Beyond the referential

Abstract

This article explores the contradiction between the way journalism appeals to photographic indexicality in support of its claims to professional objectivity, while use of the news photograph includes violations of realism and the projection of multiple levels of connotative meaning. The article argues that in its drive to show as well as tell, the press routinely employs visual symbolism to supply photographic validation that it does not possess, even for abstract qualities that cannot be validated visually. Three classifications of photographic symbolism in the press are offered: temporal, in which time frames are evoked and utilized within the newspage; metaphorical, where analogical associations are employed; and synthetic, representations that entail gross distortions of reality. The study charts the codes and conventions that the press employs to create these levels of symbolism, and discusses examples of the way moving beyond the referential creates visual illusions that can frame and mislead.