Journalism: Word and Image

Early photography: some technical limitations

• Camera size

• Camera setup

• Exposure times

• Developing process

• Printing challenges

War coverage and photographic controversy case studies

• Crimean War

• United States Civil War

Crimean War

• Staged photographs

• Roger Fenton

• The Valley of the Shadow of Death without and with cannonballs on road

2016 survey of news photographers by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that _ of news photographers said they “sometimes” staged photographs with _ saying they did so “about half the time”

52%, 7%

the U.S. Civil War

• Alexander Gardner

• Photograph of dead Confederate soldiers at Antietam

Early news imagery

Woodcuts from photographs

• Roger Fenton’s photograph of General Bosquet and Captain Dampiere

“We propose to illustrate daily occurrences in such a way that the…

“Life of our time shall become photographic.”

Key developments from the rise of photojournalism

• Editors’ embrace of the halftone process

• The press photographer (and improvements in photographic technologies)

• The rise of news photo agencies

Halftone process: a printing innovation that allowed

Newpapers and magazines to reproduce photographs

The halftone process: Broke down photographs into

Tiny black dots or lines that were so small they were imperceptible to the naked eye, reproducing the shades of a photograph without needing a colour of ink besides black

First publication to make regular use of the halftone process:

The Canadian Illustrated News

Who founded the Canadian Illustrated News

George Desbarats and William Leggo

George Desbarats and William Leggo went on to found

The New York Daily Graphic, the first daily illustrated newspaper

Two improvements in camera technology

• Gelatin dry plate

• Roll film

What did the introduction of gelatin dry plates bring

Reduction of preparation/processing time

Roll film made it possible to

Take multiple photographs without changing plates or reloading

An important early news photographer

Jimmy Hare

What did Jimmy Hare cover

The Spanish-American War, the Russo-Japanese War, and WW1

Magazined that published Jimmy Hare’s work often

Brought him into the story, giving the news a personal dimension

While in the minority, women also worked as

News photographers from the outset

Who worked for the photo agency Bain News Service

Frances Benjamin Johnson

Who worked atop a Chrystler Building gargoyle

Margaret Bourke-White

“In the hands of the ruling society, the invention of _ is one of the most powerful means of organizing a strike against understanding.”

Illustrated magazines

“Even the colourful arrangement of the images provides a _ to successfully implement such a strike.

Not insignificant

The _of these images systematically excludes their contextual framework available to consciousness.

Contiguity

The _ drives away the idea; the blizzard of photographs betrays an indifference toward what the things mean.

‘Image-idea’

Photo agencies acted as an

Intermediary between news photographers and publications: they bought and sold news photographs

Bain’s News Picture Service, founded by George Grantham Bain, was a

Successful early agency

news photo agencies treated news photographs as a

Commodity, enabling images to circulate and appear in multiple publications at the same time.

Journalistic conventions _

Change over time—they are not eternal or universal

Journalism operates according to

Dominant ideas about what “the news” should cover and how it should be conveyed: these ideas are context-based

What contemporary journalistic ideals have not always been a part of journalism

• Objectivity

• Fact-checking

• Interviewing

2700s: newspapers in the US were largely

Partisan, adhering to the political biases of their publishers

What placed high taxes on printed materials

The Stamp Act imposed by Britain on the colonies

Many publishers began to rally on behalf of

Independence from Britain

Newspaper editors received financial support from

• Political parties

• Support principles and candidates of a given party

Beginning in the 1830s, new newspapers emerged that costed

One cent

Penny papers rejected

Government patronage in favour of a commercial model based on the sale fo advertising, and revenue from street sales

Being cheaper, penny papers were more widely

read than earlier papers

How did penny papers gain attraction to the largest readership

Interests that were openly commercial rather than political

Penny papers: growing emphasis on

• Local reporting

• Especially crime reporting

Prominent example of penny papers

The New York Sun and the New York herald

The penny press also published some very (example)

• Fanciful “false news”"

• The great Moon Hoax in the New York Sun

By the 19th century: newspapers tended to be affiliated with

A specific political party

By the early 20th century, _ were coming to be the main source of financial support for the news

Advertising revenues

Advertising revenues had two major implications

1. Coverage limited by need to preserve commercial interests

2. Reduction of partisanship to appeal to a wider readership

By the late 19th century, there was a significant divide in the

Newspaper offerings available

Newspaper offerings available (what two ideals)

• The information ideal: clear utility, emphasis on facts

• The story ideal: engaging narratives, enjoyment

Schudson observes that the information ideal is a mode of communication that is strongly associated with

Capitalism

Two main competitors offering story ideal model in new York in the late 19th century:

• The New York World (Joseph Pulitzer)

• The New York Journal (William Randolph Hearst)

A mainstay of the New York World was

Stunt journalism

Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House

• The World commissioned the news reporter Nellie Bly to go undercover in Blackwell’s Insane Asylum, and published an expose of the intolerable living conditions there

What did Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House result in

A grand jury investigation and an increase in funding for the asylum