Visual Communication 2000 Abstracts
Visual Communication Division
Breach of Confidentiality: When Photographers Do Not Keep Their Promises to News Subjects • Laurence B. Alexander, Florida • This paper examines the issues of legal liability for breaking promises and violating assurances that are made by photojournalists to the subjects they photograph. By presenting and analyzing the case law in this area, the paper synthesizes the most significant bases for recovery for the news photographer’s failure to honor his or her word. It discusses how these photographers can avoid or limit their exposure on the various theories of recovery.
Visual “Super Quotes”: The Effects of Extracted Quotation in News Stories on Issue Perception • Rhonda Gibson, Joe Bob Hester and Shannon Stewart, Texas Tech • In a study designed to measure the persuasive influence of extracted quotations, four versions of a two-sided news story were created. One version contained no extracted quotes, one contained an extracted quote favoring one side of the issue, one contained an extracted quote favoring the other side of the issue, and one contained balanced extracted quotes. After reading the news report, respondents were asked their opinion about the news issue.
Reporting the World to America: Pulitzer Photographs 1942-1999 • Hun Shik Kim, Missouri-Columbia • News photographs of international events serve as a visual medium for Americans to understand the peoples and diverse cultures. However, a content analysis of the Pulitzer Prize photographs between 1942 and 1999 reveals that the major visual themes of prize-winning photographs depicting international news events are predominantly about war, coup, political upheaval whereas the award-winning photographs describing American scenes represent more diverse themes and subjects. As in other news media, the most important news determinants of international news photography are violence and conflict.
Digital Photography and its Impact on Photojournalists’ Job Satisfaction • Janet E. Roehl and Carlos Moreno, Eastern New Mexico • This study explores the relationship between digita1 photography and newspaper photojournalists’ job satisfaction A questionnaire using a multi-dimensional evaluation and general affective questions to gauge job satisfaction levels was employed. Respondents were divided into three categories: non-digital photojournalists, digital photojournalists, and photojournalists who use digital cameras for 80% to 100% of their work. Results indicted that overall satisfaction levels of both groups of digital photojournalists are more satisfied in their jobs than their film-based counterparts.
John-John’s Salute: How a Photographic Icon Influenced Journalistic Construction of Reality • Meg Spratt, Washington • Medium theory research has often focused on electronic media, ignoring the significant role still photography plays in constructing journalistic discourse. In a case study of photographic imagery and breaking news, this study analyzes how journalists used the 1963 iconic image of John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s coffin in telling the story of “John-John’s” death in 1999. Analysis shows that the photograph was used not just to relay factual information during a breaking news story, but to activate collective memories, construct a story of an American child-hero, and to perpetuate symbols of American social ideals.
The Rock and Roll Hall of fame and the Three-Dimensional Trademark • Jack Zibluk, Arkansas State • In 1996, North Olmstead, Ohio, commercial photographer Charles Gentile shot and distributed a poster of Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the museum sought • and was granted • a preliminary injunction halting the sale of the poster. The museum claimed the image on the poster, an exterior picture of the building framed by a sunset taken from a public place, represented trademark infringement. The following paper traces the development of the case and discusses the implications for a new limit on commercial speech.
Print friendly
