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Tuesday, June 28 intro paragraph with thesis statement and draft body paragraph
**You CANNOT use the COVID-19 pandemic/disaster for this paper**
The goal of this assignment is for you to critically analyze and apply Susan Sontag’s argument from Regarding the Pain of Others to a recent newspaper article and photograph
Using online newspaper archives, find one article from an American news source with an accompanying photograph from within the past five years documenting catastrophic events, war, or atrocities in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America. How does the newspaper article & photograph you found complicate Sontag’s argument?
The photograph does not necessarily have to be a picture of dead or dying people, but if it is not, then the absence or body/bodies should be a point of contention that you plan on discussing in your paper. When analyzing your photograph, you may wish to consider these questions in terms of the Sontag’s article:
How does the location of the newspaper (i.e., New York City for the New York

Times) frame the message of the photograph?
Does the photograph exhibit a “shock value”? Why or why not?
Does the photograph exhibit a form of censorship? Why or why not?
Do you find the photograph persuasive? Analyze its visual elements (color, composition, position of people, etc.)
What meaning does the photograph convey?
Is the photograph staged?
Does the photograph promote a distance between its viewer and the subject?
How does the information from the newspaper article inform (support, refute, or complicate) the photograph?
a thesis statement that is in conversation with Sontag’s claim
a brief summary of the article and the photograph (What newspaper is it from? Who wrote the article? Is the photographer’s name cited? What is the historical, social, or cultural context of the article?)
body paragraphs that have a topic sentence, supporting evidence, and transition/conclusion sentence
all body paragraphs should be in support of your thesis/claim
conclusion that summarizes your thesis and answers the “so what?” question