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| Guardian, India; Parivartan Sharma/REUTERS |
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| Guardian, Uganda; Xavier Toya/REUTERS |
Mainly these three news portals use visual data from four sources: AFP (Agence-France-Presse), AP (The Associated Press), EPA (European Press Photo Agency) and Reuters (doesn’t really need an explanation).
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| Cover photo on kp.ru, REUTERS |
Komsomolyskaya Pravda – news in Russia and Ukraine (www.kp.ru)
Name of the gallery: Photos of the day: 14th March 2012, Wednesday [Картинки дня: 14 марта 2012 года, среда]
Amount of pictures chosen for this day: 15
Countries participating: Russia, USA, Bahrain, Afghanistan, France, Cuba (Venezuela), Switzerland (Belgium), Ukraine (and Turkmenistan), Israel, Turkey, Syria, China (12 (15))
Countries mentioned more than once: USA (3), Russia (2)
Amount of national events: 2 (3 if counting Ukraine)
Descriptions: a relatively descriptive explanation of the events is added to each of the pictures, like Obama’s meeting with UK's PM D.Cameron on a basketball match – information on which teams are playing is also added;
Cover picture of the gallery: Maria Sharapova playing tennis.
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| Cover photo on TVnet.lv, AFP/LETA |
TVnet, Latvia (www.tvnet.lv)
Name of the galery: 14th march in photos! [14.marts bildēs!]
Amount of pictures chosen for this day: 9
Countries participating: USA, Bangladesh, Switzerland (Belgium), Thailand, Spain, Pakistan, United Kingdom (7 (8))
Countries mentioned more than once: USA (3)
Amount of national events: 0
Descriptions: Short descriptions that include mentioning the name of the countries; naming of the exact places sometimes is missing. For example, a picture with a kitten in some Spanish village - the exact name of the village is missing, the only detail revealed is that the village is situated somewhere in the Northwest of Spain.
Cover picture of gallery: A lady lying on the grass in some park in Washington (USA) and reading.
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| Cover photo on Guardian, Francis R. Malasig/EPA |
Guardian, United Kingdom (www.guardian.co.uk)
Name of the gallery: 24 hours in pictures
Amount of pictures chosen for this day: 14
Countries participating: Philippines, Bahrain, Uganda, China, Mexico, Sudan, India, Israel, Australia, Burma, Bangladesh, Spain, Japan (13)
Countries mentioned more than once: Mexico (2)
Amount of national events: 0
Descriptions: average size, but has additional explanations, country names and exact names of places, where the pictures were taken.
Cover picture of the gallery: A yawning puppy inside shanty in Phillipines.
So what’s going on in the world today? [Analyzing the visual material of all three media]
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| Guardian, Bahrain; photo: Mazen Mahdi/EPA |
An overview: Seems like one part of the world is experiencing mass confussion about who’s going to be in power and what is the real reason to fight for - in peaceful and also rather violent protests implemented by citizens of particular countries – like Turkey [protesting against injustice of some writer’s death case of national importance], Afghanistan [demonstratively burning the cross, after some “smartie” burned Koran], Israel [experiencing new attacks coming from Gaza sector], Bahrain [in the spotlight of protests after overnight clashes on the first anniversary of the 2011 uprising], Syria [experiencing horrifying views and horrifying reality of “massacre” – 2 men lying in their own blood dead shown as the army’s victory over taking over the control of city Idlib].
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| kp.ru, USA; REUTERS |
The other part of the world – which possibly has money [though the whole world is in a deep crisis, there are still countries, which have more money than the other] and a bit more power to influence events in global terms for the most preferred outcomes and contracts [for whom?] – USA president Obama is enjoying a basketball game with UK’s prime minister D.Cameron – I bet the chat is not about the ingredients of the American hot-dog they eat [ this picture has been posted in two media tvnet.lv and kp.ru], but rather other ingredients [strategies] for the cooperation and for identifying new global companions. In France though Sarkozy tries to stay in the league of global actors [photo description tells that Sarkozy is celebrating his pre-election victory over his opponent to be elected as a president of France for the second term, kp.ru], two media posted pictures of China, though not very descriptive [flags in the sunset and a sign of “No Skating”; Guardian, kp.ru], but it just strikingly shows that China is a wanted companion in this league of global actors with all its’ censorship issues.
Besides the global actors, Ukraine is trying to solve it's long-term problem with Russia and gas, and the photo posted on kp.ru of the presidents of Ukraine and Turkmenistan shaking hands indicates that the gas problem is possibly solved.
