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When What Isn't Shown Speaks Volumes

Ramiz Dedaković
/
Unspalsh
The choices made in what is, and isn't shown in popular media can leave a lasting mark on the public memory.

When it comes to images in the media, it’s as much about what isn’t said and shown, as it is about what’s depicted.

This idea of “invisibility” sets the foundation for much of Barbie Zelizer’s work. Zelizer is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication and director of the Center for Media at Risk at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a former journalist.

On this episode of River to River, Zelizer joins host Ben Kieffer for a discussion about invisibility in visual media, and takes calls from listeners hoping to explore the meaning and interpretation of their most remembered popular news images.

Zelizer delivered the lecture "On invisibility and the news in precarious times: Why invisible Trump accommodates critique better than a visible one" as part of the University of Iowa’s McGranahan Lecture Series.

This program originally aired 3-5-20

Katelyn Harrop is a producer for IPR's River to River and Talk of Iowa
Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River