While reading about how the media uses images from traumatic times to help the public overcome the stress, I thought of the opposite end of the spectrum and how manufactures' use images to have the public attach a particular event with a specific brand through advertising. While one is assisting in the grieving process and moving on through terrible events, the other is trying to create a bond between two ideas -- such as athletic success and Gaterade. We have all seen the commercials where the famous athletes such as the Williams sisters and Tiger Woods are sweating out Gaterade. Does this actually happen? I doubt it. But we are led to imagine that these successful athletes drink so much Geterade that they end up sweating it out when they preform. Just as we see all of the images from 9/11 and are reminded of the tragedies and atrocities that occurred, we see these athletes and are reminded of the Gaterade that they drink.

IMAGE ACTS....

9/11 changed the world in so many ways. Not only did my life change, but for the first time in many peoples lives, we began to actually feel fear. This is very common in a lot of other cultures and countries, but was not really in our lives. As a 12 year old, I know I had never been scared like that, and for most of the American public, it was the first time that a threatened feeling was really put into our minds. The picture of the towers actually falling represents so much to our country. It is in our history books and is an image I remember very well. Being from right outside the city, i could see the smoke and rubble from the top of the hill in the town I live in. I know many people who actually watched the towers fall from that hill.

I think the images from 9/11 are something that I consider generational. It's something we grew up and will pass on to our kids. This image of the plane hitting the second tower literally makes me cringe because it reminds us that we can be attacked, that we can be hurt. These events changed our history dramatically but also it has changed the way we are living on a day to day basis today. We wonder why the things that go on today involving the wars we are involved in, well a lot of it has to do with this image right here! THIS IMAGE ACTS! THIS IMAGE DOES THINGS!!!!

Photography, Journalism, and Trauma

In my final blog I wanted to write about Zelizer and her approach to the photos of 9/11 and the Holocaust. To me when I see images of these two events I can't help but imagine the day of 9/11. Obviously I can't think back to the Holocaust because I wasn't alive then but thinking back to 9/11 it is true that the photos continued to flow in day after day. Weeks after the event I was still seeing new photos of the planes and ground zero. When I think back I remember seeing the video of the planes crashing into the world trade centers that day but it was the newspaper that continually filled me in with new photos. This point is interesting because Zelizer states on page 50, "No wonder, then, that by the end of November one poll reported that the percentage of people watching network television had dropped dramatically, while those depending on the popular press for information had tripled from the first week after the attacks." This was very true in my case even though I was young because my mom is a reader of the daily press. I didn't notice that interesting little fact until reading this article. So to go on we read that pictures play a crucial role as tools to recovery Zelizer says. I can say that by seeing so many picture of 9/11 that now when I view these images they are iconic and I do not view them the same way as I did the year of the attacks. In one way or another images stand for something. They are a part of our life and without them we would have no physical evidence of past events. They also help us to get through difficult times, alleviating trauma which allows us to move on. There are many examples of this, not only the Holocaust and 9/11. Images do a lot more than we think they do for us. It could be pictures of a wrecked car from a drunk driving accident or something else of that sort that allow us to remember an unfortunate event and assist us moving forward in our lives.

Image Acts

As I was reading Photography, Journalism and Trauma....I could not stop thinking about all of the pictures I remember seeing in the news of what had happened on 9/11. Also because of my week 3 video, 9/11 and it's images have had me really thinking about how I feel when I am looking at the pictures. I found this article about how the Holocaust was not only image based but also documentary. It turns out that the documentaries had more of an impact on the viewers of this time than the still images. But for 9/11, the still images were viewed more than the videos of the planes crashing. It seemed that people responded more to the still images of seeing firefighters and ordinary people on the streets helping others to try to escape this disaster. The still, images really brought together our nation, people from all over the country were helping each other in a time of need. People felt the most devastated looking at these images or people of their country suffering.

Just learning about this made me think more about how much images really mean and what they say without words. A picture really is worth a 1000 words.

Here is the URL to where the article is: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4140708

framing

As someone who works in local news and is very familiar with local news, I can say with confidence that it is incredibly repetitive. When you're working only with a small market, even the most breaking of news events tend to have familiar players in a familiar issue. Yet as a resident of Buffalo, NY, the first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of comparative framing of different news stories is the Blizzard of 77... and every snowstorm that has followed.

In the same way that both the Holocaust and September 11 were reported on from most of the same angles with the same types of images, every major snowstorm has been treated like this in Buffalo since the Blizzard of 77. Storms are always related to the blizzard, and articles will always compare. Looking at the front page of the Buffalo News from that day, the same angles are all covered; how the Feds are reacting, how the community is reaching out, how a few heroes made a difference, and pictures of the mess. We can see this same storyline carried out for almost all disasters, from Katrina to earthquakes overseas. In the same way as the September 11 outline, this structure helps to lend a sense of normalcy during a time of crisis. It gives the viewer all of the expected starting points, and lets those who are affected know where to go from there.

