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The politics of wire service photography: Infrastructures of representation in a digital newsroom
Article first published online: 28 FEB 2012
DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01351.x
© 2012 by the American Anthropological Association
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How to Cite
GÜRSEL, Z. D. (2012), The politics of wire service photography: Infrastructures of representation in a digital newsroom. American Ethnologist, 39: 71–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2011.01351.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 28 FEB 2012
- Article first published online: 28 FEB 2012
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ABSTRACT
This article examines the politics of image brokering in the daily rituals of a major wire service's photography division. Specifically, it investigates crises of visualization: moments when routine visualization itself is challenged due to changes in infrastructures of representation. The transition to digital transmission has changed work of image brokers—people involved in the creation, validation, packaging, and circulation of images. New image brokers and changed infrastructures of representation challenge established hierarchies and who provides and polices news images. At a moment when the war on terror is also a war of images, battles over the infrastructures of representation are battles over visual worldmaking. [digital, infrastructure of representation, photography, Agence France Presse, journalism, crisis of representation, wire service, visualization, Iraq]