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Surveys conducted before and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 show a marked shift in how young adults viewed a classic photojournalistic icon, as well as differing interpretations based on both gender and ethnicity, according to a newly published study.
Authors Meg Spratt (Dart Center research coordinator), April Peters and Taso Lagos revisited Joe Rosenthal’s well-known “Flag Raising on Iwo Jima” photograph and examined how survey responses about the iconic image changed after the national trauma of September 11.
Titled “Of Photographs and Flags: Uses and Perceptions of an Iconic Image Before and After September 11, 2001,” the study appears in the Spring 2005 edition of Popular Communication.
The analysis, based on surveys of University of Washington students in February 2001 and in October 2001, shows that a still photograph “does have profound power to symbolize shared values and trigger personal emotions in a single visual stroke,” according to the authors. “Yet reactions to such an image are highly personalized and depend on preexisting schema, previous knowledge, and experience.”
According to the study, interpretations of Rosenthal's photo appeared to depend upon the gender and ethnicity of viewers. Women were more likely than men to associate the photograph with September 11; men were more likely than women to identify the photo's original historical context. The authors also found that “Whites were more likely to identify the photograph as the most powerful” among a group of iconic images (Dorothea Lange's “Migrant Mother” and Eddie Adams's “Execution on a Saigon Street” were also shown).
“The difference between pre-September 11 and post-September 11 emotional responses to Rosenthal's 'Flag Raising on Iwo Jima' are striking,” the authors write. “... After September 11, even more respondents said they had seen the image before, far more identified the photograph as being the most powerful of the three viewed, and more reported that it triggered personal memories or emotions.”
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