The Boston photographs were one of the most controversial events in the history. These photographs were published in the newspaper which created a huge hype these photographs were not appropriate to be published in a newspaper. Even though there weren't appropriate, the newspapers published them on the front page. Even big newspapers such as Washington Post, New York Times published these photographs. These pictures were sensational and should not have been published (Atwan & McQuade, pp. 612).
Discussion
The Boston photographs were the ones that proved to be disastrous for the people who were viewing it. This made the people believe that they were not safe and the situations that the pictures depicted were very inappropriate. The characteristics of readers vary greatly, which means that the people who were the audience of these photographs were adversely affected by it. This act of the newspapers to publish these photographs showed that the people who were involved in publishing these photographs did not have any authentic motive behind publishing these photographs.
Three of such photographs were published and all of them were sensational. They were a continuation of the previous one. The first picture showed people escaping from a fire. It had three people; a fireman, a woman and a child. The fireman was depicted as a strong man, and the woman and the child were shown as people who though escaped the fire, but were helpless. The second picture showed that the fireman had grabbed the ladder, and the woman had strongly grabbed his legs. In the third picture, it was depicted that the woman and child were falling and their legs were outstretched. The woman died, and because the child had landed on the woman's body, he was alive (Atwan & McQuade, pp. 749).
There were many comments on the pictures that were published in the newspapers. The front pages of the newspapers were filled with these pictures. A lot of people critiqued the publishing of these photographs. They said that people who are viewing these pictures are getting a negative impact and these pictures do not mean anything. The newspapers published these pictures only to gain cheap publicity. The letters to editors were overflowing with such letters according to which the people did not like, that, such pictures are published in newspapers.
This was an excellent example of photojournalism. A lot of journalists, in order to gain, good position in their companies, took these photos so that the newspaper companies are impressed with them and they get promoted to a higher level. They did not think that instead of taking these pictures, they could have saved the lives of the woman. Humanity does not exist in today's world which is why the photographers were busy in taking pictures. The journalists are people who do not have a soft corner for anyone, and this is the main reason these people did not think before reporting these pictures and getting them published (Atwan & McQuade, pp. 802).
Conclusion
After all the hype that was created because these photos were published, every newspaper agency now has some journalists who are responsible for monitoring the paper on behalf of the public. They paper does not want people to protest against any news that is published in the newspaper because it damages the image of the company. These pictures were disturbing which is why the newspaper agencies now focus more on making sure that they publish news that is accepted by the public (Atwan & McQuade, pp. 687).
Works Cited
Atwan, R. & McQuade, D., “The Writer's Presence,” Bedford/St. Martin's, (2003), pp. 609-906
