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| Capitol Beltway (CBS DC local news) |
When looking at these two different
articles and two different pictures, several differences jump out at me. The Washington Post’s picture gives off a
feeling of serenity; somewhat of a calm before the storm. The article explains
how this “Truckers Ride for the Constitution” rally is coming, and it’s not
joke. The picture looks like it was taken
on a nice morning, a little bit after sunrise.
The lighting is bright and the camera is panned out enough to show at
least 30 cars going up and down the beltway.
Basically, this picture consists of a normal, fall morning; people are
commuting to work as they do every day, but most of all, the beltway is problem
free with no trucker traffic.
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| Capitol Beltway (Washington Post) |
In CBS DC’s photo, you get a view
of the protest after it started. The
picture appears to be taken from inside of a car that is currently stuck in
traffic. The beltway is full of trucks that are planning to fill up the capital
beltway to protest the federal government shutdown. In this picture, unlike the first one, the
picture casts a much gloomier feel. It
was taken today, so it is raining outside, and the sky is dark. The picture basically casts the epitome of
gloominess.
One thing that CBS’s picture does
an extremely good job of is appealing to the average citizen who might be
reading the article. The caption says,
“A trucker convoy traveling 10 mph blocks all lanes of traffic on the Capital Beltway.”
It’s raining, there’s horrible traffic, and the traffic isn’t moving any time
soon. Almost every person reading this article will be able to empathize with
the situation, and that is exactly what CBS local news is aiming for. They use a picture which casts a view that
resembles one taken from an everyday person, and that generally appeals very well to the
masses.
As far as the quality of the
pictures goes, the Washington Posts's picture is superior to CBS local news' picture. It is a professionally taken photo
specifically designed to be in the Washington
Post article. The second one looks like it was taken by a civilian and sent
in to CBS, or taken by a reporter from their own car (which it was, in fact.
It was taken by John Domen of All-News 99.1 WNEW). Essentially, it wasn’t taken
by a professional photographer or even with any special photography equipment;
it looks like it was taken from a phone, which seems to give the reader a sense
of what it would be like to be in that driver’s seat.
The photograph from The Washington Post is also a
great reference picture for someone who is reading the story from CBS. It can be used as a baseline to see what the
Beltway looks like on a normal day. As
far as we know, the Post’s picture could have been taken yesterday, last month,
or last year; the only thing that we really need to know is that the Beltway
looks like that on a normal day when people are commuting (except in the case
of normal rush hour traffic).
