1,720,986 research outputs found
Toward A New Visual Culture Of The News
No full textThis paper argues that the rise of new digital technologies and new amateur/citizen practices of photographic production have constituted a “short-circuit” that has critically destabilized but also productively challenged professional photojournalism. In this context, the paper focuses on the practice of digital post-production (i.e. digitally “retouching” and “enhancing” photographs), as an empirical prism through which to theoretically discuss wider technological, professional, and cultural shifts that have been affecting news photography over the last decade. In particular, drawing on in-depth interviews with international photojournalists, jury members of press photo contests, and directors of digital post-production labs, the paper analyzes a few paradigmatic case studies of post-produced news photographs that have recently won prestigious professional awards, yet have generated considerable controversies. Through the analysis of the case studies, the paper aims to shed light on the contested construction of aesthetic conventions and professional-ethical standards within digital photojournalism, in relation to (1) the shifting professional ideal of visual news “objectivity,” and (2) the shifting symbolic boundaries between professional and non-professional news photo producers. Finally, introducing the notion of “digital cultural capital,” the paper suggests the theoretical relevance of a (post-)Bourdieusian approach to photojournalism, which frames the conflictual implementation of new digital technologies and the diffusion of new social and material practices as a symbolic struggle for professional distinction within the wider visual culture
The rules of a middle-brow art: Digital production and cultural consecration in the global field of professional photojournalism
Full text linkDrawing on Bourdieu’s work on photography, field-theory, and recent research on global journalism and digital photography, this paper advances the framework of the “global photojournalistic field”, and empirically focuses on the consecration of a transnational elite of professional photojournalists over the last two decades. It investigates such a process as a prism through which to understand major changes that have been investing the field of professional photojournalism and the wider
field of photography since the early 2000s, e.g. the increasingly blurring boundaries between professional and citizen photojournalism, and between news photography and fine-art photography. The paper draws on archive analysis of major international newsmagazines and qualitative interviews with internationally renowned photojournalists, photo-editors, and directors of global news photo agencies. It examines specific news photographs by tracing their aesthetic shapes back to
field-dynamics, thus unveiling the “rules of the field” that govern the practices of production and the symbolic struggles for distinction, authorship, boundary-making, and power within global photojournalism. Finally, it advances the thesis of an externally favoured process of reciprocal influence between the consecration of a group of professional photojournalists in the global field and the increasing position of news photography in the hierarchy of cultural legitimacies of late-modern society
Toward a new visual culture of the news: Professional photojournalism, digital post-production, and the symbolic struggle for distinction
No full textThis paper argues that the rise of new digital technologies and new amateur/citizen practices
of photographic production have constituted a “short-circuit” that has critically destabilized
but also productively challenged professional photojournalism. In this context, the paper
focuses on the practice of digital post-production (i.e. digitally “retouching” and “enhancing”
photographs), as an empirical prism through which to theoretically discuss wider technological,
professional, and cultural shifts that have been affecting news photography over the last
decade. In particular, drawing on in-depth interviews with international photojournalists, jury
members of press photo contests, and directors of digital post-production labs, the paper analyzes
a few paradigmatic case studies of post-produced news photographs that have recently
won prestigious professional awards, yet have generated considerable controversies. Through
the analysis of the case studies, the paper aims to shed light on the contested construction of
aesthetic conventions and professional-ethical standards within digital photojournalism, in
relation to (1) the shifting professional ideal of visual news “objectivity,” and (2) the shifting
symbolic boundaries between professional and non-professional news photo producers. Finally,
introducing the notion of “digital cultural capital,” the paper suggests the theoretical relevance
of a (post-)Bourdieusian approach to photojournalism, which frames the conflictual implementation
of new digital technologies and the diffusion of new social and material practices
as a symbolic struggle for professional distinction within the wider visual culture
Competition and Consecration in the World Press Photo Awards
No full textNotwithstanding the frequency with which it is said that a photograph is worth more than a thousand words, defining exactly how much it is worth remains a complex task. Evaluations and criteria change according to different subfields of practice and historical moments. The shifting character of photographic value is particularly evident today, due to the digitally disruptive turn that has been taking place for the last fifteen years, often generating controversies, augmenting uncertainties, and thus offering the occasion to assess degrees of institutional self-reflexivity – via competitions and awards.
This chapter focuses on the World Press Photo, a non-profit organization which has been organizing the largest and arguably most prestigious press photo competition in the world since 1955, yearly awarding dozens of prizes (including the “World Press Photo of the Year”), which work as crucial institutional mechanisms of production and circulation of cultural value. Awards are relevant within such scarcely institutionalized fields as photojournalism, since they can raise fundamental value problems for juries, winners, and observers. It is the whole vision of the cultural field – its meanings, values, and indeed objects – which is at stake in prizing: competitions do not just reveal how news photographs are evaluated and how much they are valued, but also and most relevantly what a digital news photograph actually is – or at least what nowadays it is legitimately supposed to be.
