Hearing is Believing - Photographic Icons

When listening to the essay, "Hearing is Believing," it made me think in a different way about sound. I think the main point of this essay was to show that seeing isn't always the best way to show or explain something. This relates to the course theme because it relates to all the types of media we use. My favorite part was the radio commercial about how radio is better than TV because radio can make impossible things seem true unlike a TV. They showed that radio is a better way in some instances because of the use of sound effects to make things seem as if they are actually going on. They did this by saying a Lake was drained and filled with hot chocolate, whipped cream, and a massive cherry. After he described what was going on he then used sound effects and it made it seem like the event was actually happening. I also thought it was interesting that in the 1950's a song with no lyrics got banned from the air just based on the fact that it sounded like crazy things were going on. They banned it because they didn't want gang violence to increase. Overall, this was the best thing we've had to blog over so far this year.

While reading photographic Icons, it also brought up a lot of ideas I had never thought about. In the reading it talked about how newspapers are thought of as pictures that are truthful and advertisement picture are not. I had never thought about this before, when I look at picture that were published I usually see them all as being real. I thought it was interesting that in the book it talked about how some of our most famous pictures have been staged again just so there could be a picture. This includes the 3rd picture of the flag being raised at Iwo Jima and Rosa Parks sitting on the bus. I also thought it was interesting that even though they were staged they still were factual pictures. This is proved by the Civil War pictures because even though they moved the dead bodies around the pictures still had factual information in them. This factual information included how many dies, when they died, what they were wearing, and the place it took place at. I learned a lot of new information while reading this last reading.