Pap-BelTa
visual comparison between found footage on the internet and speculative description edit
december-january 2021/22
pap _ polish press agency
BelTa _ belarus news agency
Working on thermal imagery, used in the refugee border conflict between Belarus and the external border of the EU in Poland, the interest of the representation of different socio-political groups, taking part in that conflict. What is the right way to communicate sensitive topics, concerning different communities, as fair, diverse, and informative as possible? Through a collection of images, from the first to the latest article of the mentioned new agencies, I want to show that the abusive way of putting photos in a specific scenario does create explicitly an intentional trigger on the viewer's emotion and perception, just as images in photojournalism.
two text edits of the ‘about us’ page of each website. different types say different information about the source, where with each layer more details come through. it is a combination of the translated versions of the page and background research i came across during the process. parallel played in form of a voiceover from two seperate speakers.
image collection process and comparisson between adult and children representation
total amount of images with people
486
screen recording of digital collage collection.
486
screen recording of digital collage collection.
images with children
333
333
only adults showing images
153
153
Doing deeper research in the field of Polish and Belarusian journalism, both very much controlled by the government’s censorship, made me realise in which manipulative way, the influence on the local society through this news media is being used. With the focus to analyse the two biggest news agencies, pap in Poland and Belta from Belarus, in its photojournalistic layer, I find it very urgent to bring the governmental intentions, acting as a ruling hand in this industry, to the surface. Pictures are powerful tools to guide the reader's perspective of the written content and are in this crisis essential importance to act as a second impression on the socio-political happenings at the international border.
the amount of images shown equals the time found on each of the websites.