The First Post of a New Era
Dear friends,
Get ready for a new and wholly enhanced Reading the Pictures experience.
Joining the newsletter revolution, we're using our newsletter site as a portal to our latest content and recent material and a place to discuss the images together--just like the old days.
To mark the transition, we're also introducing a new URL for the newsletter site: ReadingthePictures.media.
20 Years in a Mere 6 Paragraphs
Part of my excitement going forward comes from the pride and pleasure of where we've been.
When we launched in 2001, mostly posting the BagNews cartoon, we were one of the first political blogs. In 2003, when we started analyzing news images (and rebranded from BagNews to BagNewsNotes), we filled a unique niche in the blogosphere. Our tagline was "Everyone else reads the words; we read the pictures." Inspired by the quote from GOP operative Karl Rove that "politics is TV with the sound off," we came into our own with the analysis of the visual framing of the 2004 Bush-Kerry campaign.
We have always straddled the spheres of politics, media, and photography. We were also one of the first photo blogs (encouraged by fellow pioneers such as FlakPhoto, Conscientious, Prison Photography, LensScratch, and Politics, Theory, and Photography).
It was a heady and disruptive time, especially for the "mainstream media." Initially, photographers and news outlets didn't know how or what to do with us. As just one consequence, I remember getting tracked down by legendary photojournalist David Burnett, demanding to know why we had posted one of his published news photos without permission. That led us to pursue an early legal finding establishing the right to republish news photographs under the Fair Use Act's commentary, critique, and analysis provisions.
And it inspired Burnett to start his own "blob. "
Our first two decades have had many milestones: Our inclusion as first-time credential bloggers at the 2008 Democratic Convention. We were a finalist for best political blog in the first Webby's and won a Picture of the Year award from POY International. We also pioneered online conversation with our fabulous Salon series, crafting live audio and visual group conversations 16 years before COVID and Zoom enabled the world to catch up.
Looking Forward (And, What Goes Around Comes Around)
As fragmented and confused as the news and social media landscape is now, I'm confident about our new path. The newsletter platform's hybrid blog/email/conversation formats mark a return to simplicity. In our early years on the TypePad blogging platform, the site was basic, production was simple, and we enjoyed daily conversations about the images with many followers in our discussion thread.
Am I sorry about the thousands of posts and the 20,000+ followers we leave behind on Twitter? Well, it was good until it wasn't. And we've been as successful as anyone in adapting to change.
And, if you're grieving about our mothership, the ReadingthePictures.org website with its over 6700 entries, don't worry! We will continue to cross-post content to the WordPress monolith for students, scholars, academics, and everyone interested in our analysis and visual curation over the past 20 years. ReadingthePictures.org will remain a valuable resource and archive.
What to Expect
Here's what you can expect from us. Look for:
• Weekly posts delivered to your inbox and accessible on ReadingthePictures.media.
• Short takes on what I'm looking at, including select images reflective of political, cultural, and media trends I'm seeing.
• Our amazing Chatting the Pictures videos with myself and Cara Finnegan, produced and co-edited by the incredibly talented Liliana Michelena.
• Around once a month, a more extended essay from me complimented by occasional analysis from friends and colleagues.
• Analysis of a broader scope of cultural images, including magazine and book covers and key AI images.
• More experimentation. (Anyone remember the red pen?)
• And, more conversation with you!
The Subscription Question and How You Can Help
We have decided not to solicit paid subscriptions or create tiers of content, at least for the immediate future. If you value our work and can make a tax-deductible donation monthly or yearly, however, please do so via the site's subscription link. Otherwise, you can contribute by spreading the word. What we are doing remains unique and vital for visual democracy and the health of our media culture. So, beyond being part of our comment community, pay us back by circulating our work and encouraging others to subscribe.
Now, let's get started!
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