By Matevž Pucer
Images significantly impact our daily lives, with visual information often processed faster and remembered more effectively than verbal information. Professor Thomas Miller from George Washington University, USA, demonstrated how visuals influence our interpretation of news and storytelling. This has profound implications in news production and other media fields, including advertising, social media, and messaging.
Particular emphasis was given to photography. As the saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words." In this context, understanding the content is crucial, but so are the visual aspects and principles of visualization, such as the use of light, color, and compositional rules, to convey the connotative meaning of a photo.
Photography, often perceived as a medium showing raw truth, is actually a highly creative process intertwined with storytelling. Similar to painting, where artists arrange subjects and objects in a composition, utilizing light and contrasts to create meaning, a skilled photographer must adhere to these principles. Deciding which parts of a scene to include or exclude in the frame is also pivotal in the process.
Another critical process is photo selection. The first level of selection occurs in the field when the photographer chooses the subject. The second stage involves selecting photos during post-production. In journalism, the third stage of selection happens in the editorial office, from the article's author to the editor.
The target audience or publication type in journalism is also significant. Not all photos are equally suitable for online and traditional (print) media. We examined a photo of former US President Trump, portrayed in a negative light (from a lower angle, appearing as a powerful autocrat). This photo was suitable for a print media outlet with a predominantly Democratic readership, while a more connotatively neutral photo was chosen for the online version.
Professor Miller also presented examples from world-renowned media. Starting with the iconic Vietnam War photo of children fleeing a napalm bombing, he explained how the photographer masterfully composed the shot with desperate children in the foreground, soldiers behind them, and smoke and fire from the bombing in the distance.
With global society increasingly obsessed with visuals and the advent of the internet and social media, photography's influence has only grown. The process of viewing photos often occurs at an unconscious level, so understanding these characteristics is vital for both creators (to produce the desired photo) and content consumers (to recognize hidden messages and grasp the deeper meaning behind the facade).
