tim bajkiewicz, ph.d.
associate professor,
broadcast journalism
school of mass communications
good examples to get you going
 http://www.ameeshafelton.com/archives/1555
 http://www.mmj.vcu.edu/2011/04/church-hill-
community-comes-together-promotes-unity.html
image
: a reproduction or imitation of the form of a person or thing;
especially : an imitation in solid form : statue
a : the optical counterpart of an object produced by an optical
device (as a lens or mirror) or an electronic device b : a visual
representation of something: as (1) : a likeness of an object
produced on a photographic material (2) : a picture produced on
an electronic display (as a television or computer screen)
Middle English, from Anglo-French, short for imagene, from Latin
imagin-, imago; perhaps akin to Latin imitari to imitate
First Known Use: 13th century
let’s think image
 Think about single, powerful images for you about…
 A recent time with family or friends
 Something in the news
 Something fun or joyous
 Something sad or tragic
 Take a minute to write those down.
 Turn to your new or old friend and briefly talk about
them.
we live in an image culture
 “They have, by their sheer number and ease of
replication, become less magical and less shocking—a
situation unknown until fairly recently in human history.
Until the development of mass reproduction, images
carried more power and evoked more fear.” ("The Image
Culture," Christine Rosen, The New Atlantis, Fall 2005)
 “Images, [Susan] Sontag concludes, have turned the
world ‘into a department store or museum-withoutwalls,’ a place where people ‘become customers or
tourists of reality.’”
 Center for Media Literacy’s “Rise of the Image Culture”
"Television is our culture's
principal mode of knowing
about itself. Therefore -- and
this is the critical point -how television stages the
world becomes the model for
how the world is properly to
be staged. It is not merely
that on the television screen
entertainment is the
metaphor for all discourse. It
is that off the screen the
same metaphor prevails (p.
92, emphasis added)."
What
implications
does our
image
culture
have your
social media
projects?
story and narrative
 “Within the storytelling community, a story is
more generally agreed to be a specific structure of
narrative with a specific style and set of characters
and which includes a sense of completeness.
 Through this sharing of experience we use stories
to pass on accumulated wisdom, beliefs, and
values. Through stories we explain how things are,
why they are, and our role and purpose.” (National
Storytelling Association)
story and narrative
 Good stories have…
 A clear focus (theme)
 Characters
 A noticeable beginning, middle, and end
 Some style and dramatic appeal
theme
 “In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or
preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You
extract it from the characters, action, and setting that
make up the story. In other words, you must figure out
the theme yourself.” (Learner.org, “Analyzing Theme”,
emphasis added)
 The Seventh Sanctum’s “Quick Story Theme
Generator”
taking photos
 Kodaks’ Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures
 Poynter’s NewsU
“Language of
the Image”