My ethnographic film is about how photography can be used as a form of media. At first, when I think about this topic, my main focus was on the photojournalism, which employs images to tell a story, thus communicating with people. Also, since many photojournalists often post their photos on other forms of media, be it newspaper or magazines, those pictures actually contribute to the mass media. However, as I think in another way, I also realize that the pictures people posted on their social media also become a new form of mass media. Then I found the article “Disruptions: Social Media Images From a New Language Online” which is written by Nick Bilton and posted in New York Times website.
In this article, the author uses a lot of data to show how many pictures people share in various social media everyday and also how this number increases each year. As different types of social media are flourishing, people begin to communicate with each other through a simple image rather than texts. Besides Facebook and Twitter, which still contain both texts and pictures, Instagram and Snapchat are constructed by photos. Millions of people around the world can share their pictures online and the interesting thing is that there is no language barrier with images. Thus, the communication between people from different countries, speaking different languages, become more convenient and efficient with just photos. I think this is the way how photography in social media serves a form of communication.
Moreover, one quote in this article makes me think from another angle. The author writes, “This is a watershed time where we are moving away from photography as a way of recording and storing a past moment,” said Robin Kelsey, a professor of photography at Harvard, and we are “turning photography into a communication medium.” Should we just take this shift or transition for granted? Or should we pause on and really think through that? Does this shift mean that the traditional way of using photography as documenting is diminishing? Or does this mean there is actually an expansion of documenting through photos posted in social media?
In this article, the author uses a lot of data to show how many pictures people share in various social media everyday and also how this number increases each year. As different types of social media are flourishing, people begin to communicate with each other through a simple image rather than texts. Besides Facebook and Twitter, which still contain both texts and pictures, Instagram and Snapchat are constructed by photos. Millions of people around the world can share their pictures online and the interesting thing is that there is no language barrier with images. Thus, the communication between people from different countries, speaking different languages, become more convenient and efficient with just photos. I think this is the way how photography in social media serves a form of communication.
Moreover, one quote in this article makes me think from another angle. The author writes, “This is a watershed time where we are moving away from photography as a way of recording and storing a past moment,” said Robin Kelsey, a professor of photography at Harvard, and we are “turning photography into a communication medium.” Should we just take this shift or transition for granted? Or should we pause on and really think through that? Does this shift mean that the traditional way of using photography as documenting is diminishing? Or does this mean there is actually an expansion of documenting through photos posted in social media?