Photo Credit: AFP/Mandel Ngan
A recent file photo of President Bush and Vice President Cheney released by AFP shows how picture selection may contribute to how media agendas influence public policy and perception. The caption for the picture indicates nearly no relationship to the actual story.
The caption reads:
File picture of Vice President Dick Cheney (R) and US President George W. Bush at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Bush and Cheney issued new warnings to Iran, saying it must keep out of Iraq, but Iraq's foreign minister instead called for the release of five Iranians in US custody in his country.
Perhaps in better times, when the president's popularity was a little stronger than it is today, the picture choice may have been difference. However, with the president in the hot seat over his policy in Iraq, there appears little motivation on the part of the media to make him look good. Instead, what we will most likely see from here on in are pictures that show the president in comprising situations -- pictures of disfavor.
This brings us to the idea of agenda setting pictures, referring to the McCombs and Shaw theory that mass media may not tell us what to think, but it is pretty good at telling us what to think about.
Photo Credit: AFP/Tim Sloan
Here's another photo that suggests the picture editing mood swing that is happening these days in terms of the president's popularity or lack thereof. In this image, shortly after the Democrats cleaned house in the mid-term elections, the president and vice president are seen in retreat at the White House.
Photo Credit: APTV via AP
Finally, this video frame grab shows a somewhat less than defiant President Bush as he addresses the country about his strategy on Iraq last week.
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At the same time, this lay analysis may be nothing short of hooey. In the big picture of things, thousands of images of the president move across the wire weekly, and it would be silly to think that there is some sort of grand conspiracy to take visual cheap shots at the man.
What is most noticeable, however, is the apparent increase in less than flattering images of the president in recent weeks, especially since his troop surge plan has been met with distain in congress and elsewhere.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jim Bourg
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
