Actions Versus Pictures Versus Words

These thoughts were written by Martriana, one of our 2020 summer interns. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.

With today’s political climate, it’s unsurprising that we are getting a hefty combination of all three, an information overload if you will. In our current world, to get an influx of attention and influence, a series of three things are often used: actions, pictures, and words. Of course, I state these in their simpler forms, each of these things has more to them than just the simple word. It’s these three things that I will be discussing in my upcoming independent project—the impact these things have on the political world and to what extent. As in how effective they are to the people, does it matter who it is, is it enough, what does the media say, etc. 

I would like to draw quick attention to what order I put each thing in. These are my opinions on which ones are the most to least impactful. And, I think it is a pretty rational thought. 

For one thing, the phrase Actions Speak Louder Than Words have always rung true. When someone actually does something for the current world, and, to a certain degree, they get a lot of attention. Especially if it’s a donation, like the CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey giving $1 billion, roughly 28% of his wealth to help fund COVID-19 relief. Or perhaps doing something in support of Black Lives Matter at protests, like Republican State Senator Mitt Romney, surprising a lot of people on both ends of the spectrum. And, for some of the loudest actions in recent weeks in the taking down of multiple confederate statues, like the one that was recently removed here in St. Louis’ Tower Grove Park.

On the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, positive actions don’t get the same amount of attention from the news than that of negative actions. Rarely anything gets better coverage than the negative. And even perceived positive actions can sometimes be skewed by the media into something negative. But, I believe, that both positive and negative news have merit and a place in the media. As much as positive news is the most desirable and is usually what we want to see, negative news helps to make sure that the people know what is currently happening in the world, what we should be looking at, what we should be talking about, etc., although the media can, indeed overdo it with the headlines and the terminology used in the article; often writing to rile up fear and unrest in an effort to get people to click on the article, “clickbait” if you will.

There is an abundance of examples of political action covered by the press, both positive and negative; so many it’s difficult to pick which ones I wanted to use as examples in this blog post, but I will highlight a few in the form of three newspaper and television news headlines about past and present protests and civil unrest:

-Gandhi’s Salt March (March 12th, 1930 – April 6th, 1930)

-Stonewall Riots (June 28th, 1969 – July 3rd, 1969)

[Really Interesting Article About Stonewall and the Press Here]

-Civil Rights Movement / Black Lives Matter Protests (1954 – 1968 / July 13th, 2013 – Present)

Actions of others get arguably the most media coverage, they get spoken about the most, get people riled up just by seeing them, and provoke almost immediate reactions, proven by more than just this year, 2020, but by multiple events in the past centuries.

Now, pictures, on the other hand, provoke thought, providing a different list of reactions. Now, pictures are in layman terms. It’s much broader than that. When I say “pictures”, I mean art pieces, videos and recordings, video games, photography, political cartoons, and TV and movies. The artistic work of others is also really good at getting the attention of the media and the public. See the following: Banksy shredding his painting Girl With Balloon after it was bought in an auction in 2018. Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire release in 1989. The movie Just Mercy released in 2019. Game franchises such as Fallout, Far Cry, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Resident Evil, Detroit Become Human, multiple photos and photography, such as:

• This list compiled by BoredPanda six years ago [Trigger Warning: Photos of Death]
• This list compiled by JotForm published two years ago

I believe that there is nothing that can truly affect thought more than pictures, no matter the media. Whether you’re seeing a picture or creating a picture in your head. Since the creation of art, it has always had an influence from Ancient Egypt to the Renaissance to the Modern Era, and this fact will never change. 

On one last hand, words are also a powerful force. How many times do you see quotes, books, speeches, lyrics, lines for media, social media posts, and others reposted all over the internet? 

• Popular and/ or well-known books like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Prince, How to Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men are widely quoted no matter the subject matter.
• Multiple books from authors such as Dr. Seuss, William Shakespeare, Roald Dahl, JK Rowling, and Stephen King are also widely quoted as well, whether or not what they said is positive or negative.
• Reddit posts, Twitter posts, Facebook posts, Instagram posts, etc.
• George Washington’s Farewell Address, The Gettysburg Address, The Fourteen Points, The Fireside Chats, Truman’s Statement About the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, etc. I could add more.

Given this list, it’s a no brainer that words carry power. Words have carried humans into wars, peace treaties, into the unknown, helped/hurt in civil unrest, etc. The power words carry can invoke a slew of emotions from all sides, and it’s hard for people to deny that. But that power can only go so far. When someone speaks up about a certain topic or issue, you wouldn’t have to scroll down far to find someone who’s going to retaliate or rebuttal with a, “Well sure, you can say that, but what will you do about it? Can you back up what you say?” So, even though I can acknowledge that words have a specific way they can carry weight and power, the other two can be at times more powerful because they can show greater action, thought, and intent. 

In my coming Independent Project essays, I will continue to highlight the positive and negative of each topic in its entirety, analyze their impact and importance, and figure out which one wins the power struggle of public attention.