Barbie Zelizer

As If: On Barbie Zelizer

In this article, Victor Navasky writes about Barbie Zelizer who is the Raymond Williams Chair of Communication, as well as director of the Scholars Program in Culture and Communication at the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania.  Victor starts with talking about how “big” money influences the way in which politics are handled.  Believing that corporate money influences news media and commercials.  I am in complete agreement of this.  The amount of money it takes to run for president is absurd.  It makes sense that you need money to run for president because you have to travel the country to be heard and seen but whoever is donating the most money is going to be able to influence the most.

            Gotthold Lessing believes that the photo captured should suggest what happened before and after the moment in which the photo was taken.   

Zelizer opinion on this is that journalism is a “frozen moment of impending death forces attention even though people know more than what it shows.”  This is the about to die moment that has the possibility to evoke so many emotions within.  I believe that even if the photographer doesn’t hit that exact moment the amount of emotions can still be very strong.  Although if the exact moment is hit I think the emotions can increase expeditionary.  Zelizer argues against the fact that words go further than pictures.  She believes that people need to complete the event by interpretation and imagination.  I think this is an interesting way to provoke thought but not the best way for the interpretation of the truth.  History is told by the winner and if there is too much left for interpretation we will never know the correct history. 

I have mixed feelings about the subject of photos in this article.  On one hand if I was subscribed and paying for a magazine, I would not want to witness violently graphic material.  On the other hand, if the purpose of the photograph is show awareness of a horrific event then I am more understanding.  I would also have to be in an understanding that the content that I am subscribed to is current events of the world in which do not censor the awfulness.  It is important to be exposed to the cruelties of the world because without awareness it is difficult to promote positive change.