Bush Captured by a "Mirror with a Memory"

On Monday, January 12, 2009, George W. Bush gave his last press conference. In his last address to the Washington Press Corps, Bush said: "Through it all, it's been -- I have respected you. Sometimes I didn't like the stories that you wrote or reported on. Sometimes you misunderestimated me. But always the relationship I have felt has been professional. And I appreciate it."

With Bush out of office attempts are being made to shape his legacy. In this spirit, Award-Winning Documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris, turned to three press corps photographers to share the images they felt captured Bush's "character" over the past eight years. Morris does not believe that photographs preserve reality, but in fact "capture our evasions and self-deceptions."

View the photos that Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP), and Jim Bourg (Reuters) chose at Morris' blog "Zoom" on the New York Times website.

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Its interesting to note how each of these photographers view the access they were given to the president:

Vincent Amalvy (AFP) says in America the press corps is given more access to the President compared to other countries: "It’s a different situation in Europe. In America when you are part of the presidential pool, you move everywhere with the president. It’s not that way in other countries. You don’t have the same quantity of free access to all these attitudes, pictures and opportunities."

Santiago Lyon, takes a different view then Amalvy: "And it is true that the American system, and especially the White House, allows much more access because they’re much more media-savvy. The White House understands the power of the image. And that’s where I sometimes get the feeling that we’re all being manipulated. It is true that we do get access to a much larger extent, than many other world leaders allow it. And that’s something to be thankful for, in the sense that we’re able to witness White House activities. But, at the same time, the thing is so contrived and so controlled that like any consumer of information, it behooves one to look at the source of the information, to look at the circumstances of the information, and to be able to cast a critical eye on it."


Jim Bourg comments on the role of White House Photographers: "That’s the talent of our White House photographers: to be able to work within the constraints that are imposed upon them by the White House staff, but also to fully document what’s going on."

Bourg also makes an interesting point about key Bush photographs: "It’s interesting to see how differently people will interpret the same picture, how a strong supporter of the president will see a picture one way and a critic of the president will see it a different way. There have been some pictures of President George W. Bush where the reactions have actually gone all over the map, where some Bush supporters see interpret the image as taking a cheap shot at him. Other Bush supporters see that same moment as endearing or showing off his character, showing that he’s a regular kind of guy or showing that he’s a common, unpretentious type of person. And then there are pictures where a photo opportunity can totally backfire on the White House. An example of that would certainly be the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the aircraft carrier where that is a very straight photo as you look at it."

Covering Change

Yesterday, Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. This cool feature on the Newseum website shows the front page of 763 newspapers from 73 countries. It's interesting to compare the photos and headlines chosen.

Check out this feature here.

Obama's Coming: How Will He Shape the Media Landscape?

The countdown has begun and Barack Obama will soon be our 44th president. How will Obama impact our media landscape? Here are a few things to look out for:

- Who is going to head the FCC?:
Current FCC chairmain, Kevin Martin, is expected to be replaced by a Democrat when Barack Obama takes office. There is speculation that Obama's former classmate from Harvard law school, Julius Genachowski, will be chosen for the position.

- Net Neutrality: Barack Obama has said in the past that he would only appoint an FCC chairperson that believed in Net Neutrality. Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, promised to introduce a Net-neutrality bill to Congress in 2009. Durbin believes a bill like this will have success under the new congress and president.

- "The Cyber Czar": Obama is going to name the first-ever Federal Chief Technology Officer. Paul Kurtz, is predicted to be appointed to this position, which has been dubbed the "The Cyber Czar."

- The Digital Divide: Barack Obama has promised universal broadband Internet access to all Americans. Investment in Broadband Internet service is part of his economic stimulus program which could boost job creation, enhance US infrastructure, all while making it easier for rural, urban poor, and elderly populations to access the internet. Commentators, such as Stephen Wildstrom writing for Businesweek, worry about Obama's current proposal. Wildstrom writes: "Subsidies for network construction and subscriptions could end up doing little more than boosting the semi-monopolies enjoyed by the cable and telephone carriers."

