Thursday, May 27, 2010

Confident Gaze - Tim

Deschpande, author of "The Confident Gaze" describes the popular magazine, National Geographic, as a means to show the world to other people with some bias on their views as a nation. In his words, "What attracts a common reader is that the magazine provides a balance of images of both, once irreconcilable aspects of life in other cultures. That increases the comfort level of its readers. They get education through information that is "balanced" and they get entertained in the beauty of its representation, which denotes such an urge to give the reader his money's worth”. This means that people of certain nations or groups will not typically migrate towards the magazine issues unless there is a balance of bias, showing the subject of review in the light that the audience desires, but not too much. He furthers this when he says “While we admire the accomplishments of its photographers to bring us the rest of the world, we forget that the photographs and the contexts in which they are placed represent a very conscious effort by the editors to make the world a happy place and a happy place especially for the Western eye”. This suggests that Western people cannot fully grasp, or do not want to grasp, the world as it truly is. We would rather see things in a positive view rather than deal with the struggles and tribulations that are everyday life for the photographed people. In a sense it is much like the material that is censored for younger audiences. If a video game is deemed ‘too violent” then the violence and gore are tuned down, or removed all together.



Word Count: 275

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