TOPICS FOR CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING
1. In paragraph 5 Ephron refers to “the famous assassination picture of the Vietcong prisoner in Saigon” (see p. 143). The photo shows the face of a prisoner who is about to be shot in the head at close range. Jot down the reasons why you would or would not approve of printing this photo in a newspaper. Think, too, about this: If the photo on page 142 were not about a war — if it did not include the soldiers and the burning village in the rear but instead showed children fleeing from an abusive parent or from an abusive sibling — would you approve of printing it in a newspaper?

2. In paragraph 9 Ephron quotes a newspaperman as saying that before printing Forman’s pictures of the woman and the child falling from the fire escape, editors should have asked themselves “what purpose they served and what their effect was likely to be on the reader.” If you were 172 4 / VISUAL RHETORIC: IMAGES AS ARGUMENTS EPHRON / THE BOSTON PHOTOGRAPHS 173 an editor, what would your answers be? By the way, the pictures were not taken in a poor neighborhood, and they did not expose slum conditions.

3. In 50 words or so, write a precise description of what you see in the third of the Boston photographs. Do you think readers of your description would be “revolted” by the picture (para. 8), as were many viewers, the Washington Post’s ombudsman among them? Why, or why not?

4. Ephron thinks it would be a good thing if more photographs of death and dying were published by newspapers (paras. 11–13). In an essay of 500 words, state her reasons and your evaluation of them.