iraq

Lynn Smith: "Web Amplified Message of Primitive Executions": June 30, 2004

"Right now, they're coming into your home. It's like they're using technology as a vehicle for war." [...] Ritual beheading is as primitive as war gets. But 21st century technology is making the grisly details of such killings visible to millions around the world. [...] "Nick Berg" was the second most popular search request on Google in May, following "American Idol." Last week, the most popular search was for "Paul Johnson." [...] "The point of terrorism is to strike fear and cause havoc — and that doesn't happen unless you have media to support that action and show it to as many people as they can" [...] In the United States, news executives who traditionally draw the line at depicting the most graphic war violence now face a media landscape where millions get unfiltered images on the Internet almost instantaneously. [...] [Robert Thompson:] Do media outlets limit themselves, knowing the videos are widely available? Or do they show everything and run the risk of doing exactly what the terrorists wanted? [...] overwhelming online interest in such images belies the notion of viewer squeamishness. For reasons that may include a simple desire to keep up with the news, morbid curiosity or salaciousness, people are digging past the mainstream news sites to find the raw footage. [...] Beheading is a powerfully brutal act that taps into very primal human fears, Kalayjian says. Watching video — on TV or the Internet — can trigger symptoms in the same way seeing the act in person can. "Now we're not just reading it in the newspaper. We're seeing the process, hearing the outcries, the suffering, pain and terror," she says."
[Los Angeles Times]

Nick Berg Execution Coverage

Survey of how 186 U.S. newspapers and 140 foreign papers handled the Nick Berg beheading story on their front pages. Including this amped visual rhetoric from the Of 186 U.S. front pages, 140 ran an image (more than a mug) with the Nick Berg beheading story. Of 125 foreign front pages, 28 ran an image. Philadelphia Daily News ran this bit of amped visual rhetoric.
[NewsDesigner]

Fallujah: What Is the Effect of Large-scale Web Images?

Typically we see atrocity photos reproduced as small, fuzzy pictures in newsprint or on the computer screen. Below is a link to a large-scale image that has been used in debates about which images to publish. Does the vivid sense of "being there" produced by scale, detail and the like change the meaning of a picture?
[Altert: This is perhaps the most disturbing image on this site—a charred body of an American contractor hanging from a rope on a bridge while the crowd below celebrates.]

Modern Media Institute: "The Case: Death of a War Correspondent"

Following controversy about the publication of a graphic photograph of a war correspondent, MMI publishes the frontpages from four leading Polish newspapers for comparison. Plus case materials for discussion.
[MMI] [Full Case Study in PDF]
[Further commentary by Kehrt Reyher]

Poynter Institute's "Dealing With Shocking Images": An Online Seminar For Journalists: May 20, 2004<

Visitors are welcome to watch and or listen to a replay of this one-hour seminar. Requires RealPlayer.
[Poynter]

Roy Peter Clark: "You Be the Editor"

"On the front page of The New York Times and the St. Petersburg Times, for example, viewers saw a version of this image, in which the charred and dismembered remains of American civilians are hung from a bridge, a group of Iraqis cheering in the foreground. Today we want you to be the editor. Let's build a conversation about news judgment and journalism values around these three sets of questions: whether to run that image, how to run it, and the consequences of running it."
[Poynter]

Poynter Institute: "It's a Great Image. Now What?": May 10, 2004

This is a discussion among newspaper editors about strategies for presenting "big" images. Centered around the use of Tami Silicio's Dover coffin photos, and offers a look at treatments in The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and the Chicago Sun Times.

"You've got a powerful lead photo that is a story in itself -- along with multiple related stories -- for your centerpiece package. The question is how best to present the photo, and the story behind the photo, in a way that is clear and organized, and delivers maximum impact? [...] Your initial instinct might be to run the photo big, really big. It's so powerful, why not? But don't be seduced. Step back and ask yourself "What is the most effective way to bring this story to the reader?" Here are some things to consider. [...] It's no mystery that headlines are important. We know from EyeTRAC research conducted in the early 90s that readers enter a newspaper page first through the photo and then via the dominant headline. Because this image is so striking, the reader would look at the photo and immediately want more information. Readers will scan the headline and deck. If it doesn't fit, they may get confused and irritated, but will hopefully keep scanning until they find the info in the caption. The coffin image is so powerful that an unrelated headline could puzzle the reader. [...] Good captions give essential information that can draw the reader into the story, and hopefully, keep them interested enough to actually read it."
[Poynter Online]
[Large PDF of the Chicago Sun Times treament]

Monica Moses: "Readers Consume What They See": January 17, 2002

"• We know that 90 percent of readers enter pages through large photos, artwork, or display type (headlines, promos, etc.).
• We know that running a visual element with text makes it three times more likely that at least some of the text will be read.
• We know that headlines are more likely to be read when a photo is nearby.
• And we know that the bigger the picture, the more likely readers are to read the cutline – to be intrigued. [...] Graphics, photographs and headlines get far more attention from readers than text does. Readers take in 80 percent of the artwork and 75 percent of the photographs in the paper. They see 56 percent of the headlines. But they are aware of only 25 percent of the text, and read just a portion of that. Only about 13 percent of the stories in the paper are read in any depth [...] All of this adds up to a sobering truth: Readers’ experience with the paper is far more cursory than we like to admit. It means their sense of the news comes mostly from display type and images. It means that, for the average reader, the newspaper is a collection of photos, headlines, cutlines, graphics, illustrations, a story or two, and the tops of a few other stories. Text is literally the last thing people see in the paper."
[Poynter Online]