Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-161). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-161). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2005

As eyewitnesses to history, American women newspaper photographers occupy ringside seats as they cover local, national or international events. Their names are credited under countless images printed in daily and weekly papers, yet viewers seldom consider how the private lives of individual women intersect with their profession. Regrettably their narratives are absent from most photographic and journalism histories. Female news photographers constitute less than 25% of this male-dominated profession. To comprehend how newsroom culture informed both professional and personal experience, extensive life histories were collected from thirty women who consented to participate in this study. As a means of painting a more complete picture of issues encountered during their careers, the group was chosen to reflect geographical location, age, ethnicities, and sexual preference. Participants were asked how they balanced career aspirations, personal relationships, and self-worth in context of the changing roles of women. What choices have they made? What compromises? Did their experiences change over decades or do some issues remain essentially the same? What kind of discrimination, if any, did they experience in their job and how did they respond? Did ethnic cultures or social mores clash with their career choice? Also explored were statements regarding education, parental professions, marital status, family dynamics, life changes, and stressors. On assignment and in the newsroom their presence has helped change social assumptions but because their profession straddles both journalism and photography, researchers have ignored much of their work. Naomi Rosenblum, author of A History of Women Photographers, cites only a few newspaper photographers and describes pictures produced by women photographers in the 1940s and 1950s as "pedestrian" in quality. Current photographic history is not false, but rather one-sided. Stories shared by the women of this study, whose collective experience spans over fifty years, offer insights to young women who will be working as news photographers in the future and refute benighted scholarly assumptions that women newspaper photographers have no history worth remembering.

South African photojournalists’ perception of digital technology’s impact on the credibility of news photographs is investigated in this study. Digital technology has the capabilities to produce “manipulated” photographs that appear realistic and credible. Credibility is dependent on a variety of factors including codes of realism and codes of production, which fit conventional codes of photographic representation. Manipulation is the act of deviating from accepted codes of photographic representation that may jeopardise the credibility of news photography. This thesis proposes a new theoretical framework that encompasses existing theories of semiotics, ideology, naturalism, realism and credibility. These theories underpin the definitions and discussion on manipulation and credibility. A descriptive survey is used which attempts to discover photojournalists’ views towards credibility. This research draws on qualitative research methods using a largely qualitative questionnaire, which generates both qualitative and quantitative data. The questions are formulated around two case studies of digitally manipulated photographs. The trends and responses in the research data are connected and discussed. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of credibility, awareness of the digital changes, the reason for the changes, the role of a caption, deletion techniques and background changes. The empirical situation is analysed in relation to the theoretical discussions and this study’s theorisation of photographic representation.

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only / Department of Journalism

This study explores the differences in attitude held by newspaper photographers and designers concerning the acceptability of digitally altering front-page photographs. It takes its findings from a summer 2006 survey that asked these two newsroom groups to rate their acceptance of certain common techniques used to change photographs from their original forms. Their answers revealed that designers are generally more accepting of altered photographs than their photographer colleagues. Also, photographers are more likely to find acceptable those photographs altered for technical reasons than for aesthetic ones. Least acceptable to photographers, this study finds, are alterations that affect a photograph's content. / Department of Journalism