Photojournalism in Transition: Theorizing Abundance

• In Event: Pushing the Boundaries of Journalism Studies: Photojournalism in Transition

Abstract

Digital media practices and the abundance of photographs have reactivated deep anxieties about society being transformed into an image world. These concerns apply with greatest force to the consumption of news images: Is photojournalism able to remain salient within the deluge of images, and does its own excessiveness numb compassion, deliberative rationality, and citizen subjectivity? A stronger account of media use can be based on the idea that abundance is an important feature of the modern public sphere, and that doctrines of media scarcity lend themselves to anti-democratic attitudes in aesthetics and politics alike. By revisiting a dialectic of demystification and re-enchantment, we argue that photojournalism provides an opportunity to rethink questions of abundance and scarcity that are central to the sustainability of modern civilization. The vast, ever growing photographic archive might provide a schooling in democratic habits of mind and feeling—if we give some attention to how to see on behalf of an abundant life for all.

Robert Hariman is Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Political Style: The Artistry of Power and No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy, which is co-authored with John Louis Lucaites. He and Lucaites post regularly at nocaptionneeded.com, their blog on photojournalism, politics, and culture.

John Louis Lucaites is Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture and Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities at Indiana University. He is co-author of No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy and co-host of the blog www.nocaptionneeded.com with Robert Hariman. He edits the book series Rhetoric, Culture, and Social Critique for the University of Alabama Press.

Authors

• Robert Hariman, Northwestern U

• John Lucaites, Indiana U