This study examines the case of a recent news ?icon?, a celebrated product
of photojournalism, Dylan Martinez?s so-called ?death in Genoa?. The
picture shows a scene moments before the death by police gunfire of a
protester during the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa in July 2001. The
image was chosen by news and political elites as a metonym for the
antiglobalization movement. Fitting into the typical characteristics and
assumptions of the news icon, it served less to show what happened than
to direct public gaze and interpretations to framed ?meanings? that, in this
instance, marginalized a strike against authority by establishing ?protestor
violence? as the news lead. The study highlights news photography?s
interpretive role of historical events and their context and complexity. |