The chapter draws on an archive analysis of the last thirty years of the WPP awards; thirty in-depth interviews with WPP jurors and winning photojournalists; ethnography at major photo festivals and World Press Photo exhibitions
Photojournalism, the World Press Photo Awards, and the Visual Memory of Protest
No full textThis chapter investigates the relationship between photojournalistic prizes, protest movements, and visual memory, focusing on the institutional work of the World Press Photo (WPP) awards in shaping the visual
memory of protest over the last two decades. It offers an analysis of the WPP archive, complemented by interviews with photographers and jurors. Through exemplary cases, it highlights (dis)continuities in the content and style of protest imagery. It focuses on persistent visual motifs (e.g. shield-bearing riot police vs. protesters) and innovative authorial practices developed by award-winning photojournalists. The chapter concludes that the tensions between reiteration and innovation in the WPP’s performance of value and its institutionalization of memory have repercussions for the shaping of protest imagery and its public visual memory
Gli studi culturali nel XXI secolo
No full textL'articolo è una presentazione del numero monografico della rivista "Studi Culturali" intitolato "Gli Studi Culturali oggi". Presenta le istanze che hanno indotto a produrre tale monografico, isuoi contenuti e obiettivi
Frames of conflict / conflict of frames: A frame analysis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Italian press and politics
No full textRussia’s war on Ukraine had a major political and media resonance in Europe. By relying on frame analysis, this article investigates the main narratives characterizing the Italian public debate in the first four months of hostilities. It addresses two major arenas: journalism – focusing on four Italian newspapers; and politics – focusing on parliamentary records and the Twitter accounts of Italian political leaders. The article shows that the debate was heterogeneous and polarized. It identifies five major frames on the causes and consequences of the conflict, varying in prominence between and within the sources examined. These variations reflected not only their different orientations, but also how they intercepted deeper socio-political fractures at the national level. Overall, humanitarian and economic concerns were prioritized over more ideological reflections on the nature of the Russian invasion. Such findings contribute to the literature on framing and to the ongoing study of the impact of the war on European press and politics
L'analisi dei frame visuali dell'informazione: il caso del fotogiornalismo sull'immigrazione in Italia
No full textQuesto capitolo offre una riflessione metodologica sulle tecniche di analisi dei frame dell’informazione visiva, a partire da una ricerca sui mutamenti delle rappresentazioni foto-giornalistiche dell’immigrazione sui principali settimanali italiani tra il 1980 e il 2014.
Il concetto di frame – già centrale nel linguaggio delle science sociali, da Bateson e Goffman in poi – nel corso degli ultimi due decenni ha riscontrato una grande fortuna nella sociologia della comunicazione interpersonale, nella sociologia dei media e nella sociologia politica, come strumento per indagare, in particolare, le pratiche di produzione e le forme di rappresentazione giornalistica, l’influenza delle campagne elettorali sull’opinione pubblica, e le attività di protesta collettiva dei movimenti sociali. In queste aree, nel corso dell’ultimo decennio, l’analisi dei frame ha prestato una crescente attenzione teorico-metodologica alla dimensione visiva dei processi culturali, politici e comunicativi – in concomitanza ad una forte espansione (e graduale istituzionalizzazione) del campo interdisciplinare degli studi visuali.
Su queste basi, il capitolo presenta i risultati di una ricerca empirica sul campo professionale del fotogiornalismo, sulle rappresentazioni foto-giornalistiche dell’immigrazione nel corso degli ultimi trent’anni, e quindi sul ruolo dei media nel produrre, diffondere e radicare certi tipi di immagini dei migranti – sia in arrivo che soggiornanti o radi¬cati all’interno dei confini italiani.
In particolare, il capitolo esplora gli aspetti metodologici dell’analisi dei frame visivi, intrecciando uno sguardo qualitativo (etnografia della produzione giornalistica, interviste con fotografi e giornalisti, analisi della rappresentazione giornalistica di specifici eventi) e quantitativo (analisi del contenuto visivo su un arco temporale esteso). Tale intreccio permette di costruire un modello di analisi dei frame dell’informazione visiva sull’immigrazione in Italia che permette di ricostruire sia le pratiche e le forme di rappresentazione delle fotografie giornalistiche sulla stampa italiana che le cause e gli effetti di tali rappresentazioni, quindi le dinamiche di costruzione delle cornici interpretative dominanti nell’immaginario culturale e visivo. Infine, sulla base dell’analisi empirica, il capitolo propone una riflessione sulle basi epistemologiche del processo di framing, sulla fertilità ma anche genericità del concetto di frame visivo, e sugli aspetti metodologici e analitici più adeguati non solo a individuare i frame dell’informazione su un dato tema ma a discuterne la genesi e gli elementi sociali, organizzativi e culturali che ne condizionano la sorte e gli effetti
L’analisi dei frame visuali dell’informazione: il caso del fotogiornalismo sull’immigrazione in Italia
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