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character allowed to look directly into the camera’s eye to address the TV audience is the
reporter. “This privileged reporter shot is customary of most television news; in fact,
when an interview subject gazes at the camera for too long, convention is violated and
the shot is usually considered ruined” (Campbell, 1991, p. 30). Through the
implementation of this rule, the power of the reporter is preserved.
The frequent visual absence of a reporter on MTV’s programs gives the subject a
reason to look directly at the camera – to all appearances there is no one to look at
besides the viewer. However, even in cases when evidence of a reporter’s presence is
made explicit (ie. through the subject gesturing to or addressing of a reporter outside of
the camera shot), subjects on MTV still share the privilege of facing the lens and
speaking to the audience. In “Aftermath of Terror”, a scene featuring Emily pointing to
the damage to public property allegedly carried out by Arab-Americans in Patterson
contains a privileged shot, imparting power to the subject and providing dramatic effect.
[Note: see appendix for key to abbreviations.]
EMILY: [shots of damage] They were only thirteen or fourteen at most. They were kids,
they didn’t know what they were doing. [Cut to MS EMILY] But they had so much hate
and they were doing that. It was just so sad. [Looks into camera] It was so sad.
There exists another way in which “60 Minutes lays out its images, centers, and
contains those experiences the program chooses to transform into narratives” in order to
maintain the reporter’s power (Campbell, 1991, p. 36). Controlling the frame, the visual
space given to the subject, is such a strategy. Throughout the program’s history, tighter
shots have been reserved for the subjects, while reporters are shot at a greater distance.
Former CBS Evening News executive producer Burton Benjamin explained the policy by
Convention