The journalistic image as visual sociology
According to Becker (1998) photographs by their very nature are ambiguous. Indeed a photograph taken by a visual sociologist or photojournalist may be similar however the significance of the photograph is found in the response it generates in those who perceive it. Context is either provided by the image and supporting text or will be left to the viewer to provide. Either way, it is the context that provides meaning. ‘Just as paintings get their meaning in a world of painters …. so photographs get their meaning from the way the people involved with them understand them, use them, and thereby attribute meaning to them. They are social constructions, pure and simple’ (Becker, 2002). As Adelman (1998) highlights the photo of a helicopter on a lawn with a person huddled under a jacket being assisted into the helicopter has only one additional clue and only for those who recognize the building as the White House. That photo document as a representation is unremarkable; when we are told that the person is President Nixon fleeing after Watergate we may be given meaning.
However like context, time is also an important element in understanding the journalistic image as visual sociology. Time is one of the ‘punctums’ identified by cultural theorist Barthes (1980 cited in Cronin, 1998). He claimed that, unlike a painting, when we see a photograph we cannot deny that its referent once existed. A photograph is therefore an emanation of a past reality. News photographs, no matter how iconic, derive their value from context or from the fact that they represent a current event. In this way, they rely on the viewer knowing exactly what the picture relates to. As Becker (1992) suggests, readers do not expect to spend any time deciphering ambiguities and complexities in the photographs that appear in their daily newspaper or news magazine. Such photographs must, therefore, be instantly readable, immediately interpretable.
Whilst the image may not hold its news value years later, such images still have the potential to be used in a much wider context by visual sociologists to document historical processes. Becker uses the aforementioned example of the demise of President Nixon in 1974. Whilst the image of Nixon’s last exit from the White House had immediate meaning for any person who followed the scandal, years later the image has no such connotations. However, as Becker suggests, the Nixon image offers the potential for sociological analysis in a much wider context, such as for example the way the devices of photographic representation are used to indicate the political downgrading of a disgraced leader. In this way, whilst such photographs are no longer newsworthy, they can still be of use to visual sociologists in that they can capture a variety of processes in a much wider context. As Becker (1998) suggests, images have the potential to be used in a variety of ways such as through visual sociology, photojournalism, etc. How they are used therefore depends on a variety of factors including organizations and audiences.
According to Becker (1998) photographs by their very nature are ambiguous. Indeed a photograph taken by a visual sociologist or photojournalist may be similar however the significance of the photograph is found in the response it generates in those who perceive it. Context is either provided by the image and supporting text or will be left to the viewer to provide. Either way, it is the context that provides meaning. ‘Just as paintings get their meaning in a world of painters …. so photographs get their meaning from the way the people involved with them understand them, use them, and thereby attribute meaning to them. They are social constructions, pure and simple’ (Becker, 2002). As Adelman (1998) highlights the photo of a helicopter on a lawn with a person huddled under a jacket being assisted into the helicopter has only one additional clue and only for those who recognize the building as the White House. That photo document as a representation is unremarkable; when we are told that the person is President Nixon fleeing after Watergate we may be given meaning.
However like context, time is also an important element in understanding the journalistic image as visual sociology. Time is one of the ‘punctums’ identified by cultural theorist Barthes (1980 cited in Cronin, 1998). He claimed that, unlike a painting, when we see a photograph we cannot deny that its referent once existed. A photograph is therefore an emanation of a past reality. News photographs, no matter how iconic, derive their value from context or from the fact that they represent a current event. In this way, they rely on the viewer knowing exactly what the picture relates to. As Becker (1992) suggests, readers do not expect to spend any time deciphering ambiguities and complexities in the photographs that appear in their daily newspaper or news magazine. Such photographs must, therefore, be instantly readable, immediately interpretable.
Whilst the image may not hold its news value years later, such images still have the potential to be used in a much wider context by visual sociologists to document historical processes. Becker uses the aforementioned example of the demise of President Nixon in 1974. Whilst the image of Nixon’s last exit from the White House had immediate meaning for any person who followed the scandal, years later the image has no such connotations. However, as Becker suggests, the Nixon image offers the potential for sociological analysis in a much wider context, such as for example the way the devices of photographic representation are used to indicate the political downgrading of a disgraced leader. In this way, whilst such photographs are no longer newsworthy, they can still be of use to visual sociologists in that they can capture a variety of processes in a much wider context. As Becker (1998) suggests, images have the potential to be used in a variety of ways such as through visual sociology, photojournalism, etc. How they are used therefore depends on a variety of factors including organizations and audiences.
Becker, H. S. (1998) ‘Visual Sociology, Documentary Photography, and Photojournalism’, in J. Prosser (ed) Image-based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers, RoutledgeFalmer: London, pp. 84-96.
Becker, H. S. (2002) Backup of Visual Sociology, Documentary Photography, and Photojournalism: It's (Almost) All a Matter of Context [online] Available at:
< http://oldweb.uwp.edu/academic/criminal.justice/beckerbk02.htm >
Last accessed 07 Apr. 2008.
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