Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/10/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:41 PM 10/9/96 -0700, you wrote: >Journalism, regardless of the media type, should present the situation, not >interpret it. That is the reader/viewer's job. Unfortunately, many schools >of journalism today inculcate the student with the notion that they can and >should influence and change the situation for the better (as they perceive >better). I disagree. The illusion of objectivity is just that. An illusion. We need to acknowlege that we are not objective and then go about trying to diffuse the problem. First of all do what you suggest, try not to put a slant on our pictures. But it's ridiculous, isn't it, to think there aren't some things out there we can get outraged about and tell it like it is? As the W. Eugene Smith book says, "Let Truth Be the Prejudince." Truth is communication of fact, and we have to tell stories in chewable bits. Yet we can't show every side of every issue. We have to interpret the whole into useable chunks and let the reader interpret what we present. We have to do our best to be as fair as possible, but to assume we are objective only clouds up the issues. We were there, we will always have a better view of the subject than the reader will ever get looking at a two-dimensional representattion of the event. Therefore, we do have to "translate." =========== Eric Welch Grants Pass, OR