Selling Disaster

In "Televisual Politics: Negotiating Race in the L.A. Rebellions," John Thornton Caldwell looks at how the race riots in Los Angeles during the early 1990's were portrayed and influenced by the media and news coverage. I found many parallels between the article and the coverage surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. But a commonality that stood out as particularly disturbing to me is that in both cases people are selling - and buying, keepsakes and merchandise documenting the events.

Caldwell uses the example of people buying VHS tapes of the events in L.A. for $19.95. He says that "The big response also contained the threat by commoditizing it" (page 322). In other words, he says, people become less disturbed and overwhelmed by the various major issues that arose during the race riots by purchasing, or consuming, the news as if it were a commodity. This is a concept that can definitely be seen during the aftermath of 9/11, where street vendors and major retailers sell all kinds of keepsakes and trinkets memorializing the attack on the World Trade Center (for example the Christmas ornament pictured above). By purchasing these items, people are potentially able to reduce an otherwise terrifying and overwhelming experience into an object or collection of footage, making it easier to connect with and move on from.

This process, Susan Sontag would argue, is the same thing that happens when we take, look at, or collect the photograph of a horrific or tragic event. On Page 9 of "In Plato's Cave," she says "As photographs give people an imaginary possession of a past that is unreal, they also help people take possesion of space in which they are insecure". To this effect the act of picture taking, or even looking at a picture, becomes an event all in itself, Sontag says. I would argue that there are inherently emotions associate with this event, which is likely why our perceptions of an experience are forever changed once photography (or purchasing memorabilia) is introduced.

The Power of Film

Take a moment to watch this video clip, part of the Omaha Beach landing in the movie Saving Private Ryan. The scene depicted is very, very violent, and watching it will likely conjure up a whole range of emotions. Feelings of shock, sadness, disgust, angst or any dozens of others will likely be triggered by the pain and death facing thousands of young soldiers as they stormed the coast of France, prepared to die for their country.

As gripping as the scene is, the fact that you are feeling an emotional attachment to video such as this one is due to a phenomena outlined by Walter Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". He says that creating a film "presents a process in which it is impossible to assign to a spectator a viewpoint which would exclude from the actual scene such extraneous accessories as camera equipment, lighting machinery, staff assistants, etc." (page 233), which he says, in contrast to theater and other mediums, gives the film an "illusionary nature". In other words, part of the reason we feel involved with the content of a movie, in contrast with that of a play, is because when viewing it we have no evidence of the steps taken to render the scene, and there is nothing to demonstrate that it is a documentation of something other than reality. Let's look back at the scene from Saving Private Ryan: whenever someone is shot, or loses a limb and body parts and blood fly everywhere, as viewers our instinct is to feel sick, upset, or shocked - in other words to treat the situation as if we were watching real explosions, real blood, and real people dying. Of course, nobody is actually being harmed, but because of film and cutting techniques, there is no visual evidence that the scene depicted is anything but reality,  and as a result, we become immersed in the images we see.

Another effect that Benjamin touches upon is the power that films generate from utilizing the close-up. He says, "by focusing on hidden details of familiar objects, by exploring commonplace miliens under the ingenious guidance of the camera, the film, on the one hand, extends our comprehension of the necessities which rule our lives; on the other hand it manages to assure us of an immense and unexpected field of action" (page 236). The concepts behind this quote apply perfectly to Saving Private Ryan, as the opening scene uses the close-up in many respects. For example, it is instantly worth noting that the director chose to focus specifically on one unit in the battle of D-Day, rather than merely give an overhead view of the entire battlefield or even jump across different parts of the shore. In addition, he zooms in to faces or battle wounds to convey emotions of fear, pain, and stress.

It is the result of these techniques that make it easy to suspend disbelieve when watching a movie, which makes it easier to become involved with and therefore more likely to be engaged. In a fitting conclusion, Benjamin says, "The film with its shock effect meets the mode of reception halfway. The film makes the cult value recede into the background not only by putting the public in the position of the critic, but also by the fact that at the movies this position requires no attention" (pages 240 - 241)

Photographs as Reality in the Digital Age

Seeing this photograph for the first time, whether it was in the Los Angeles Time or on MSNBC, millions of people accepted this image just as it was billed: an Iranian test launch of four ballistic missiles in the desert. At first glance (and second... and third...) there appears to be absolutely nothing wrong with the image. This image, taken last July by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, was altered prior to being released to the press.

See if you can spot what might have been changed, and click below to see the full post to see whether or not you spotted the modification: