First George Reading...

I thought the first reading by Dianna George and Diane Shoos was very interesting, particularly because the death penalty has been an interest of mine for a long time. I enjoy reading and learning about it. This reading was particularly insightful because much of what I’m interested in doing after college has to do with visual communications, specifically what they sight in the article; the media. I understand much of what the author’s say throughout the text, and I found it interesting how they divided visual representations into two different types, but there is one question that is stated early on in the article that I think would make an interesting topic for discussion in class.

This question, which according to the authors is, “A question at the heart of visual communication,” presents the reader with the contemplation of the relationship between certain images. The authors use execution images and the larger debate at hand, in a political sense. Furthermore, the authors state that, “that same images that work as witness for some will serve the purposes of outright voyeurism for others.” My question for discussion is, “How to we differentiate between these different images?” and “Is there ever going to be a way reach a general consensus about what an image represents, visually, to a person?” Different images are always going to mean different things to different people. Very generally, a picture of someone being executed is going to be accepted and unaccepted by the public, much like no matter what a journalist puts in a newspaper, there will always be someone who disagrees with what is written.