Style as Social Process

Abstract

category. The abstract category is an ideal type of all similar stories. And its properties are typified as well. Because the abstract category remains the same, even though the content of the real life stories vary somewhat, photographs that illustrate properties of the ideal type are repeatedly selected for illustration. This is an organizational and institutional dynamic that contributes towards the homogeneity of imagery we find in newspapers. The institutional classification system, as mediated through the organization of newspaper, generates what Cawelti (1970) has called formula aesthetic, that is, a highly conventionalized system for structuring cultural products. All the constraints I have described, taken together, pressure newspaper photographers to take standard pictures for standard situations. Listen to how one photographer talks about how he works: You have two choices. First, you can take the standard and forget about it. Or on the other hand, you can work very hard for the great picture. You crawl under manholes and over buildings and you get the great shot. I'd say we've got great deal of freedom in assessing what the news is and how to shoot the picture. But if they are not inclined to run my great shot, then I say, Why bother? I'll get the standard and forget about it. Thus, while photographers have, in theory, great deal of freedom to render their assignments in whichever way they choose, in practice they do not. I have repeatedly heard photographers say that they do not go for the great picture because the technology of news reproduction virtually cancels out varieties of imagery by placing limitations on the shapes, forms and black and white relationships in the photograph. Photographers also cite the column format of newspaper as limitation of the type of imagery they choose. To summarize, we see that variety of institutional and organizational constraints act in concert to steer photographers to take pictures that conform to an idealized version of typical photograph for typical situation. We have isolated the effects of mechanization, the division of labor and journalism qua institution and can now see how these factors are determinants of stylistic conventions in news photography.