Society's idea of journalism is one that is often restricted simply to writing. People see words on paper or a screen and forget the other facets that work to contribute to the essence of what true journalism is. Photojournalism is one of those pieces. Through photography, journalists are able to tell stories that they may not otherwise be able to form with words.
The topic of war comprises a large makeup of our news and media coverage in modern day. Unless you have enlisted and stepped foot overseas, it is hard to truly grasp the reality of man killing man on a large and industrial scale. Through the use of photojournalism, whether presenting photos on their own or pairing them with writing, there is a greater depth and higher accuracy in understanding of an event that only fraction of the world has actually witnessed.
The benefit of photographs is that some level of bias is eliminated. When we read an article without pictures, we are consuming the writer's internal biases and combining them with our own. Photojournalism works to take away some of the bias of the writer and put into still images what their words are trying to communicate. Overall, accuracy is increased.
In a 2013 study published by Duke University Press from The Journal of Korean Studies, researchers addressed bias in terms identified as "the collective memory." Author Jung Joon Lee writes, "Collective memory is a memory constructed and shared by a large group of people, usually bound by a common locality or temporality." Thus, this term does not apply to just how we may remember an event, but how our thoughts work in tandem with those of the community, or even greater, our society. These combine to form how we collectively see the past. With this mass recollection, there has to be a tamer of the lion. In this case, Lee defines this as the government. He asserts, "These may be influenced by outside forces, such as the government attempting to propagate a collective memory conducive to state interests." Essentially, our memory as a society, or even as a country, can be altered by the biases, the agenda, and the power of the United States government.
This idea can directly be applied to the concept of war. For those of us who have not fought for our country, we take the information by the spoonful about what is happening on the frontlines and behind the scenes that the government feeds to journalists and that journalists feed to us. So, how can this brainwashing be prevented? Two things.
1. Journalists who give a shit about telling the accurate, real story without government interference or influence.
2. Photojournalism.
While the Vietnam War is known in the U.S. as a time of deception for the citizens of this country by their ruling government, the Korean War raises several suspicions when analyzed from a journalistic angle.
We must remember that journalists tell the story. The Korean War, from a photojournalistic standpoint, has very little story to be told. According to Lee, Kim Hyōnggon, a scholar of Korean War photography, looked into this issue. In her search, she found one sole book that was dedicated to Korean War photography (Lee, 345). This means that what is to be collectivized in our memories is what was presented through writing at the time. Knowing the intentions of the government during the Vietnam War, it is subsequently difficult to trust their intentions in a prior, similar war before getting caught for wrongdoings.
This also shows the importance of photojournalism from all sides. If solely one side is collecting images during a militarized conflict, then the collective memory of the world for that issue will be swayed. If photojournalism is engaged in from all perspectives, a truthful depiction of the event can be recorded. If it isn't done at all, then it makes it difficult to have an accurate memory or view of what happened.
While this absence of recollection is concerning, there are other factors that must be kept in consideration. First, the censorship of South Korea. This has been a significant issue for decades. If U.S. journalists are not able to release the photos, the likelihood of the South Korean writers being able to do so is even more slim. Another important factor is the circulation of papers in other parts of the world. While journalism and news outlets were booming in the U.S. during the 20th century, the rest of the world was still fighting to catch up in terms of advancements in reporting and even more, freedom of speech.
Whether it was the Korean War or WWI, photojournalism is important. To be accurate in reporting and to build trust with audiences, journalists have to provide a snapshot that can place readers in the scene where the event took place. This is crucial when reporting on global and national combat. Without an image to back up a claim, can we really trust what we read?
Sources:
Lee, Jung Joon. “No End to the Image War: Photography and the Contentious Memories of the Korean War.” The Journal of Korean Studies (1979-), vol. 18, no. 2, The Center for Korean Research in the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, 2013, pp. 337–70, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44080508.
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