May 16, 2004
War images and digital technology
The acceleration of brutal images from Irak - fueled by technological advances in digital photography and video streaming - seems to be having a direct, immediate impact on public opinion, writes Jonathan Curiel, staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The scenes of abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison (images that the Pentagon tried to keep out of public view) prompted immediate congressional hearings and reassessment of U.S. policies, and the overall flurry of images from Iraq has quickly and profoundly affected millions of people around the world.
In Vietnam, the images served as confirmation for people rather than as a revelation," says photographer Peter Howe, editor of the book "Shooting Under Fire: The World of the War Photographer."
The images "confirmed what they had heard (as rumor or from another source). In Iraq, we're getting everything in the same package. The images we're seeing are (revelations) and are the instruments of change. They both confirm and change at the same time."
And the images do it in ways that previous generations could never have imagined. The Internet lets just about anyone put photos and videos into the public domain.
Now, a militant group in Iraq can videotape a beheading of an American, put the video on a Web site and reach a global audience within minutes.
Now, photos of abuse in a Baghdad prison -- some of them apparently taken by soldiers for their private use -- can be e-mailed, put on computer discs and be otherwise available at the click of a computer button.
"We're in the middle of an information revolution," says Howe, a former combat photographer who covered wars in Northern Ireland and El Salvador.
We live in an age when people can download scenes of war on their cell phones as they ride a bus or stand on a street corner.
For more related articles, cf Picturephoning's special category on this issue.
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