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JOS20
TheVisual Element in Journalism: Is a PictureWorth a ThousandWords?
PP 441
The Documental Photography in Portuguese Press: The Real and the Plausible
F. Cardoso
1
1
Escola Superior de Comunicação Social de Lisboa, Journalism, Lisboa, Portugal
In the past thirty years of the Portuguese Press several changes have occurred in the role that photography plays on editorial practice in newspapers, partly
due to the growing importance of digital photography. By the end of the 80’s and beginning of the 90’s the focus on photography increases and it is easy
to understand why. It is a powerful tool to create an editorial identity and increase readers’ loyalty. As never before, the authorship of photography is so
recognized in newsrooms as during this period, most of the times without compromising the purpose of journalistic accuracy. From the XXI on we witness
a regression. This paper is the result of a Ph. D. research finished in September 2014, at Universidade Nova of Lisbon (Portugal), about the importance
of photography and photojournalism in the Press, in the last three decades, and attempts to understand if the photographer is aware of his choices made
while taking a picture; how do the options taken by the photographer determine the final image? And how do the journalistic photo tackles the question
of what is real vs plausible? These questions were answered through a hundred interviews to photography editors and photographers in the Portuguese
Press which were, subsequently, submitted to a qualitative analysis. No matter how aware the photographer is of the need of objectivity and of portraying
the truth of an event, person or place, press photo is always someone’s view, the perspective of someone who chooses fragments of reality to report or
document an event. The observer, with a naive view and without taking a critical stand towards the mimesis of reality, accepts the picture as an undeniable
proof of a moment that the text alone cannot certify. It is as if mankind needed the visual legitimacy to find its place in the world and even the fact that
photo edition is easier in the digital era does not seem to erase this belief that photography shows a truth that the eyes could not witness. Above all, this
paper demonstrates that Portuguese press photographers are generally loyal to the journalistic principles that make a photo worthy of readers’trust.
PP 442
How Journalism Delegitimizes Knowledge Production in Photojournalism New Challenges for the Eyewitness Role in Current News
Coverage
F. Koltermann
1
, E. Grittmann
2
1
University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany
2
Leuphana University Lueneburg, ICAM, Lueneburg, Germany
In this paper we argue that the epistemic authority of photojournalism is currently deeply challenged by journalism itself. Drawing on Michael Foucaults
theory of knowledge and truth production (e.g. in his seminal work Archeology of Knowledge), epistemology comprises different practices and procedures
within a discursive field, or, to put it more precisely, as„a set of rhetorical and discursive techniques' (Ekström 2002) in the context of the journalistic field,
which guides the production of knowledge and legitimizes the journalistic „truth claim' (Gunning 2004). For a long time professional photojournalisms’
work had been one of the key elements of journalism to provide „truthful' news. Offering „a mode of reliable eyewitness unavailable in words” (Zelizer
2007: 418), both the still more or less ascribed indexical value of the camera and photojournalisms‘ professional practices of„bearing witness' contributed
in a particular way to journalisms‘ ideology of objective news coverage. Furthermore, the photographic document was used as an important proof in crisis,
conflicts and other events (Andén-Papadopoulos & Pantti 2013: 4). But the relation between photojournalism and journalism with its images„trapped in
two discourses”(Banks 1994) and different practices of knowledge production in both fields has never been without tension. While the new„authenticity'
claim of amateur images and its ambivalences are well explored (cf. Andén-Papadopoulos & Pantti 2011), the conditions or consequences of contemporary
photojournalism has received less scrutiny. Though some scholars argued, that photojournalism has lost much of its credibility because of manipulation
scandals, we will argue, that journalism itself endangers the knowledge production principles of photojournalism. Our argumentation will proceed in
three parts. First we will take up Foucault’s theory of sociology of knowledge as an adequate framework to critically compare the practices and procedures
of knowledge production in journalism and photojournalism.Then we will show, how current photojournalistic practices like the tendency to aestheticize or
the blurring of borders between documentary and PR photography are challenging the credibility of photojournalistic images. Finally we will focus on three
key practices of the journalistic usage of professional photography, using of journalistic photographs as illustrations, increasing importance of the stock
photography market, picture editing procedures in the news room, in order to show how journalism disables and limits the potentials of knowledge produc‑
tion in photojournalism and by that contributes to a depoliticization of news coverage. Consequently, we will suggest a more sensitive and different usage
of professional photography in the context of news coverage in order to keep alive the 'truth claim”.
PP 443
Visualising the Strategic Game Frame: The 2014 Scottish Referendum on Television
M. Dekavalla
1
1
University of Stirling, Communications- Media and Culture, Stirling, United Kingdom
The strategic game frame is possibly one of the most discussed news frames in journalism literature, as it has been found to dominate coverage of a range
of events in different national contexts. It represents political process as a competition between opponents. It puts emphasis on who is winning and who
is losing, what strategies they employ to win, and how they perform in the “horserace”. Most of its empirical applications are based on analyses of verbal
content in media coverage of elections and referenda. This paper looks at the strategic game frame in the television coverage of the 2014 Scottish refer‑
endum for independence from the United Kingdom. An initial content analysis of 64 hours of news and current affairs programming from the final month
of the campaign on BBC Scotland and STV reveals that this frame was one of the most prominent elements of the verbal construction of the event.The study
subsequently performs a close reading of the visuals that accompanied items which carried the frame, aiming to address the research question of how
the images in these items conveyed an understanding of the referendum as competition and strategy. An analysis of the setup and composition of images,