Image Acts

Of the many great essays and articles we were assigned for this course, the one that I found most interesting is Image Acts. Many articles assigned reviewed different aspects of photographs, but Bakewell's (or is it Blakewell -- I saw it written both ways) theory really grabbed me.

How many photographs have we viewed in our lives? Hundreds, if not more. I am now looking at photographs in a different perspective. Have they had a purpose all along and I am now noticing?

I agree with her viewpoint that images are very important to the evolution of language. We view images in books and on tv before we learn to talk. Images can possibly be responsible in helping us to talk.

I like how she points out that images are powerful tools that have a purpose. They can change our emotion, anger us, and even reveal things about us.

Image acts have a purpose and a reason.

Promoting Change with Image Acts

The poster above is a very famous one that most of has seen printed or on TV. You read the statement on the left then look at the Native American on the right and think for a moment what is trying to be conveyed. Then you realize that the Native American represents America before all the development and now he is looking at it realizing that it has become littered with pollution and he is sad. This is a good example of what Liza Bakewell wrote an essay on where she defined what she terms an image act. It is roughly defined as referring to activities involving images. Some images promote different behavior or reactions on a person. The photo above was widely publicized as a PSA on not to litter and it did catch my attention. Blackwell writes, “the perception of what images do, if they are perceived to do anything of import at all, is varied. The question is whether the deeds of images are good or bad, harmful or not.” (p. 25). It helped me change my behavior and understand that littering is bad, but I have no idea how the campaign as a whole helped the country.

A more subtle image with a smaller targeted audience are bumper stickers. Take a look at the bumper sticker above. You initially see a bunch of dots and maybe get closer to read what the fine print is under it which says, “if you can read this, you’re way too close”. This is an image that does promote change, but to only to drivers and requires you to break do what it does not want you to do to get the message. The dots represent Braille and for anyone to read Braille you need to touch it. For you to touch it you obviously need be very close to it. So it is the intent of the bumper sticker to keep you farther back, but it backfires and makes you get closer. Once you get the message, you normally will adjust your behavior by not following too close. The sticker did the job in telling you what it wants and you will remember it since it was so unique, but to get the message you needed to do the opposite of what it says. So in this case in comparison to what Blackwell states “the deeds of the image is good” (p. 25), but could be harmful when trying to get the message.

These are two very different examples with a very different audience and audience size, but both do convey an image that gets one to think and react based on what they see.

Sean Bell: A Lesson in National Maturity

After reading the Trials and Tribulations of Rodney King essay, I immediately thought of a similar more recent case. That is the case of Sean Bell in New York City. For those of you unfamiliar, here is the wikipedia link...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Bell_shooting_incident

The abridged version is that police were investigating in an area when Mr. Bell was "suspected" of reaching for a gun in his car. He was then shot and killed.

The murder of Sean Bell has been compared to the Rodney King beatings. However, in my opinion, the Sean Bell case shows a more blatant case of police not following protocol, and yet, the backlash was not nearly as much. When the police officers were acquitted in the Rodney King trial, it gave way to the L.A. Riots. However, when the officers were acquitted in the Sean Bell murder trial (including the one officer who fired 31 shots, meaning he needed to reload his weapon, even though Bell did not have a gun) the city mourned and got a street named after Bell. It appears as though our country has matured and displayed that maturity even in the face of an unbelievable unnecessary tragedy, a time when immaturity would certainly be understandable.

Just a kid from Long Island...

After reading Blakewell's essay on how images can "do" things, I couldn't agree more. I have a particular picture that hangs above the corner where I keep all of my gym stuff, and it happens to be the same one that is hanging above this post. For those of you not familiar with the man or picture above, he is Matt Serra, former UFC Welterweight Champion. Matt, like myself, is from Long Island and I currently study Brazilian Jiu-jitsu under him. I have always planned to get my degree, but after I graduate from Villanova, I plan to pursue a career in professional MMA. I have already competed in amateur fights and I know that this is something that I love and want to continue doing. But to get good at this sport a ton of time, effort, and determination is required. As much as I love it, there are days when I want to stop; days when I weigh the pros and cons of this being a valid life choice and really have to fight to stay on path. This picture stops me dead in my tracks. At one point in time, Matt Serra was just a kid from Long Island, like me, and he progressed into one of the best mixed martial artists in the world for a time. That could be me. Will it? I'm realistic, so probably not. But seeing this picture, the picture of a shocked and excited newly crowned world champion, and one that I know personally, motivates me every single day to put as much effort into this as I can to be the best I can be. I may want to take a day off from kickboxing - until I see this picture. I may decide I'm going to half-ass it at the gym one day - until I see this picture. One simple photograph does more to keep me motivated than any pseudo-Dr. Phil motivational speaker could ever do for me. Of course knowing the back story and having a personal relationship with the person in the photo makes it mean more to me than the average person, but it also speaks to the power of what an image can do.

