Notes

Scholars of photojournalism agree that the way a picture is taken is the most important aspect of a photograph, the aesthetics as well as what’s in it. But what about how the image is represented in the media? For example Authors Theo Van Leeuwen and Adam Jaworski explore the visual rhetoric of two newspapers in their representation of the photos taken during the Palestinian-Israeli war (October 2000). Unlike most scholars, Van Leeuwen and Jaworski argue that although both newspapers (The Guardian and Polish’s Gazeta Wyborcza) are getting their photos from the same agency there Framing of the war is vastly different. The Gazeta Wyborcza Frames the Palestinians more as “terrorists” and deflects military responsibility from the Israeli’s by not showing any soldiers in the photos. The Guardian Framed the Palestinians as heroes against the strong military of Israel by choosing photos that dehumanized the soldiers. But what about how the audience reacted to the article? How did they respond? In this paper I will look at three controversial news events from the past 10 years. I will be looking at two online news articles per event that include noteworthy images and study the way each article frames the event to suit there ideology and those of there readers. I will then look at the reader’s comments on each site to see how they responded to the article. Are there comments in line with the article’s point of you? I will then go to Reddit, (A third party site that has comments from people of all walks of life) and see how those comments correspond with what the article and comments on saying.
Within the past 20 years all news whether major or local has become international due to the spread of the Internet and the popularization of online news making reactions of local events such as Ferguson worldwide. Another advantage has also been the spread and ease of creating media, in this instance, images, photos of an event can be all over the internet within seconds being picked up by different news sources in order to better represent the story they are trying to tell. With the expansion of online news it is also much easier to “find the news you like” which is why using a third party site where the “news finds you” is so important. It will give a wider array of views.
During my research I came across difficulties in regards to user comments. Due to the nature of user comments and the anonymity it brings many comments are harsh or hateful, although there’s usually multiple voices to the discussion it is difficult to find a constructive discussion where the “smaller voice” doesn’t get shamed and stops responding. News sites such as the USA Today have decided to make there comment system use Facebook thus overcoming the anonymity of user comments. I’ve also come across news sites such as The Moscow Times who refuse to allow comments.
“Dear reader,
Due to the increasing number of users engaging in personal attacks, spam, trolling and abusive comments, we are no longer able to host our forum as a site for constructive and intelligent debate.
It is with regret, therefore, that we have found ourselves forced to suspend the commenting function on our articles.
The Moscow Times remains committed to the principle of public debate and hopes to welcome you to a new, constructive forum in the future.

Regards,

The Moscow Times

One of the most controversial global events of the past year has been the event in Crimea. The Russian government had decided to annex Crimea due to the high population of ethnic Russians and the history of Crimea in relation to Russia and the ex Soviet Union. On March 17th Crimean’s had a referendum in which they had a chance to vote, the two options on the ballot were “join Russia” or “demand independence for Ukraine”. There was no option to be a part of Ukraine on the ballot. The policy of the United States was to declare the vote illegitimate as the referendum was against the Ukrainian constitution and international Law, President Obama put sanctions and visa restrictions in place in order to sway the Russian government into backing down . During the few months prior to the Referndum the Ukrainians had been attempting to create a trade agreement with the European Union causing tension with Russia. In an attempt to sway Ukraine into breaking ties with the European Union Russia stopped exporting Oil and taking an interest in Crimea’s Russian population, which eventually caused the referendum to occur . The two papers I will be looking at for this event