West Virgina: Positively Negative

Using a montage of front page covers, The Talent Show has an interesting visual analysis of the media coverage of the mining disaster in West Virginia (Undoing A Miracle – link).  In a debacle reminiscent of “Dewey Defeats Truman,” it had been initially (and erroneously) confirmed that the miners had all been saved.

By juxtaposing the covers, TTS offers several powerful examples of how the same image — depending on the context — can move us in completely different directions.  The last example in the post (The Kansas City Star vs. The Boston Herald) is particularly dramatic.  Whereas one photo implies a scene of grief, the same image in the other paper reflects tears of joy.

(images: newseum.org.  January 3, 2005.  Via thetalentshow.org)