Blakewell & Sontag-Facebook Pictures

Facebook immediately came to mind as I read Sontag’s essay on how photography is employed and also Blakewell’s theory of image acts. Over the past few years the photo application on Facebook has changed. At first you could only upload 60 pictures per album and it was a long and tedious process, now Facebook goes as far as recognizing faces in order to tag people in pictures and an unlimited amount of pictures can be uploaded. I look at some of my friends with over 200 albums and realize that they may be sharing too much and allowing Facebook pictures to represent their every day life. I feel that I am part of some of my friends’ lives not only by viewing their statuses but with the pictures that they constantly upload. Sontag discusses the idea about how photos become evidence in a manner that we upload them to this social networking website for our friends to see what we are doing. We have evidence in a sense of what vacation, party, or sports game we attended.

I also thought of Bakewell’s essay about image acts, as some photographs uploaded to Facebook are very powerful especially today with all of the users of social networking sites. “Images can flatter, promote, benefit, and better people, just as words can. They can also fight, accuse, denounce, and harm those same people” (Blakewell, 30). With the use of Facebook, we are not using verbal words to communicate to our friends but we are using images. Blakewell discusses how images can “reveal much about who we are: our class, gender, culture, age, personality, temperament, mood, and morals” (30). With all of this being on Facebook, through the images that users upload; Facebook users may be giving away too much information and employing photography in an inappropriate manner.

The Power of an Image

Liza Blakewell, in her essay, comments on the importance of image acts. An image act is the linking of a outcome or activity in response to a certain image. Blakewell writes, "For advertisers and their clients images are powerful tools, capable of persuading you to buy something, go somewhere, and be someone (else)"(25). There is truth to Blakewell's observations. Images are powerful. They can inspire, intimidate, or even raise a revolution. Blakewell claims that images are just as important to the evolution of language as written language. And I agree with her. Blakewell writes, "...the pounding of a shoe on a tabletop at a public meeting may sometimes be the only way to capture the world's attention, a certain face the only way to launch a thousand ships, a picture the only way to say something with fewer than a thousand words"(29). These are astute observations with their own merits. Perhaps the greatest part of the essay is Blakewell's embrace of not just image acts, but speech acts as well. There is a unification of the two, "These two systems of communication, as different as they are in practice, as separate and apart they often seem, are, in fact, in cahoots"(30).

The image I would first like to examine is the famous HOPE Barack Obama poster. This image can be used as an image act. It attempts to inspire the public to vote for a certain candidate. The union of the speech act, "HOPE," and the image act, Barack Obama's photo is inspring. This image inspires change, or attempts to. I would consider it an image act.

The second is an image taken during the Vietnam War. This photo is famous for inspiring more negative feedback from the public towards the Vietname War. It can be considered and image act cause it inspired a certain feeling of distrust and negativity between the United States government and its citizens.

Image acts inspire, and hold power. They are meant to inspire a reaction. I believe these images are powerful and just as important as speech acts.

A Permanent Threat

I am currently an intern in a newspaper here in Ecuador so it was really interesting to read Barbie Zelizer’s Photography, Journalism and Trauma. Even tough there is not a traumatic even each day, thank God, it is still a very fast passed and tense environment in which you have to act quickly and make decisions on the spot. Photographs are obviously a major part of the newspaper because they are the one thing that every single reader can understand, so it is important to know which picture will speak for itself and cause an impression. Zelizer mentioned something really important which was that it is usually hard picking the right picture to go along with the story but it is even more difficult during a crisis or trauma. And ‘it is here that historical precedent becomes relevant. In the best of cases journalism involves the application of routine practices to unpredictable circumstances.one place from which to gain directives…is from earlier events in other times and places’, this is very curious because you would never think that one crisis could resemble another in almost anything. But what she means is that even though two events can be complete different like the example she presents between 9/11 and the Holocaust, they could still resemble the template of the latter one because it was that same collective sentiment of shock and horror that you are trying to evoke through the photograph.

I think that one of the first images that comes to my mind when I think of one of the most incredible and at the same time terrifying things I had ever seen. On October 11^th, 1998, the volcano Guagua Pichincha erupted, and this is a volcano that is literally in the city. Thousands of people had to be evacuated, we were at my school and we could see it, and my school is not near the volcano at all. At the next day after the huge explosion had seized, it was amazing to see the image on the covers of newspapers. I feel that it does not follow the template of the Holocaust example, but I do feel that it followed the template of 9/11 in the sense that it made this one image of the volcano iconic and made everyone bear witness the event over again. This image became iconic insofar as it is a permanent reminder of how little control we can actually have, also the power of nature and the risk of living in a city so near to an active volcano.

A more recent example is the eruption of another volcano near Quito called Tungurahua. It is the most active of the volcanoes and recently it has been having a lot of explosion, I actually saw one the other week I went to a trip near it. Every time something like this happens the images of the volcanoes become very iconic because they remind us of their power to destroy and of how much damage they can cause.

Here is a link to see the recent activity of Tungurahua:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOYxQQxscUQ&feature=related