Dr. Paul Martin Lester, Professor
California State University, Fullerton
714/278-5302; Email | Homepage
Office: H-324F

Assignment 2: Good and Bad Photojournalism Analysis

Scour the newspapers and magazines and find one example each of what you consider to be a good and a bad example of photojournalism. You might look at various books on photojournalism to get an idea of what the profession thinks is good photojournalism. I have many in my office you can look through to get ideas.

Write a 2-page, double-spaced paper with one-inch margins all around that analyzes why you think your example is good and a 2-page paper on why you think the example is bad.

In my book, Visual Communication Images with Messages, I detail six perspectives you might want to use in your analysis. On pages 123-127 I use the perspectives of personal (what is your initial gut reaction?), historical (are there links with the past?) technical (what technical features can you discuss?), ethical (are there moral questions involved?), cultural (what is the overall message of the image?), and critical (how does the content work or not work with the design of the image?).

Obviously, with only one page to discuss the picture you will have to choose one of the perspectives to concentrate your critique. Feel free to write more than one page.

Include the pictures with your analyses in a folder with pockets. Be sure and put your name on your work and folder.