real.

Objectivity

kathleenbuddcmp — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:54:55 +0000

According to media standards, the fact that Brian Walski’s photograph is a composite makes it a lie. However, can the media truly escape subjectivity?

Many cases in journalism suggest that the strive for pure objectivity, as predicated by the media industry, is in fact impossible. According to Furio Colombo in Últimas noticias sobre el periodismo, a journalistic task is inevitably influenced by elements such as its author’s background, context and system of beliefs. Although for Hans Magnus Enzensberger, whom Colombo refers to in his book, journalism cannot start from a preconceived idea; in practice, there are very few examples in which such ideas are not influential in the work of journalists.

It is true that, at first instance, journalistic investigations seek objectivity. But in order to achieve this objectivity, wouldn’t journalists have to rid themselves of all the elements (personal tensions, system of values, background) which lead to subjectivity by their very essence? How much objectivity can one expect from a journalistic piece, when the mediating point between that and reality is a human being? For Colombo, the journalist’s identity is inserted between the fields of objectivity and subjectivity. Audiences can only expect to get a second account of reality, which has already undergone a certain degree of interpretation, by the mere fact of having a person as a medium.

Another argument of Colombo’s against the notion of pure objectivity is that tradition, culture and habits determine the relevance granted to certain events in different nations. That is to say news events will be attributed more or less relevance after they undergo a selective process which will vary according to nations.

In the world of journalism, can this be condemned? Pure objectivity, it is safe to say, is out of man’s reach. According to German sociologist, Max Weber, even the process of selecting material for a piece of research, journalistic or otherwise, reflects the system of values of the researcher. Weber’s assertion could be said to justify the subjectivity in which journalism inevitably falls. It is not viable to revere pure objectivity, as it only leads to an impossible project.

References:

Colombo, Furio (1998) Últimas noticias sobre el periodismo: Manual de periodismo internacional, Anagrama

Study Diary

kathleenbuddcmp — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:21:40 +0000

I have not written about my learning experience during the research process since my first diary entry, in which I set the bases for my research schedule. The reality is that, after having explored the context of Brian Walski’s photograph, with entries about the Iraq War, the Los Angeles Times and the Tribune company, and having written a brief commentary on journalism ethics, I once again found myself at loss of what to do next. I considered the possibility of blindly entering the domain of digital photography and perhaps even of analyzing the photograph in terms of its pictorial elements, but my lack of knowledge in both areas made the task more difficult and, consequently, less appealing. I wrote nothing for a week, and the pressure of the approaching deadline did not help my search for ideas. Finally, in despair, I asked a friend to look at blog entries and engaged on a discussion about Walski’s photograph. It filled me with wonder that, by the end of our talk, I had found at least five rich, potential areas of research that I had not managed to see before.

Although they have yet to be investigated, the following points provide an overview of the ideas which were raised from my discussion of the image:

1) Talking about the photograph with someone who had never seen it before, made me realize that, ripped from its context, Walski’s image could be “read” in very different ways, raising the question of audiences as “meaning-makers” rather than passive receptors of information.

2) The fact that the photograph is a composite means that a person, Brian Walski, has willfully altered it. One can therefore refer to a “creator” and a “creation”. If one takes this idea further, and articulates it, there may result a discussion about art as opposed to media and documentary photography.

3) For media standards, the fact that the photograph is a composite makes it a lie. However, can the media escape subjectivity?

4) In history as well as in literature, there have been instances of photographic alterations. Which ones? To serve what purpose?