Rowman & Littlefield Publishers To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions and Identities Behind News Images

To See and Be Seen is also available as an audiobook via Amazon, Audible, and Apple Books. Whether inscribed in physical media, projected on surfaces, or viewed on digital devices, we find ourselves constantly inundated with streams of visual data. Yet, we know surprisingly little about how these images are made, especially in journalistic contexts where representations are long-lasting and where repercussions can be dramatic. To See and Be Seen considers some of the ideological, aesthetic, pragmatic, institutional, cultural, commercial, environmental, and psychological forces that consciously or otherwise shape the production of news images and subsequently influence their reception. T. J. Thomson examines the expectations, experiences, and reactions of those depicted by visual journalists and considers other relevant factors: how do everyday people perceive cameras and those who operate them? How are identities visually represented and presented to different audiences? And how does the physical and the socially constructed environment shape those depictions? The results of Thomson's research provide one of the first empirical and real-time glimpses into the experience of being in front of a journalist's lens. To See and Be Seen enables us to understand the stories behind images by considering the environment in which such images are made, the exchange (if one occurred) between the camera-wielding observer and the observed, the identities of both parties, and how they react to the representations that are created. To See and Be Seen is the winner of the National Communication Association's 2020 Diane S. Hope Book of the Year Award. NCA reviewers called the book "a signature achievement in understanding the process of media production and the ethics of photojournalism." Review A valuable resource not only for journalism students and researchers in the field of visual communication, but also for practitioners who are interested in a respectful and trustful interaction between photographers and their subjects.--Katharina Lobinger, Vice-Dean for the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, Università della Svizzera Italiana "International Journal Of Press/Politics" Students and practitioners of photojournalism will find in To See And Be Seen many insights that disrupt conventional perspectives on subject interaction and ethics. Meanwhile, scholars will gain the most value from Thomson's remarkably diverse and creative application of method, and his detailed descriptions of his research practice.--Erik Palmer, Associate Professor and Communication Department Chair, Southern Oregon University "Visual Communication Quarterly" To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions and Identities behind News Images is a much-needed contribution to all the disciplines it touches. When it comes to photojournalism, it offers an exceptionally rare take on human interaction and its consequence in the area which seems crowded with research into its creative, discursive and technical aspects. Thomson sets his considerations both in a historical and a contemporary context. The first helps understand the complexities of visual communication and realize how long and how much we have depended on the visual. The latter takes into account current organizational changes within the media, the democratization of their production and distribution, and the functions that they perform. All the above make the publication more than noteworthy.--Anna Zięba, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures, Adam Mickiewicz University "Visual Communication" A highly engaging and informative read for the interested general reader, but also a thoughtful reflection on photojournalistic practices from the perspectives of both the photographer and the photographed that is steeped in cultural theories ... Thomson's book offers all of us a great opportunity to reflect on what it means to both see and be seen.--Helen Ca