- Media Ownership: Barack Obama has pledged to encourage diversity in media ownership. As outlined in his Innovation and Technology Plan: "Unfortunately, over the past several years, the Federal Communications Commission has promoted the concept of consolidation over diversity. Barack Obama believes that providing opportunities for minority-owned businesses to own radio and television stations is fundamental to creating the diverse media environment that federal law requires and the country deserves and demands. As president, he will encourage diversity in the ownership of broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets for expression of diverse viewpoints, and clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum."

Participant Films

Movies have the power to make social change. I strongly believe this. Participant Media has been at the forefront of making feature films that make a difference.

Jeff Skoll (who you may know as the first president of eBay) founded Participant Media in 2004 with the mission of producing "entertainment that inspires social change." The people in Hollywood told him that his idealism would not be sustainable.

In 2005 the company released: "Murderball," "Syriana," "Goodnight and Goodluck," and "North Country." These films led to eleven Oscar nominations. The company later released such films as, "Charlie Wilson's War," "An Inconvenient Truth," and "Fast Food Nation," to name a few.

The ability to entertain and inform is not an easy feat. Participant medias ability to inform through award-winning films allows the information to reach a broad audience in a way that I believe has not been done before. They then continue to engage the audience with social sector partners on advocacy campaigns that can be accessed online at www.participate.net.

Skoll raises a fascinating point: Movies do not necessarily need to do well at the box office to make a social impact. Despite "North Country's" poor attendance at the box office, the film went on to have a strong impact on policy. The film came out when congress was debating the renewal of the violence against women act. By having screenings on the hill and working with social sector partners such as NOW, the film was widely credited with the successful renewal of the act.

Update on America's World View

By coincidence, after writing yesterday's blog post, I came across an IPS article covering the findings of the latest Tyndall Report. The report found that "foreign-related news coverage by the three major US television networks fell to a record low during 2008." It also found that coverage of Iraq, the most covered International story, decreased in 2008.

As a young, city-dweller who stays highly informed without watching the nightly news, it was good for me to realize that despite my experience, the average American is still indeed participating in what I thought was a thing of the past. Grab that TV dinner, its time for the evening news!

The Tyndall Report follows ABC World News with Charles Gibson, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, and considers these programs the primary source of national and international news for most US citizens.

The decline in International coverage, according to Andrew Tyndall, could be explained by a focus on the 2008 presidential election as well as the domestic effects of the economic crisis. International news coverage could ramp up this year or the statistics could signal a, "turning point in insularity in the mainstream media." Tyndall also mentioned that TV networks may be handing over the responsibility of covering international news to online agencies.

Statistics I found interesting in the IPS article:

- An estimated 23 million US residents watch the 22 minutes of evening news the three networks broadcast on an average weekday evening.

- The Pew Research Centre for the People & the Press, published late last month, found that some 70 percent of the public in 2008 relied on television as a main source for national and international news last year.

- The same Pew Research poll found that the Internet surpassed daily newspapers as a main source of national and international news, particularly for younger adults, for the first time last year.

- Of the top 20 stories in 2008 the Iraq war was the highest-ranked overseas story, ranking seventh on the list. The Next international story on the list was the Beijing Summer Olympics, followed by the war in Afghanistan, which ranked 17th.

- Other top international-related stories included the Sichuan Province earthquake in China, last month's terrorist attack on Mumbai, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, the Russia-Georgia conflict, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the situation in Zimbabwe.

America's World View

I am catching up on watching TED videos and I just saw an inspiring talk by Alisa Miller, CEO of Public Radio International from May of 2008. She addresses the massive decline in International Reporting by American news agencies and the negative effects this is having on our world.

Miller shows an amazing visual of how the world looks based on the amount of reporting being done on each region. Behind the US, Iraq was the largest image on the map.

Miller states that foreign bureaus have decreased by 50%. Aside from one-person bureaus in Nairobi, New Delhi, and Mumbai, Miller said there are no network news bureaus in Africa, India or South America. This lack of coverage ignores the world's largest population centers.

Why is there a lack of International Reporting? Miller says because its cheaper to cover Brittany Spears and Anna Nicole Smith.

This lack of coverage of international news has led to a less informed public. But she says, it is not due to lack of desire for this news.

Her concluding question: "Is this distorted world view what we want for Americans in our increasingly interconnected world? I know we can do better and can we afford not to?"