Across the world on any given day, millions of people tune into to watch the news, whether local, national or international. Millions of other people are flipping through the newspapers picking and choosing the stories that interest them. Oddly, more people tend to turn on the television than to read the paper these days. The reasons for this seem to be very clear. Pictures.
In print, a person is getting the story, they are able to read what they want, skip over things that they are not interested and get a verbal idea of the events of the day. On television, however, people get more. There are colorful, dramatic pictures or video that documents the events. Stories are unfolding with the help of visual aids.
Stationary pictures do not tell the whole story, “they speak in particularities,” states Neil Postman and Steve Powers in the essay The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures. (Postman & Powers, 2008) . They are a perspective of the idea. “The picture documents and celebrates the particularities of the universe’s infinite variety. Language makes them comprehensible. (Postman & Powers, 2008) When a viewer sees a photo of an event, only part of the story is told. On the other hand, when video is introduced, more of the event is uncovered. A person can see the drama unfolding.
“Moving pictures favor images that change,” (Postman & Powers, 2008) says Postman and Powell. The reason for this is that the audience can see the documented changes. Postman and Powell use a house fire to explore the concept. “The thing that burned is actually taken away by fire.” (Postman & Powers, 2008) Viewers are then able to use the videos and words to put the story together.
Today, American culture is about the here and now. People want things immediately. Waiting to read yesterday’s news in today’s paper can prove to be very frustrating. Our culture does not want to wait to hear or see the “breaking news,” which explains why “moving pictures” in the news keeps people interested.
WC 341
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