Photography as a mass medium

Assignment description:

This is an unusual opportunity for you to double-up a submission accounting for the requirements for two essays. Your paper should be about 8-10 pages with citations supporting your arguments. This exercise will permit you to write a 5-page final project/paper.

For whatever reason, photography is seldom studied as a mass medium. But, photography is certainly a mass medium of communication.
The entire purpose of this essay is to write an interesting criticism of digital photography and how digital photography has changed what Susan Sontag refers to as the “photographic way of seeing.”
In order to answer this somewhat difficult question, read enough of the following short book, Susan Sontag’s On Photography, Be sure to focus on the the two chapters “The heroism of vision,” and “The image world.” I can probably help you, within the limits of fair use, with these two chapters. Just notify me, and I can send them to you. However, it would probably be faster if you check the book out from the library. And if you are a photographer, you should probably purchase and read the book anyway. The book is very important with respect to understanding photography.

First, after you write your thesis paragraph, briefly summarize Keller’s article on the impact of photography on the creation of a mass consumption of news, and the manipulation of public opinion made possible by nascent photography especially in the Civil War. Next, you might consider organizing your essay by beginning with a brief description of the arguments made by Susan Sontag. Then, spend some time explaining a bit of the history of digital photography and the social networking of photographs. Next, apply some of that theory to these examples. What is your argument? Make sure that you also address any counterarguments (and there will be counterarguments).

sources to use:

Susan Sontag, “On Photography”
C. Wright Mills, “The Mass Society,” pp. 298-329, The Power Elite
U. Keller, “Early Photojournalism,” Chap. 21/19, Communication in History, David Crowley & Paul Heyer, Eds. (5th ed., Pearson: 2007 or 6th ed., 2011)
D. Czitrom, “Early Motion Pictures,” Chap. 23/22, Communication in History, David Crowley & Paul Heyer, Eds. (5th ed., Pearson: 2007 or 6th ed., 2011)
S. Eyman, “Movies Talk,” Chap. 24/23, Communication in History, David Crowley & Paul Heyer, Eds. (5th ed., Pearson: 2007 or 6th ed., 2011)

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