Chapter 1: Can Photographs Change the World?

To start this off, I am just going to throw my thoughts and opinions out there on the table. Do I believe photos can change the world? No, but I do believe they can have an impact on the world and the people in it by giving us the power to visualize the written word and word of mouth. According to Joshua Haruni, photos are not nearly as powerful as the written word. "Photographs can be very beautiful, informative, ugly or anything else the photographer chooses to show. Photographs can definitely inspire us, but the written word has the ability to spark the imagination to greater depths than any photograph, whose content is limited to what exists in the frame." Personally, I believe the opposite of this. If I read an article or hear a news story, I am left to interpret the visual aspect of it myself. The way I interpret the happening could be right on the money or very far from the reality. Photographs let us view what we read or heard and sparks a level or emotion that reading cannot.

One photo that has specifically affected me is shown below. This photo shows two young girls. One of them is smoking, skinny, in a bikini, with makeup on and the focus of the photo. The other girl happens to be in a t-shirt, chubby and in the background. When I first saw this photo the first thing that came to my mind is the pressure that society puts on women to look a certain way. The media and tabloids are filled with celebrities that have gained or lost weight, left their house without makeup and new workouts to make your body look better. Women are expected to constantly look a certain way and thats unfortunate. There is nothing wrong with either of these little girls, but the focus and attention is on the little girl in the front. Is the attention on her because of her rebellious actions or because of how she looks? That is up to the viewers to determine.

Photo by Mary Ellen Mark

Image Source:  http://www.codigonuevo.com/mary-ellen-mark-la-fotografa/

I previously learned that photojournalists take photos of things happening, verbs. These things happening change the world, but the photos of them happening do not. Just because the photos themselves do not produce change, they can produce emotion and impact. According to Jonathan Klein, photos can change the world. "In my industry we believe that images can change the world. ... The truth is we know the images themselves don't change the world but we are also aware that since the beginning of photography, images have provoked reactions in people and those reactions have caused change to happen." The picture below shows a historic event that has gone down in history as the worst terrorist attack performed on the United States. The event changed the United States and the world forever. As for the picture, it produces a variety of emotions for everyone.

Photo by Spencer Platt

Image Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/11/september-11-photos_n_3902818.html

The media can be very manipulative. Who decides what photographs we see and those that are never published? There are two sides to every story. There are the people that are in favor of something and then the opposing side. For example, pro-choice versus pro-life and pro-war versus anti-war. When a story is published in the media, you have to wonder if the author in favor of or against? According to a infographic Jason at Frugal Dad created, the media is controlled by a very small number. "Media has never been more consolidated. 6 media giants control a staggering 90% of what we read, watch or listen too." That number puts the integrity and possible biases of the media we see daily into consideration. Are these media executives and journalists trained in ethical, justified and logical journaling? How do we know if what we are reading is factual. We often times don't.

Unpaid and upcoming journalists can upload content to a website called iReport. According to CNN, any content posted on iReport that will be presented in broadcast goes through a process called vetting. King briefly mentions what material is vetted. "What we call vetting we do only to things [we] want to highlight inside CNN proper," The process of vetting includes contacting the contributing journalist and verifying the provided information. According to King, they try to confirm as many details as possible. "We will call the international desk at CNN and find the person who is an expert in the area wherever the story took place, and figure out what are they hearing, what do they know ... We will check local media and will call local people in field. We will call our affiliates and try to get to a place where we can confirm as many details as possible." Does it make me feel better that CNN does what they can to make sure they are presenting factual data? Yes it does, but unfortunately CNN is only one news station out of many so it makes me question the integrity of the others.