Power of Pics versus Words in Hackgate Stories

Within the whole Hackgate saga, as PR bod  I have been enjoying the choice of head shots used by the Media Guardian to illustrate the stories. Typically the picture of Cameron or Murdoch used for an article  acts as a visual headline. Check out today’s one about the allegations of James Murdoch misleading parliament. In my cynical mind, the crooked line of his lips says it all in this picture.

Coincidentally in today’s Guardian, another article by the recent children’s laureate  Michael Rosen takes an  opposing view  that I find equally fascinating. His argument is that the Hackgate story is driven less by the powerful  images used -  Murdoch chased by the press pack and   sweating on his jog, Brooks’s Pre-Raphaelite locks – than the use of words to evade and obfuscate the truth.  There are some choice words here. I particularly like his picking out of the word “actually” as a word used to over-emphasise and hide the truth.

So, appropriately and ironically  enough for a story that’s tearing apart the old ecosystem of  tabloid journalism and politics, tabloid news values of powerful combinations of words and images are integral to how the story works as, in the words of the PM, a raging  media firestorm buring through the press, politics and police.