War photography
- What: a photograph of a large canon firing in the desert
- Who: Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda
- When: Jan. 30, 2016
- Caption: see below 4 different interpretations
- What: When we look closer and study the picture's caption and provenance, what can we find?
Photo by: Alexander Kots
What do you really see?
A well made and interesting photograph of a Syrian soldier firing a canon. The caption says it is firing towards or rather against the Islamic State army. That doesn't show in the photograph, it could very well be the last shell able to be fired and the soldier looks rather lonely with this enormous canon.
Even the location and the date are uncertain. So what is true about the contents of this photograph?
But it still is a well made and interesting picture.
Here are 4 different captions from news agencies around the world:
1. "In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, Syrian government troops fire at Islamic State group positions near Mahin, Syria. The nearly five-year Syrian conflict has left at least 250,000 people dead, forced millions to flee the country and given an opening to the Islamic State group to capture territory in Syria and Iraq. It has drawn in U.S. and Russia, as well as regional powers such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran. www.washingtonontimes.com
2. Iranian soldiers are active in Syria www.15min.lt
3. United Arab Emirates announces readiness to send troops to Syria www.lenta.ru
4. Bulgarian-made weapons and ammunition were found in the possession of the Al Nusra Front organization in Syria, designated as terrorist due to its links with Al Qaeda. iefimerida.gr
"the photo is symbolic" old.slovenskenovice.si
One nation's hero is another nation's spy ..
"Kots has repeatedly been accused of biased and unconfirmed information in his reports."
Wikipedia
"Among other journalists loyal to the Kremlin, Kots was awarded a medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree, for “objectivity in reporting on events in Crimea” on April 21, 2014, by decree of Putin. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has declared him persona non grata in Ukraine as an accomplice of terrorists."
www.spisok-putina.org (database of free russia forum)
News is always biased. Why?
- There is a war going on
- The enemy is doing it
- If I don't do it, I will loose my job or they will hurt my family
- Prove me wrong
- I am convinced
- Blind hate
slide # 12-05
