Article March 21, 1988 Issue

What images are we accepting?

Technology has enhanced mankind's ability to describe and picture the visible world. But who's doing the reporting? And is this really news we're getting?

Lacy Bell Richter

An educator has authored a book in which he makes some IX provocative observations on how visual imagery influences human thought and behavior. In the chapter headed "The Medium Is the Metaphor" he writes, "The news of the day is a figment of our technological imagination." And a little farther on he adds, "Without a medium to create its form, the news of the day does not exist."^{Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Elisabeth Sifton Books-Viking, 1985), p. 8 .}

For generations, human events—via the printed word, and more recently through radio, photography, and now the visual imagery of television—have been presented to us by a succession of scenes that vividly portray human existence in all phases, from the wretched to the lofty. The portrayal, presented as defining reality, can be very persuasive.

Granted that it's necessary to be informed and that honest, enlightened reporting is of great benefit to society, it is important that we give careful consideration to how we view news reporting. Can we rely on material visual imagery to portray our world with real accuracy? Should we merely take in what we're told without testing its substantiality?

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