Visual Analysis

 

Looking at these articles from the New York Times, it shows the difference between how the media handles situations with President Trump and how they handle stories about Joe Biden. The front page of the website is filled with ridicule about Trump contracting COVID, but only features one article about how Biden has to pivot his campaign. Below, I will analyze these from all of the different perspectives described in chapter 6. 

 

Personal Perspective: Immediately when I look at these articles, I’m prone to agree with the ones that are slandering Trump because of my personal political opinions. 

 

Historical Perspective: In all of the photos in these articles, it shows Donald Trump without a mask on and Joe Biden with a mask on. Trump has a history of being anti-mask as far as the COVID-19 pandemic goes, therefore it’s easy for the New York Times to use this as a way to make him look bad now that he has contracted the virus. By putting up a photo of Biden wearing a mask even though the article isn’t even about mask wearing they are automatically sending a message. 

 

Technical Perspective: I don’t know the exact technicalities of how these photos were produced, but it seems that the photo of Biden was taken on a DSLR camera with a very low aperture setting because of all of the shallow depth of field that is present. The upper left photo of Trump appears that it could’ve been taken as a still from a video interview, not necessarily specifically by a DSLR camera. 

 

Ethical Perspective: Looking at these photos and articles from an ethical perspective, the way that Trump handled the situation of attracting COVID was very unethical. Reports are coming out that Trump was aware of his diagnosis sooner than he lead on and that he may have knowingly given it to many other people. The way the media is portraying Trump in this situation seems completely in line with what he deserves based off of the decisions that he made. 

 

Cultural Perspective:  Some symbolism present in the photos included in this article are the decision to include a photo of Biden wearing a mask and Trump with the absence of one. In many American’s eyes, the fact that Trump is not wearing a mask is very disrespectful to the current situation of our country. From a cultural perspective, Trump is pegged as the bad guy. 

 

Critical Perspective: After spending some time looking at these images, it’s clear to me that the New York Times is trying to make Trump look like the bad guy (in my opinion, rightfully so) iin the political race right now. They are focusing on only placing articles on the front page that shed a negative light on him. The article that is about Biden basically only shows how Biden must adjust due to Trump’s actions. This makes Biden look like the victim in the situation.