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We are going to deal with a, a number of issues today around, principally
photojournalism. I've titled today's lecture
Photojournalism, authenticity and matters of public acceptability, okay.
And we're going to focus principally on the battle of Mogadishu.
Now, let's give you a little bit of background to this in a sort of very
broad post modern way. not that I'm a postmodernist in any way
whatsoever, but how did I come to this topic?
Well, I mentioned earlier on that, these lectures originally slotted in to a first
year introductory unit doing history. And I have an interest in the way that
photography in particular has been used. And just out of happen chance from the
photographic book club I was part of. I got a copy of Underexposed.
as I said, this is published by the Index on Censorship.
And it comes up with a number of topics, which I've used in the context of this
course. But reflects on what is acceptable and
what is not acceptable at various points in the 20th century.
Public mores, et cetera, et cetera. Now, one of the images around this in the
book, comes from the battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in 1993.
And that then leads into another path about considering how we put history
together. in this context, I have to admit that I'm
a big Ridley Scott fan. Blade Runner: The Final Cut is my
favorite movie. You can interpret that one later at some
point in time. And of course, 2001, we have Ridley
Scott's film about the battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down.
Now Ridley Scott is engaged in a number of historical films in the past.
American Gangsters, based on a newspaper article.
we have Kingdom of Heaven dealing with the Crusades.
And also his Christopher Columbus movie with Gerard Depardieu.
Now, in this case, the source material is much more contemporary.
Mark Bowden's book Black Hawk Down is the principal source for the film.
And it makes a nice cross reference between what were a series of
journalistic articles. Put forward to reconsider what happened
in Mogadishu in 1993, which they have in themselves taken on a life of their own.
One of the things we're going to do a little bit later in the course or later
in today's lectures, is to look at the website that the Philadephia still
maintain. And to see how journalistic articles have
been augmented and expended into an ongoing web, website as a respository of
information about this particular battle. So, we have media reporting around
October of 1993 and the actual battle itself.
We have the media response to this and how it was depicted either in words, or
as we're going to talk about somewhat controversially pictures and video.
We're going to look at the response of the American government to this
particular event. And how to a certain degree, the media
coverage changed America's commitment to peacekeeping in the immediate the
immediate period after the Battle of Mogadishu.
But also go back and reflect on Mark Bowden's investigative journalism.
I put it in terms of rehabilitating the perception of what happened in the Battle
of Mogadishu. The publication of the book, the website,
and the film. But what I, I really want to focus on,
all of this is background and it's relevant background, we dealt with
Stalin's willingness to manipulate images.
We've dealt with some contemporary media where people have been rearranging
photographs or smoke has been added or removed at points in time.
And there's one quite contentious, image that I'd like to discuss in depth.
And to get you to think back about what's happening, in this case, the last part of
the 20th century as opposed to the sort of things we talked about with Stalin.
And just to consider how much we might need to reconsider the Stalin instance as
not being a one-off or a, a cause celebre. But actually being a, a way in which
images have been changed over a number of years.
So, that's the broad agenda for today. we're going to go through, as I said, the
events in background first. And then, if this case, the newspapers,
the books, the films and the interpretation.
Dr Emmett SullivanSenior Tutor
