Article summaries part two

One article that really stuck out to me in my research in the past few days was The Image Culture by Christine Rosen for The New Atlantis Journal of Technology & Society. In the article Rosen makes many good points that I found very thought invoking. The first point that Rosen raises is that the vast quantity of pictures that people see these days have dulled the impact that a single image has to a person. I think this is a particularly interesting concept that I hadn’t really thought over much myself. I think Rosen is very right in saying this. When I see pictures of the horrible events happening in Japan recently, though I still feel bad for the people I see in the pictures, I don’t connect to the images as easily as I might have because of the overwhelming amount of pictures I see on the news, on the internet, and in magazines. There are so many pictures coming out of the crisis that it makes it hard to be as influenced by a single one.

The next point that really made an impact on me was that, with the dawn of pictures and movies in our society, people have been desensitized drastically to written word. Rosen believes this has happened because images are able to capture people’s attention more than words. What really got me thinking was when Rosen says “ In making images rather than texts our guide, are we opening up new vistas for understanding and expression, creating a form of communication that is “better than print,” as New York University communications professor Mitchell Stephens has argued? Or are we merely making a peculiar and unwelcome return to forms of communication once ascendant in preliterate societies—perhaps creating a world of hieroglyphics and ideograms?” I thought this was an interesting and scary idea. When I look at society today I see a culture dominated by the images we see in advertising, entertainment, and education. To the majority of people, the images in these aspects of our society make a much deeper connection than the words that come along with them.

Rosen concludes her article with by saying that our “image-based culture” is here to stay, and that our culture will become even more image based in the future. The words : “We will, of course, be enormously entertained by these images, and many of them will tell us stories in new and exciting ways. At the same time, however, we will have lost something profound: the ability to marshal words to describe the ambiguities of life and the sources of our ideas…” are both true and chilling. Rosen has made me see an impact that photography has had on our culture that I hadn’t really considered until now.

Another article that I found really intriguing was Starting Point: Today’s Image Culture and Why Media Literacy Matters by Rosalind Silver and Elizabeth Thoman for The Center for Media Literacy. The point that stuck out to me the most was “A war half-way round the world, congressional investigations, natural and human disasters. In each of these public events, the television camera is not just a neutral recorder but a major player providing the powerful images that shapes not only our perception of the events, but the events themselves.” I think this is a very good point. Photography in the news can almost bring people to the scene in front of the camera. Money donated to the relief effort in Haiti as of January 12th 2010 is a whopping 1.4 billion dollars. I think that without the massive media coverage of the events had a very large impact on that. The media helped make an immensely bigger impact because of the affect that the pictures and videos people saw, than it would have with just written coverage.

Another major point that Silver and Thoman bring up is that at this point in time, even if you turn your computer or T.V. off, you can’t escape the affect that media has on our culture. They even go as far as to say “Media no longer influence culture, they are our culture.” This couldn’t be more correct. No matter how hard you try to ignore the news, entertainment, or advertising in our society, the rest of the world is paying attention. Very close attention. Even though I detest MTV and cringe at the thought of reality T.V. I know the names of every character on Jersey Shore and even catch phrases that they have. No matter how hard you try, media will always have a tight grip on the entire population of the world.

I am learning more and more about photography and modern media every day. I hope as a reader you are finding as much interest as I am in the vice grip that images have on our culture today.