Reception in photo images and press photos

The focus of this research is to examine the ways in which two groups of students from communication and law faculties. attribute meaning to the press photographs of refugees in Turkey. Drawing on reception theory, the thesis aims at exploring how the meaning produced and reproduced through visual images of refugees via Barthes' concepts of photography, studium and punctum, in particular. Thus, the main argument of this thesis is that the meaning generation process will change considerably before and after these concepts are introduced to this two interpretive groups. The methodological orientation of this thesis is qualitative. As the study aims at reflections of the participants, the technique adopted in collecting data is focus group interviews. The participants are not viewed as passive receivers of images within the frame of photographer, the photograph, and the reference, but rather, active participants of the reception process. Thus, they are taken as active meaning-makers who construct their reflective and self reflective meaning and expressing affection inside and out of the frame of the selected photographs. The photographs of refugees were selected from Photo Journalists of the Year Book. The concepts, such as studium and punctum, which constituted the main axis of the study, allowed us to see how the participants built their creative meanings of the photographs before and after encountering the aforementioned concepts. As a result, the decisive moment which was captured by photojournalist in one context triggered not only the self-reflection of the participants but also the awareness of the difference of the Other in another timespace. By contemplating on the press photographs via Barthesian concepts, the participants, creating narratives about them, tried to develop deep understanding towards the refugees. Keywords: Immigrant, Refugee, Reception, Studium and Punctum, Press Photos