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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Visual ethics’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

May 14: What the hell is going on this week with the newsweeklies?

That was my first thought when I saw the cover of this week’s issue of Newsweek: Like the cover of this week’s issue of Time, this cover — or, at least, the headline — is meant to shock and to titillate. And, presumably to sell copies. So you kind of have to admire it from that standpoint. I have a [...]

May 10: For your consideration… (3)

As Stephanie Halberman of Mashable tweets this morning: Here is the cover of the new issue of Time magazine: According to a Q&A in the edition: Jamie Lynne Grumet, a 26-year-old mother of two in Los Angeles, is on the cover of Time this week breast-feeding her son, Aram, who turns 4 next month. Feifei Sun of Time‘s LightBox photo blog writes [...]

May 2: I hate bubble charts. I hate ‘em, I hate ‘em, I hate ‘em… (3)

Earlier today, I wrote a glowing review of three front-page infographics, including this gorgeous one in the Forum of Fargo, N.D. What I said about that chart: As a rule, I don’t like bubble charts. Almost always, anything a bubble chart can do, a bar chart can do better. Including showing the difference in numerical values. But [artist's name here] [...]

April 19: French group launches photo copyright awareness compaign (1)

Photographers, it seems, are constantly getting screwed over by people who steal their work. So a French organization — the Union des Photographes Professionnels – Auteurs — launched a new awareness campaign earlier this month featuring this kind-of-shocking, kind-of-amusing image that has certainly done its job in getting people talking. The British Journal of Photography quotes the organization as saying: [...]

April 2: Painting a picture with mug shots

Has the media distorted the entire Trayvon Martin incident? I’m not sure I’m qualified to have an opinion on it. I was out of the country when this story blew up, went viral and then was debated ad nauseum. Most of the “analytical” pieces I’ve seen so far on the incident — and subsequent coverage — has seemed to be [...]

March 9: Don’t just steal an image from Google to illustrate your story

In order to illustrate a story about fewer teens bothering to get driver’s licenses in Florida, Y100-FM in Miami just pulled something off of Google image search. Bad idea. More people are talking about that art element than are talking about the story itself. Check out the poor woman’s street address. Believe it or not, that’s a real license, issued [...]

March 8: Student paper takes a charting do-over when SGA raises its own salary (2)

This week, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada Senate — the student government at the University of Nevada, Reno — considered a bill that would increase its own salaries. The story about the proposal in the Sagebrush — the student paper there –  included this chart showing annual ASUN compensation over the years. In fact, the pay increase [...]

Feb. 22: ‘Trust us’? Why would we NOT trust the Washington Post? (3)

The folks at the Washington Post tweeted a few minutes ago: Wow. That certainly is an incredible photo of the Capitol, shot by Angela Pan — a reader, evidently. But that tweet sure seems like an odd choice of words. I mean, why would we not trust the post? Oh. Right. Refresh your memory of that little episode here. in [...]

Feb. 20: Even Westboro Baptist Church lies with Photoshop

Eric W. Dolan of the Raw Story reports: The Westboro Baptist Church did not picket singer Whitney Houston’s funeral on Saturday, but they did upload a fake photo to Twitter in hopes of convincing others that they did. Here’s the picture that was tweeted Saturday by Margie Phelps, daughter of controversial Westboro pastor Fred Phelps: The accompanying message was full [...]

Feb. 16: Q: What editor would allow this on the front page of a student paper? (3)

Via Twitter, Luis Aranda — area coordinator for university housing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas — poses a question: Here is the picture he attached. If you’re offended by the gratuitousness of that page-one photo, Luis, you’ll just love the crop on the web version: Believe it or not, that’s not stock art. That’s an actual Pittsburg State coed [...]

Feb. 15: A look at today’s Jeremy Lin front and back page headlines

Let’s take a quick look at how the New York tabs covered yet another great performance Tuesday night by Knicks phenomenon — and the newest media darling in the Big Apple — Jeremy Lin… — METRO NEW YORK New York, N.Y. Distribution: 328,296 Lin’s sudden success is likely to net him a very large raise, Metro says. So the main [...]

Feb. 7: An accusation of visual plagiarism from last year’s SND contest (1)

The graphic in the center of this double-page spread from La Stampa of Torino, Italy — reviewing how trapped miners in Chile were rescued in October of 2010 — won an Award of Excellence last year for breaking news graphics in the annual Society for News Design competition. You’ll find it at the bottom of page 205 of SND32, the [...]

Feb. 4: Does our business need another round of visual ethics lessons? (2)

By now, you’ve probably heard the news. Award-winning photographer Bryan Patrick has been fired by the Sacramento Bee for violations of the paper’s ethics policy forbidding the manipulation of photos. Earlier, the Bee had suspended Patrick after it was found his page-one photo last Sunday had been altered. The picture was this one, of two egrets sharing lunch. Note the [...]

Feb. 2: That premature Donald Trump + Newt Gingrich story? The NY Post has been there and done that. (2)

By now, you’ve probably seen this: A number of outlets today posted a story about inside sources telling them that Donald Trump planned to endorse Newt Gingrich as the Republican candidate for president. A little later, however, the story took a 180-degree turn. It’s Mitt Romney Trump intends to endorse, the story said. As of this afternoon, the Fox News [...]

Feb. 2: Who’s plagiarizing Wikipedia? Why, it’s KTVI-TV, Fox2Now of St. Louis (2)

Speaking of the late Coach Charlie Spoonhour, how does a big-time TV station like Fox2Now in St. Louis pay tribute to a beloved icon like Spoonhour? By plagiarizing from Wikipedia, of course. That was the online KTVI-TV report, captured at 9:21 p.m. CST last night by Aaron Manfull, journalism advisor at Francis Howell North High School in St. Louis and [...]

Feb. 1: Does this page one campaign ad bother you? (8)

There was an interesting campaign ad in yesterday’s Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The ad is for the reelection of Fort Lauderdale Mayor John P. Seiler. As you can see, it references the endorsement the Sun Sentinel gave him in Friday’s paper. Click for a larger view. The problem I have with this: It ran on page one. On [...]

Jan. 27: Why God made stock art (1)

The student newspaper at Ronald Reagan High School in Doral, Fla. — in the western suburbs of Miami — ran a story last February about sexually transmitted diseases. A little more provocative than what you’d typically see in a school newspaper. But that’s good. Teens need more information about topics like that. What’s not so good, however: The Reagan Advocate [...]

Jan. 25: A sales pitch for citizen journalists

Have you heard of OneNews? It’s one of those “citizen journalist” operations that, some say, are the future of journalism. Today, a blogging friend forwarded the sales pitch OneNews made to him. My friend writes: As if there weren’t enough problems in journalism, apparently someone has decided to turn everyone with a smart phone into a reporter. Who knew being [...]

Jan. 22: No, this is NOT a real front page from the Washington Post (17)

Have you seen this? It’s been making the rounds today. At first, it looks like a surreal juxtaposition — the kind I’ve been writing about lately (here and here). That looks nothing like the Washington Post you’ll find at the Newseum today. Most folks passing it around are claiming it’s an earlier edition. No, it’s not an earlier edition. It’s [...]

Jan. 22: A quick look at a few Joe Paterno front pages (3)

By now, you know Joe Paterno — longtime football coach at Penn State and somewhat tarnished, suddenly, by the child rape scandal that made news in November — has passed away. If you didn’t see it, this was the home page at the CBS Sports web site for a few minutes last night, before Paterno died: I’m not going to [...]

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