Week 10: Essay Plan/Ideas

The question I have chosen to discuss for DESN1002 assignment three is; now that every phone has a camera. How has this affected the way in which social/ political events or issues are shaped by citizen visual communication? Is the quality of imagery produced becoming less refined or composed, and are images losing power due to the copious amounts produced? Make sure you contextualise your discussion within a larger cultural framework.

I plan to break this question down into three areas; citizen journalism, image quality and mass-produced images. Within each component I will address a specific question in relation to the question. This will provide a discussion that delves deeper that the original assignment question. To strengthen each point I shall provide examples of events, studies, timeframes and theorists to contextualise my writing.

Citizen Journalism: How has citizen journalism affected social/ political events?

Main ideas

• Can turn small events into larger events
• Audience now controls the media
• Anyone can be a reporter with a camera phones
• Consequences can arise from civilian journalism including national security in times of crisis
• Can unintentionally encourage crime
• Can spread faster than traditional media

Contextualisation

• Boston Marathon Bombing, Boston USA, 2013 -social/political
• Creepy Clown Craze, Australia 2016 – social

 

Image quality: Has image quality become less refined? Have camera phones decreased the quality of human experiences?

Main Ideas

• People are taking better photos today due to the high quality of the camera phone and its accessibility
• Camera phones are still not as good quality as a digital camera, however as they are apart of daily life and society, we accept the decrease in quality.
• Is the profession of photography in danger?
• Has the way we experience life changed, impacting our quality of life?
• Has the camera phone replaced human functions such as memory?

Contextualisation

• Doug Mann- Jean Baudrillard’s simulacra
• Soares and Storm (2018) ‘Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect’ study

 

Mass produced images: Has the mass-production of images changed the power of images?

Main Ideas

• We are taking more photos than ever
• Reproduced through the Internet/ social media
• Stock images; Do stock photographs hold as much power as images considered photojournalism?
• Authorship
• Photoshop; is truth and authenticity still achievable?

Contextualisation

• Roland Barthes (1977) ‘Death to the Author’
• Simon Dumenco (2012)

By Chelsea Buswell.

 

References:

Soares, J. S. and Storm, B. C. (2018) ‘Forget in a Flash: A Further Investigation of the Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect’, Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 7(1), pp. 154–160. doi: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.10.004.