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| Guardian, Sudan; Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/ REUTERS |
The rest of the world continues its’ ordinary life with all it’s paradoxes and happy moments, being relatively insignificant in these previously mentioned global terms, but forming the overall impression, what others do, besides politics: receiving help from International organizations [In Uganda a girl with hearing difficulties cries after her ears were cleaned], enjoying the moment of solitude [in Burma a boy sitting near the bank of a river, surroundings seem poor and the little boy seems thoughtful or rather sad], working [in Pakistan a fisher is sorting his today’s catch], seeing no boundaries [in India the 'multi-functional' trains don't stop to amaze the public with its' capacities - the trains are not only full of people as always, but with milk containers hanging from the windows], participating in religiously important procedures [in Israel Ultra Orthodox Jews praying and lighting candles around the body of rabbi before his funeral], preparing for competitions [in London a girl is preparing for some swimming competition], feeling the joy of winning [in Sudan boys celebrating their victory in a football match in Sudan's Kids League], experiencing horrifying tragedies [in Switzerland the bus accident caused lives of 22 Belgian kids; photos are posted in two media with a view on the Ambulance cars and with a close-up on the wreck of the bus] and mourning for the loss of the relatives publicly [in Bangladesh, photos are posted in two media with a view on the shore, where the ship has been removed from water, with a crowd standing in the harbor and watching; a crying man and a woman in a close-up], spending time on some leisure activities [in the USA a lady reading a book in a park; a kid having fun at a street foam party;], making crucial decisions [in Russia some important person is leaving some nationally important company], progressing in innovations [in Japan – a view on a new Uniqlo store], promoting peace and security [in Mexico a wrestler Blue Demon Jr. is promoting the march for the reason mentioned before] and celebrating thematic carnivals [in Mexico, the participants of Los Pintados carnival are marching on the street in their carnival outfit].
So basically the poor stay poor, some join the poor [in Spain a kitten on a lonely street is mentioned in the relation to Spain’s most in-depted town] and the rich keep on deciding, who'll get the biggest piece of a cake. That's the story of 14th March.
Analyzing cultural and socio-economic features...
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| Tvnet.lv, Pakistan; REUTERS |
14th March gives an insight on Jewish funeral ceremony [indicating that the religion is an important routine without any evident data that everyone is practicing it], gives a guess that fishing is one of the traditional occupations practiced by citizens of Pakistan [additionally, the clothes a man on the picture is wearing are not indicating any wealth prospects], reminds that African countries still are supported by international aid organizations and it's something that will be crucial and unchangeable for at least other 10 decades until there will be people from "other" world willing to volunteer, help and educate African people - the crying Ugandan girl lying her head on the table seems quite helpless [by the way - in one documentary about Web 2.0 African people were shown as making articles for Wikipedia, so it's not so bad after all. And some smarties [already from a different documentary] know how to combine African traditional clothing and modern design to create their own fashion line, exotic, huh?] - so anyway it will be a long fight, before Africa will gain a different image than a desert with the fame of coffee origins.
In Bangladesh people not only mourn about the recent tragedy, but as well - women find it important to wear traditional clothing. The ship that drowned doesn't seem like an expensive liner, but anyway - accidents happen even on fancy liners.
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| Guardian, Israel; Menahem Kahana/AFP |
The country of multi-functional trains India just approves again that for millions of citizens the train is one of the primary public transportation choices and that the people probably travel long distances [how else you can explain the trains being always full?] - and if there will ever appear a pig on the roof of the Indian train, it will just approve its' multi-functionality.
Another country which proves that the religion is all of important is Afghanistan, the photo clearly indicates an insulted public, which is burning a cross after somebody did the same with the Islamic Bible.
In Burma everything seems grey and calm, though boy sitting and watching the river from the coast seems sad and thoughtful, hopefully he dreams big his own big future [Aung San Suu Kyi fought for it very hard]. In Thailand though Bengali tigers in the zoo just yawn. Peaceful life, huh? The yawning activity also is joined by the dog in Malaysia.
China as always appears very discreet - neutral flags in the sunset, which should indicate the National People's Congress, as stated under the photo and a photo of "No skating" and two men in a boat on the river in the background doesn't really tell more than that the spring has arrived in China and that flags are hanged on important days.
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| kp.ru, Israel; REUTERS |
In Israel the conflict that is already lasting for decades, despite of all the tryings of negotiators in politically neutral areas [Norway was a quite popular destination for that in the past] doesn't indicate that parts involved directly in the conflict are going to ever give up - fire coming from Gaza sector...
