Journalism is one of the most significant and accessible channels for people to obtain information about events and news. People argue that visual images could enhance readers’ understanding but could also be misleading by only showing parts of an event. In my opinion,
Firstly, visual images in news aim to illustrate an event to the readers and to deliver accurate information about the specific event. For instance, videos could be inserted into the news to display details of a car accident, while pure writings may fail to fully depict the situation. In this case, visual images act as an evidence supporting the news. Without them, readers may doubt the validity of an event in the news. Moreover, pictures and videos make information more digestable to the audience, hence enables them to capture messages from the news more accurately.
On the other hand, visual images could also misguide readers. Journalists may intentionally edit videos and photographs to deliver false messages. By only exhibiting certain aspects of an event, journals could easily use readers’ mindset on seeing visual images as solid evidence to spread bias information and rumours. Audiences in front of the screen could hardly verify whether the news is truthtelling. Furthermore, it is possible that photographs and videos are misinterpreted by the news-writters
In conclusion, visual images could both enhance or decrease news accuracy depending on the exact circumstances. Most of them tend to convey an event while others may be misinterpreted or manipulated into inaccurate information for the readers.