Word versus Image

During news coverage of various events, images are treasured as important and even necessary—so much so that journalists—those whose livelihoods depend on the weight of the word—treat pictures as superior to words when they claim with conviction that, when tragedy strikes, the pictures write it best. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is the cliché of choice when we champion pictures for achieving what words fail to accomplish. While we often embrace the influence of the image, there is a major exception. When the dead enter the frame, our opinion of the news image dynamically flip-flops, revealing a remarkable anti-picture prejudice where words are now vastly preferred.

In the End

This final chapter shares a new perspective on the spectacle.

Pictures in the Popular and Patrician Press

The press rarely shows the dead, and the exceptions to this rule are most likely to be found in the newspapers least suspected. Tabloids are expected to prioritize vulgar images, but really they excel at politely averting our eyes. Whereas the patrician press is thought to be restrained and respectful in its coverage of sensitive issues, tabloids are actually more likely than others to provide photographs conventionally considered reverential, like professional portraits of the deceased when still living. This chapter fundamentally complicates our conception of the excess-driven tabloid—that unrestrained rogue pitted against the upscale, refined defender of delicate sensibilities. The imagined news practices say more about the entrenched nature of class hierarchies than the reality of news practices.

Layers of Resistance

Editors frequently conclude that images of the dead are “not newsworthy.” The decision has become quite routine, begging the question of why images like these are generally not considered newsworthy. What judgments motivate this common conclusion? During individual, confidential interviews, members of the news media reflected on these kinds of questions. Their responses were impressively consistent, typically touching on the same set of themes, which are discussed in this chapter.

Industry Access

Can bad timing or insufficient access explain why photojournalism rarely bears witness to death? It becomes clear that logistical challenges are not the problem. In fact, major resources are leveraged successfully to assure that photojournalists achieve ample and immediate access. Ironically, despite the copious resources devoted to granting photojournalists immediate access, they are often willing to turn a blind eye. The missing images reflect an editorial drive among photojournalists and their editors to conceal the corpse. The gaps in the visual record of images are an artefact of choice—an act of self-censorship.

Alarming Images

When tragedy strikes, the news cameras draw close, provoking descriptions of them as vultures descending on the carcass of misfortune. But despite these complaints, news images are actually extremely unlikely to depict death. Meanwhile, writers pepper their story copy with explicit descriptions of death, using gory details. New formulas are needed to predict which images are considered “newsworthy” and to understand the role of images.

Introduction

This first chapter summarizes how this book overturns conventional thinking about photojournalism, and the construction of the news more generally. Each subsequent chapter is briefly described, highlighting the unexpected findings. As described in this chapter, the first half of the book examines the news industry’s compulsion to self-censor certain images, and the second half examines exceptions.

Alternative Images

This chapter identifies the different types of images that the news media use to suggest, but not directly document, the dead. These images capture visual euphemisms and provide sanitized metaphors. Meanwhile, many other images refuse to even hint at death. These images visually refute the unfortunate fate that has been otherwise deemed very newsworthy.

Victims Seeking Visibility

Too often, we rely on questionable logic to blame the messenger, scapegoating the news media when we are actually upset about the death itself. When we equate the camera’s documentation with an ethical sin, we ignore some very real struggles for visibility. There is no universal preference for invisibility and, for some, even worse than suffering is to have accounts of it erased. To them, some deaths seem to demand a public accounting.

Innocence and the “Newsworthy” Image

A child’s death can generate much media attention because the victim is judged the most innocent and the loss is considered the most tragic. When American youth perish, words breathlessly chronicle the event while many of the most relevant photographic images are deemed the least newsworthy. For this reason, essentially all coverage of dead children pictures a foreign victim. When American children die, the news floods us with images of the deceased when alive and smiling. We see the makeshift memorials overflowing with teddy bears, flowers, and candles. For these children but not others, we prefer evasive pictures that steer clear of the little bodies at stake.