Reading National Geographic

by Catherine A. Lutz, Jane L. Collins

For millions of readers, Nat'l Geographic has long been a window to the world of exotic peoples & places. This account of an American institution explores the possibility that the magazine, in purporting to teach about distant cultures, actually tells us much more about our own. Lutz & Collins go inside the Nat'l Geographic Society to investigate how its photographers, editors & designers select images & text to produce representations of 3rd World cultures. Thru interviews with editors, they describe the process as one of negotiating standards of balance, objectivity, informational content & visual beauty. Then, in a close reading of some 600 photos, they examine issues of race, gender, privilege, progress & modernity thru an analysis of the way such things as color, pose, framing & vantage point are used in representations of non-Western peoples. Finally, interviewing readers, they assess how the magazine's cultural narratives are received & interpreted, & identify a tension between the desire to know about other peoples' ways & the wish to validate middle-class American values. The result is a complex portrait of an institution & its role in promoting a kind of conservative humanism that acknowledges universal values & celebrates diversity while allowing readers to relegate non-Western peoples to earlier stages of progress. We see the magazine & the Society as a middlebrow arbiter of taste, wealth & power. We get a telling glimpse into middle-class culture & all the wishes, assumptions & fears it brings to bear on armchair explorations of the world.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Photography, History, College, School, Cultural

328 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Leslie]

From my daughter's bookshelf ... an academic read from the anthropological point of view, but I really like that intensity and focus.

[Karla Kitalong]

I picked this up to augment my intensive map study. It didn't function quite that way, as it mostly focuses on an analysis of National Geographic photos, with a sort of reader response, cultural studies, contextual inquiry focus. I like the book, but not as much as I remember liking it the first time I read it, many years ago. Nevertheless, I'll keep it on my shelf.

[Danna · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun for a while, but I'm done recording the monthly magazines. This title is now back in my "To-Read" pile, as I wait patiently for interlibrary loan.

I'm a big fan of Nat Geo and eventually manage to read every monthly issue from cover to cover. I'll be using the "Reading National Geographic" entry to track my magazine reading. (And one of these days I'll check out the book, too. It sounds really interesting!)

Favorite Articles and Other Comments:
12-1-08: Woo hoo! Next issue arrived in the mail today. Time to catch up on the ol' reading log here.
November 2008> Our Vanishing Night: Light pollution - it's not just aesthetically unpleasing. Nice to see some mention of the energy costs of lighting at night, which I've also heard discussed recently on NPR.
October 2008 India's highway (fascinating) and right whales (high awwww factor)
September 2008 Our Good Earth: Where Food Begins (nice tidbit following "The Omnivore's Dilemma")
August 2008 Ancient Soul of Iran (enlightening); Moscow Never Sleeps (frightening).
January 2008 Volcano Culture (fascinating) and High-Tech Trash (sobering)
July 2008 Kingman Reef and Altiplano: more incredible places I probably won't ever see in person; thanks again to Nat Geo for enabling my armchair travels.
June 2008 Gotta love Stonehenge; I continue to be fascinated. Grooviest pictures: nudibranchs! What a neat word, and what interesting little creatures.
May 2008 All About China (sobering)
April 2008 The Sahel (enlightening); Almost Human: It's so tiresome to hear that scientists who have lived with and studied primate groups for years and have amassed mountains of data are still being disregarded and scorned by other scientists who have not and refuse to accept any evidence contrary to their own opinions. (And how sad that it's still more common for women to be dismissed by their male colleagues.) Such is the human tendency to adopt a pattern of behavior and persist in expressing it despite our capacity for metacognition and the will to deliberately change. Scientists, heal thyselves.
March 2008 Iceland's Power Struggle, The God Particle, Pioneers of the Pacific, and Bhutan's Experiment: all equally interesting. Best photos: Animal Minds.
February 2008 Drying of the West (sobering) and On the Poet's Trail (inspiring)

[Julia Hendon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthropologists Lutz and Collier consider the role of National Geographic in our understanding of "exotic" places and peoples. Despite somewhat heavy use of academic jargon at times, they provide enough detail, through interviews with staff members, readers, and others, to give a good sense of the goals and philosophy underlying those beautifully illustrated stories.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written for casual readers of cultural studies (packed with info but still comprehensible). Being familiar with the ideas of other authors like Barthes, Jameson, Gramsci first might be a good idea.

[Eli Hinze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has a very compelling thesis. The evidence is laid out with clarity and is extremely though provoking.

[mohamed Elkhouaja]

verry good