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| Guardian, Mexico; Alfredo Estrella/AFP |
Meanwhile in Latin America - Mexico is having a thematic carnival [so typical] and besides that, is fighting the crime in the country by inviting famous people to help in those activities and inspire people be more cautious about their security. But aren't those participants of carnival looking like representatives of some street gang themselves? Besides the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez after a serious surgery is planning to come back from Cuba soon to prepare himself for the up-coming presidential elections, though the picture shows his family - which would mean that relatives are of a big importance in Venezuela [if not in the whole Latin America].
As for the Western world - people are well-dressed, managing strategically important issues or self-promotion [Sarkozy, France - the fact that he gets a high chance to be re-elected after hearing never ending complaints from French people, seems a bit paradoxical], competitive and individualistic [a girl in a swimming pool preparing for a competition], relaxed, organized and wealthy [a girl reading a book in some park in Washington, USA doesn't seem that she might have hunger or some financial difficulties, if only anorexia if she'd like to], fancy and innovative [this time points go for Japan]. And besides standing still - like the Parliament building in Canberra, Australia [the most non-sense picture of all].
A Comment on country selection by media and the politics
Komsomolskaya Pravda - out of 15 photos, three photos are related to happenings in the USA (president Obama; Republican candidate for presidential elections winning the pre-election in a few states and a circus parade in Washington. Wait, a circus? What's so special about it? Or just the White House is located exactly in this state, somewhere in the neighborhood?) and two photos are of a national importance (Russia-related). Furthermore events from countries like France, Venezuela and China are portrayed in the pictures - is that a coincidence that a non-descriptive photo of the president of Venezuela and Sarkozy's round-table discussions [both are presidential countries] appear together with China as the eternal symbol of communism? [Praising the values that are politically important in home country? Knowing the recent controversial happenings connected to re-election of Putin as a president, praising the values in an indirect way is a kind of a good strategy, huh?]. Beside those happenings in Israel, Turkey, Bahrain and Syria indicate areas [strategically important areas to Russia?], where aggression is used, and it all fills up the cup with the global feeling of compassion to tragedy that happened in Switzerland.
Tvnet.lv - out of nine photos three photos are about the happenings in the USA, that would signalize that USA is kind of important for this small country Latvia, though the other events beside the visual evidence that Obama and Cameron are watching a basketball game and eating hot-dogs are two other leisure and entertainment activities that do not clearly represent what is actually going on in the USA, apart from the fact that the spring is already there. The rest of the photos beside the transport tragedies in Switzerland and Bangladesh, lack any political importance and as the descriptions are lacking details quite often, it seems that these photos were chosen more on an aesthetic basis - to let the people enjoy a good photography and have a feeling that they've seen the world today, which is quite a nice and colorful place to be.
Guardian - out of 14 photos two are related to the happenings in Mexico - where social activities promoting peace and security go well together with the costumes of participants of the carnival, in which people actually look like being from a street gang themselves. Guardian does its' guardian duties quite well. Beside the informing about mass riots in Bahrain, which have reached critical outcomes, Guardian reminds that life goes on in other parts of the world too, though more peacefully. The photos are full of cultural features and are aesthetically pleasant to look at. Not many pictures are chosen based on political preferences, though some weak signals might reach the audience - that the world is changing and that Spain has a big dept and that the situation in the third world countries hasn't changed much. For Australia and Japan - nothing to be worried about and they've been spotlighted anyway.
Successful and unsuccesful Editor picks:
The less violent – TVNET.lv, but the worst picks by the content and lacking detailed information over the events presented in the pictures;
The most aggressive picks: Komsomolskaya pravda [5 events presenting demonstrations, the war, killed people and destroyed buildings, violence, controversial situations, which might cause a further reaction];
The most culture-revealing features: Guardian [9 out of 14]
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| Guardian; Tvnet.lv, Spain; Susana Vera/REUTERS |
And here is the question, which haven't got out of my mind for a while - since when animals started to indicate the poor? It's easy to admit that the photo shot taken in Spain's most in-depted town seems more like a ghost town. But people didn't die, did they? Or they just have big financial problems?
Links to the galleries used for creation of this article:
Komsomolskaya Pravda: http://www.kp.ru/photo/710074
Tvnet.lv: http://www.tvnet.lv/galleries/group/7/11016
Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/gallery/2012/mar/14/24-hours-in-pictures-gallery
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