A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...or more?

Elizabeth Lowry
EL210905@ohio.edu

How Much Does a Picture Really Tell?
I found the readings for Thursday's class all very interesting, shocking, and eye opening. But the reading that struck me the most was the "Images of Horror from Fallujah." I never truly understood the statement 'a picture is worth a thousand words' until I read this article. Nor did I realize the importance, time and effort journalists put into picking the best (in whatever sense of the word) picture.

From this article I realized 'best' is interpreted in several different ways and journalists just like any other person have a different idea as to what should be revealed to the general public and put out there to be published. This article really showed me that some think the best pictures are the most explicit but do tell the heart of the story, the picture that most captures the viewer or reader with emotion.

Other journalists attempt to shelter the general public by questioning the fine line between offending the public with graphic violence and trying to tell the most unbiased story to the viewer.

Should We Shelter our Viewers?
One particular question at the beginning of the article kept going through my mind as I read the entire article, a question I see many journalists asking themselves, "Should we digitally edit those visuals we use to reduce their horror content?"

I thought I had the answer to that question until I read further into the article. At first, I thought that if journalists can get the most graphic image, the one that will best get the emotion out there, then that is what we should do. But I realized after reading about the wife of a man serving in the military in Iraq, that showing the most graphic images is not always the best idea and is in some situations extremely emotional and can be very upsetting to some viewers.

Pleasing Everyone? Or Pleasing No One?
After reading this article it really made me realize that journalists, no matter how good they may be at their job, are never going to please everyone. While some people might not like our work, or the pictures in this circumstance that we publish, there will always be someone out there, regardless of how few there may be, who will appreciate the work that we do, and that is reason enough to make our job all worth it.