This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Brennen, B. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

From Headline Shooter to Picture Snatcher

The construction of photojournalists in American film, 1928-39

Temple University, brennenb{at}missouri.edu

The existing research that addresses the depiction of photojournalists in popular culture focuses primarily on stereotypical characters and assessments of their distorted reflections of ‘reality’. In contrast, this article considers elements of popular cultural practices produced under specific social, economic, and political conditions that may provide useful insights into the actual lived experiences of photojournalists. Framed from a cultural materialist perspective, this research suggests that American films are cultural artifacts that offer documentary evidence as to the actual working conditions of photojournalists. Specifically, this research project focuses on the construction of photojournalists in 20 American films, in which photojournalists and cameramen appear as central characters, produced during the late 1920s and 1930s. The insights gained from the films are also evaluated through a lens of scholarly and trade literature about photojournalism written during the beginning of the 20th century.

Key Words: authenticity of images • cultural materialism • Hollywood film • photographers and cameramen • popular culture • stereotypical depictions • visual culture

References

• Atwood, M. V. (1931) ‘Improving Picture Handling on Dailies. Vast Amount of Space Wasted by Newspapers on Poor Pictures, Says Gannett Executive - Detailed Instructions to Cameraman is First Step - Cropping and Retouching Must be Skillfully Done’, Editor & Publisher 64(5, 29 August): 9w, w66.
• Berry, Thomas Elliott (1970) The Newspaper in the American Novel 1900-1969. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow .
• Born, Donna (1981) ‘The Image of the Woman Journalist in American Popular Fiction 1890 to the Present’ , Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism, East Lansing, MI.
• Brennen, Bonnie (1995) ‘Cultural Discourse of Journalists: The Material Conditions of Newsroom Labor’, in Hanno Hardt and Bonnie Brennen (eds) Newsworkers. Toward a History of the Rank and File, pp. 75-109. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
• Brennen, Bonnie and Hanno Hardt, eds (1999) Picturing the Past. Media, History & Photography. Urbana: University of Illinois Press .
• Bridger, Earle (1997) ‘From the Ridiculous to the Sublime: Stereotypes of Photo-journalists in the Movies’ , Visual Communication Quarterly 4(1): 4-11 .
• Carnes, Cecil (1940) Jimmy Hare, Photographer. Half a Century with a Camera. New York: Macmillan .
• Collins, Francis A. (1916) The Camera Man, His Adventures in Many Fields With Practical Suggestions for the Amateur. New York: Century .
• Editor & Publisher (1927) ‘A.P. Picture Service to Start Aug. 1 Serving 100 Member Papers’, 60 (9, 23 July): 14.
• Editor & Publisher (1928) ‘Arm of Press Penetrates Arctic Solitudes to Picture Mobile Rescue Heroism. Newspapers, Services, Make History for Human Communications in Land of Midnight Sun - Cameraman Catches Nobile Camp at Moment Searching Plane Sights Lost Explorers’, 61(9, 21 July): 1.
• Editor & Publisher (1930) ‘Cameraman is Jailed for Court Pictures. Chicago Herald and Examiner Man Serves Two Days of Sixty-Day Contempt Sentence - Was Covering Guzik Trial’, 63(27, 22 November): 10.
• Emery, Michael and Edwin Emery (1992) The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the Mass Media, 7th edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall .
• Ghiglione, Loren (1990) The American Journalist: Paradox of the Press. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress .
• Ghiglione, Loren and Joe Saltzman (2003) ‘Fact or Fiction: Hollywood Looks at the News’ , Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Journal, URL (consulted Aug. 2004): http://www.ijpc.org/journal.html.
• Good, Howard (1986a) Acquainted With the Night: The Image of Journalists in American Fiction, 1890-1930. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow .
• Good, Howard (1986b) ‘The Image of War Correspondents in Anglo-American Fiction’ , Journalism Monographs 98 .
• Good, Howard (1989) Outcasts: The Image of Journalists in Contemporary Film. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow .
• Hardt, Hanno (2000) In the Company of Media. Cultural Constructions of Communication, 1920s-1930s. Boulder, CO: Westview Press .
• Harrison, James G. (1945) ‘American Newspaper Journalism as Described in American Novels of the Nineteenth Century’, PhD dissertation, University of North Carolina.
• Jay, Bill (1984) ‘The Photographer as Aggressor’, in David Featherstone (ed.) Observations. Carmel, CA: Friends of Photography .
• Kinkaid, James C. (1936) Press Photography. Boston, MA: American Photographic Publishing .
• Langner-Burns, Heidi M. (1989) ‘The Image of Journalists in American Film and Fiction From 1975 to 1987: An Application of Leo Lowenthal’s Model’, PhD dissertation, Southern Illinois University.
• Mason, Edward F. and Vernon Pope (1933) News Illustration. Iowa City: Edward F. Mason .
• Muench, James (1988) ‘The Ethics of Journalists in Bestsellers, 1960-1987’, Master’s Thesis, University of Missouri.
• Ness, Richard R. (1997) From Headline Hunter to Superman. A Journalism Filmography. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press .
• Peden, Charles (1932) Newsreel Man. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran .
• Price, Jack (1937) News Pictures. New York: Round Table Press .
• Roche, John F. (1929) ‘Cameramen Risk Death to Give Public "Eye" Stories of Thrilling Events. Life and Limb Imperiled Even on "Tame" Assignments in Daily Routine - Narrow Escapes Frequent in Recording the Unusual and the Spectacular - Flashlight Explosion Constant Danger’, Editor & Publisher 61(47, 13 April): 1.
• Saltzman, Joe (2002) Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film. Los Angeles: Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC) .
• Schuyler, Philip (1928) ‘Death Chair Picture Climaxes Press Coverage of Snyder-Gray Story. Photograph Obtained by New York Daily News Sends Sales to 1,556,000’, Editor & Publisher 60(35, 21 January): 1.
• Sontag, Susan (1999) ‘The Image World’, in Jessica Evans and Stuart Hall (eds), Visual Culture: The Reader, p. 91. London: Sage .
• Thomas, Horace S. (1929) ‘Newspaper Users turn to Photography. 533 Per Cent Increase in Use of Halftones in Copy Noted in Past Five Years - Skillful Engraving and Better Printing Promoting Use of Camera Art’, Editor & Publisher 62(28): 15.
• Williams, Raymond (1981) Politics and Letters, Interviews With New Left Review. London: Verso .
• Zynda, Thomas H. (1979) ‘The Hollywood Version. Movie Portrayals of the Press’ , Journalism History 6(1): 16-25, 32 .

Journalism, Vol. 5, No. 4, 423-439 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884904044203


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Brennen, B. S. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?