A return to 'Mr. Gates': Photography and objectivity

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer 2000 by Bissell, Kimberly L

In a 14-day period, 3,915 wire photographs were received from AP, UPI, or Reuters, and 125 wire photographs were used. Wire photographs published during this 14-day period and during the 30-day sample were most frequently used to illustrate political, sports, and general news stories. (see Table 3)

In keeping with White's method of studying wire editors' decisionmaking, photographic wire editors were observed for 14 days, when real-time analysis of photographic content was conducted. As wire editors made decisions about wire photographs for the next day, each was asked why the other photographs were being rejected. (see Table 4) While the reasons for rejection were not only diverse but also highly subjective among the three wire editors, some reasons were recorded consistently among the three such as lack of space. Wire editors said that lack of space meant the news item was not newsworthy enough to warrant bumping another photograph or a story.

While the overt reasons for accepting a photograph were often similar, each wire editor's decision-making differed. One wire editor often made decisions based on her political preferences. "I'll run any photograph that makes Newt Gingrich look like a lunatic," she said. She also said that tragic images and images that reflected someone else's grief were ones that caught the reader's eye. "You can't go wrong with refugee pictures, " she said. She indicated that she liked graphic photographs that really caught the attention of the viewer. She said that although the newspaper backed off from graphic local images, she tended to run graphic images that were from AP. A second wire editor had a different philosophy.

"I won't run dead people photographs," he said. He indicated that he felt the readers were sensitive to these types of images, and he didn't feel "disturbing our readers so early in the morning" was such a good idea. He said "dead people" photographs crossed the line and went too far in telling a story.

"Let the words say 'dead' - let the images tell another part of the story," he said. This same wire editor still indicated an interest in using eyecatching images though. "This paper loves flames. If you get a good picture with flames, we will almost always go with it." Clearly, each wire editor had a different opinion on the use of graphic images, and each wire editor indicated that selecting wire photographs for the next day's paper depended a lot on personal opinion.

While the wire editors indicated that personal opinion was a part of decision-making, other news personnel said that other influences on news content were evident. According to the photo editor, the newspaper never rejected photographs from local photographers. "Photographs of poor quality might run small or on an inside page," she said, "but our publisher says we don't pay to have photographers on staff to not run their photographs." In this sense, the publisher dictated photographic content.

The local photographic representation of race paralleled 1996 census data estimates, yet some news personnel said the use of nonwhite subjects was often to "appease the few who would complain."