Media Education

We rely so heavily on imagery that half the time I do not think people viewing the “information” process the impact visuals have.  We currently live in a fast paced media world; we are constantly checking our devices for updates and information. We watch multiple news sources to gather information in hopes that if we watch a few sources we may actually get the true story or at least get a little closer to the truth. We build ideas off of conversations and we are often influenced by the “popularity” of certain information or media hype. Yet I feel that we often miss the stories behind some of the imagery that we encounter, we do not think critically enough about what we are seeing. Perhaps I have grown a little cynical when thinking about imagery, media and technology in regards to the way we process info. Often it seems that we want to be spoon-fed information so that we do not have to spend the time breaking it down and analyzing it. This makes me sad in some way because I love the stories that images are often able to tell on their own if we just “look” and research and dissect a little bit further! 

I follow a phenomenal photojournalistic photographer by the name of Patrick Brown, I first stumbled upon his work when two images popped on a photography site that I follow, I found myself to be so curious about what I was seeing. In the first image a beautiful woman looks extremely sad, but what I initially noticed was that the man in the image seemed to be handcuffed or bound as both arms appeared to be behind his back. The second image of the same woman showed much more emotion, it is such a focused image on sadness. This made me want to know the story but all I had was the photographers name so the research began.

After searching and searching I stumbled upon a piece of work by Patrick Brown titled “Black Market” I watched it our of curiosity and much to my surprise I found the backstory to the two images that I felt the need to know more about! As it turns out this young woman was just disowned by her brother and divorced by her husband while they were both under arrest for poaching an endangered Rhino. She played no role in the hunt or in the horn trade. However, due to culture the men were able to disown and divorce her and she was the one facing death for the crime. These two images the first one showing her reaction to being disowned and divorced and the second one showing her reaction to being told that she was facing death for the crime are in my opinion examples of why we need to think more critically about the imagery and visuals that we see. Initially I thought she was just sad; portraits of a sad girl; but I had no understanding of why. The story is important to this visual, it makes it that much more power that it is an example of why we need to think more critically and explore and research!

I have to say they I do not fully agree that only schools should be called upon to foster critical understanding, I feel very strongly that our social and media outlets need to be held at a higher standard and they need to create a need for individuals to want to think more critically about what they are seeing. The issue is that I do not know how they can do that or what steps need to be taken to create the need for an individual to look deeper; yet I feel as though we would benefit from higher standards.

According to Kress and Leeuwen, “In visual communication, similarly, the material production of a design is not just the execution of something already complete, but a vital part of meaning making” (Kress, Leeuwen, p.215). I think that we are all responsible for teaching, believe that we should all hold the information that we share at a high standard and that it should be correct and as honest as possible. An image can be complete upon shooting it, yet it can be manipulated and changed in a way that it looses its truth. Manipulation changes the meaning behind the altered image. Yet when an image or visual is presented in true form like the ones above, the story and the meaning behind the image are that much more powerful!

Kress, G., & Leeuwen, T. (2006). Materiality and Meaning. In Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.