Images In the News Reports

In recent decades, rapid developing technology contributes to a variety of news media in people’s life by combining image, animation and words. Many readers are more likely to skim over some pictures related to the story that they are interested in instead of reading thousands of words in the article. However, what can images in the news report tell us?

When thinking about the relationship between stories in words and images, a series of shocking pictures about an earthquake that happened in China just floods into my mind. On the afternoon of May 12, 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Sichuan Province, killing about 70,000 people and leaving over 18,000 missing. I can easily recall the past tragedy because the images I saw at that time deeply impressed me.

Based on the reports about the earthquake in 2008, I want to discuss the relationship between the image and story in respect of attention catching, brief introduction and responsibility evocation. The picture below is attached in an article published in New York Times on May 13, 2008, named “Powerful Quake Ravages China, Killing Thousands”.

   

Firstly, I think the image would catch readers’ attention successfully. Closely related to the story, the picture was amplified and placed in front of the main content. People’s first reaction seeing this picture should be shocking and regretful. The image leads them to concern themselves with this issue so that people would be more patient to read the whole report in detail. In addition, there are other images also presented in the story next to the content in the report for readers to see while they are reading the whole story. The images enrich the report and showed the event to readers in different aspects. From my perspective, the combination of image and words would have an excellent result, because they work as complements to make the story more vivid to readers.

What’s more, as Errol Morris revealed in his article “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire” that pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words (Errol Morris), the attached images contained a lot of useful information about the report, and they can give readers a brief introduction of the content. The entire report introduced some specific information about the earthquake as well as government’s reactions. What’s more, it also talked about some victims’ present statuses and their descriptions about the earthquake by interviews. From my perspective, just by viewing the image, readers can easily identify that the report was about a tragedy based on the rescue image. And one of the smaller images next to the content also showed the ruins of buildings after the earthquake, directly representing readers the serious damage caused by the earthquake. Based on these images, readers can understand the story easier.

Finally, the image attached in this story tends to appeal to people to give their hands to the victims. In the picture above, rescue workers were working together to pull out an injured girl from a collapsed school. This image was taken during the rescue to evoke emotion from the readers. It tries to get people involved and motivate them to become the worker in the rescue. I prefer the idea that images have the power to persuade people to become involve in the rescue, more than words would. The moving scene displayed in images could raise a sense of social mission and responsibility in people’s minds. Readers are more likely to be aware of the responsibility and duty to contribute to the relief and help of victims to rebuild their homeland through these images.

In conclusion, related images play a significant role in the news reports, because they can achieve some goals that words could not. And it works as a valuable material to cooperate with words to present a rich and whole story to readers.