Visual Social Communication Through Photographic Images

Abstract

Social commentary is a method of photographic images that could change public perception towards a better life. It is an alternative method to communicate messages for public to change their perceptions or attitudes toward life issues of ethnical, political, moral and even religious matters. In western countries social commentary images have long been accepted by the public. Hence, it could be denied that it has become one of the powerful medium of communications to foster change when reformist works by photographer Lewis Hine and Jacob Riss had proven changes in community’s social life. Images captured by these artists had successfully improved human’s social, economic and environmental values and thus, had benefited the communities for a more meaningful life. Even though camera is the mechanical device that produces images, but it is the human touch that makes remarkable pictures being produced for social commentary. Nevertheless, to date, a developing country like Malaysia has not realized that social commentary photographs as the tool for change. Social commentary photographs by Malaysian social commentary artist did not impact the Malaysian public so much. Hence, this paper focuses to find out public’s perception on social commentary photography by Malaysian artists and to what extend the public understand the message. This study employed qualitative method through observations and interviews, which benefited the government and public sectors on how important the impact of images could be.



Author Information
Husaini Yaacob, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia
Mustaffa Halabi Azahari, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia
Adzrool Idzwan Ismail, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia

Paper Information
Conference: MediAsia2013
Stream: Media Studies

This paper is part of the MediAsia2013 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Yaacob H., Azahari M., & Ismail A. (2014) Visual Social Communication Through Photographic Images ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media & Mass Communication 2013 – Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/2186-5906.20130159
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/2186-5906.20130159


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Posted by James Alexander Gordon