Front page photo

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Dirck Halstead : One Thread

I am working on my high degree diploma - discovering the role and importance of cover photo at daily newspaper. Can you help me in following topics: Why do you think, the cover photo is realy important relating to the fact that "written news" is the one on which quallity newspapers are based on. Is there any other role than for instance better selling results. Thank you!

-- Ales Ojstersek (kunigunda@siol.net), November 23, 2000

Answers

That's a good question Ales. There can be different purposes of a "grabber" or a good cover photo. Yes, it can help to sell copies of the newspaper. However, in an increasingly visual world, it might be able to tell the story better than words ever could. Take, for example, the famous photo from the 1970 Kent State shootings by John Filo. (http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12397 ) I don't believe that a verbal description could do the scene justice. As a last point, a good photo also has the ability to draw a reader into a story that they otherwise might not think they would be interested in. Not everyone has the ability to appreciate a well written story anyway. Hope that helps. Just my "two-cents." -Daniel Miller

-- Daniel Miller (dmiller2@pop3.utoledo.edu), February 28, 2001.

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