ENG 101: Blog Post #1

In Berger’s first Episode of Ways of Seeing, he touches on the use of cameras use to convey a conversation with its user yet took away a sense of truth, originality and personality from paintings and potentially real life. This piece aired back in the 70’s, the height of color television. I felt that his ideas towards cameras and their use was justified. From Advertisements, television, movies, magazines, to the news. Cameras brought images from around the world to bring about a new way of living and communicating. Society has embraced it so much that, in present day we are still surrounded by its images. We use the combination of words and imagery to give us our most basic of information and state it as fact. This new format of communication is easy to understand, you watch, and the assistance of words, music and imagery builds the scene for you.

The news is broken down to a mere 60-minute segments on a click of a button. Yes, we are more well informed and understand so much more about the world and people around us but with this grand invention comes an invitation of grand misuse. The news reports brutality in poverty-stricken areas alongside the celebrity puff pieces, molding its unknowing viewers to feel on the edge. To feel the need to remain informed out of the fear as opposed to knowledge. I have been asked personally so many times “is the Bronx that scary?” “Is the Bronx as dangerous as they say it is?” they ask me these things because rather than show the positives of the Bronx they will show images of crime, murder, drug use, homelessness and death.

The evidence of its impact even shows on your Google searches.

What isn’t being shown is the community trying to help one another in the community centers, the important landmarks and beautiful parades and art that flow throughout the Bronx.

The news finds a way to amplify the bad in a community struggling to survive without sharing its accomplishments, because good news means less views. I felt this topic and the images of the Bronx was closely related to Berger’s opinions back in the 70’s because even though cameras helped the world learn about each other , the use of imagery can be used to manipulate its viewer negatively about the world.

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