For example, one political figure facing political scrutiny is Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona. This article, which we discussed in class today, has this photo of her in it.
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Now, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want that photo of me put in the paper.
Let's take a look at another governor in the news. The Chicago Sun-Times posted this photo of Rod Blagojevich:
In my opinion, the way his mouth is open and his general facial expression makes him look stupid. Here is the article if you would like to look at it.
The thing I'm wondering, is WHY news outlets decide to use particular photos of politicians? One thing that Mr. B suggested is that the news sources want to ignite controversy. Another reason is probably to just make the politicians look bad in the literal sense, as well as bashing their reputations and images. What effect does posting a good photo or bad photo of someone have on the reader? On the surface, I just laugh or feel sorry for whoever is in the bad photo, and probably stare at and ignore the good photo. If other people also just ignore good photos, than Mr. B makes a good point- I will be more likely to notice a story attached to a terrible photo because of the photo itself.
Another thing that I noticed is that perpetrators of crimes almost always have bad press photos, while victims have beautiful photos posted. One possible cause is that mugshots are accessible, and almost always look bad. However, if news agencies have to go to the trouble to find a beautiful photo of a victim of a tragic accident, can't they find a beautiful photo of the perpetrator of the crime? No. Why? My guess is that news agencies want to arouse disgust of the crime and sadness for the victims. But why is that? What do you think?
Molly this is really interesting. I remember posting a blog about a man sentenced to death. The photograph they chose was pretty scary, and his eyes seemed to haunt me. I'm sure there were other photos they could have used, but his stark mugshot cast him as a criminal, with no room for argument.
ReplyDeleteYou should check out my most recent post on the Wall Street Journal's photograph of Elena Kagan: http://annamericanstudies.blogspot.com/2010/05/since-when-is-softball-bad.html
Molly this is an excellent observation. I notice this all the time as well. In the paper whenever there is a crime that has committed, there is always an awful picture of the person who has been pointed as the criminal, and a rather darling picture of the person pointed as the victim.
ReplyDeleteA rather recent and sad connection to New Trier and this act is the car accident involving new trier students. The story ended up on the front page of some newspaper (can't remember which) and the person driving the car had a picture that made her look like a horrible criminal who's mission was to do bad things, which we all know is not true. And the picture of the victim was cute and sweet.
In most cases I feel, as you do, that these pictures are guiding us in what the author of the article wants us to think.