The Cultural Politics of Photojournalism

As part of the on-going ICAn seminar series, Professor Stuart Allan (Bournemouth University) will be delivering a paper entitled 'The Cultural Politics of Photojournalism' on Wednesday 22 April 2009. The talk focuses on the following issues:

News photographs, it is often argued, help to reinforce a news organisation’s larger claim to truth, to effectively provide ‘the stamp of objectivity to a news story.’ This appeal to objectivity can be sustained, of course, only to the extent that the reader or viewer accepts the photograph as an unmediated image of actual events.

Accordingly, in documenting the varied uses of news photographs – and with them the changing role of the photojournalist – this question of objectivity will be centred for critique. Specifically, it will be shown that the visual truth of the news photograph has been frequently challenged by various controversies, thereby inviting increasingly sceptical responses. Singled out for particular attention in this regard will be the ways in which photojournalism is being transformed by digital technologies, where the manipulation or ‘correction’ of news images has engendered an ethical crisis for its truth claims.

Time: 4.00-6.00. Room: EE219, Clifton Campus, NTU. Everyone welcome.