Page 345 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Paparazz and Photograph c Eth cs

Although they are seemingly larger than life, the familiar faces of those that en-
tertain, advise, astonish, and annoy us can often seem like people we know per-
sonally. Folklorists understand that the stories and characters, the heroes and
villains that populate fictional fare become the embodiment of our own deepest
fears and greatest triumphs. As pivotal figures, celebrities themselves and their
agents seek to control their own images and the range of information released to
the public. The positive, hip personas created by a posse of promotional agents
begin to seem stilted and commercial to fans and audiences, evoking the de-
sire for more personal, unvarnished views. Celebrities complain that their per-
sonal lives should be off limits, yet paparazzi argue that they opened the door
by working in the industry. These interconnected issues and practices have led
to problems that revolve around questions of privacy, as opposed to spectacle,
and voyeurism in contrast to participation and empathy. These same parameters
frame debates about other uses of visual imagery.

sPECTaTor CuLTurE
When viewers sit and watch, and look at magazines, images have been care-
fully arranged and presented for their fascination and pleasure. The world is set
before their eyes, and the act of being a spectator feels natural, indeed comfort-
able. Such consuming visual choreography invites viewers to gaze at any aspect
of the public or private world without feeling like they are violating the privacy
of others. Learning to view the world in such a manner confers a sense posses-
sion and privilege, and some media scholars argue that it leads to a cultural and
public attitude that promotes voyeurism. Ensconced as we are in an endlessly
reproduced visual world, the constant waves of images give no order of priority,
and as Susan Sontag noted, the result is a kind of leveling of meaning in a fast-
moving confusing world of pictures. Nowhere are these issues more important
than in evaluating the representational styles of global crisis and conflict.

war rEPorTing

Many dedicated photojournalists have taken pictures of the victims of war
and humanitarian crises in different places and at different times around the
globe. Many of those images have been printed and distributed in the United
States and in the international press, and viewed by millions. Journalists, es-
pecially freelance photographers, risk their lives to document wars, disasters,
and suffering, and some die in the process. Many believe their work will make
a difference. Such dedication to life and death issues forces us to consider care-
fully the meanings and actual social impact of the visual record of war and
suffering.

Seeing and Believing

War photographers often consider themselves the eyes of the world’s con-
science. They hope that by capturing the most disturbing pictures they can arouse