Photojournalism

Goal of Photojournalism

• Selecting story telling photographs that can convey the fullest, most accurate sense of the situation photographed

Goal of Photojournalism

• Engage the heart and mind of a viewer with a compelling version of truth that results from bearing witness or a situation or event.

Age of the Visual Journalist

• Visually intense society raised on millions of pictures.

• Average of 5000 images a day in a variety of forms.

• Role of the photographer and writer are changing.

The Visual Journalist

• Combined role of writer, photographer, researcher, and graphics designer.

• Requires a new mindset and vision

• The “meaning business”

• Marriage of words, images, and designs to convey information

Ethical considerations

Five Ethical Concerns

• Victims of Violence

• Right to privacy

• Picture manipulations

• Stereotyping

• Mixing of advertising, public relations and journalism

Victims of Violence

• “If it bleeds it leads”• Human tragedies and

are often the fields of harvest for Pulitzer Prize winning journalists

• Are the images really needed for the story?

Right to Privacy

• US courts have continually maintained that privacy right differ between public and private persons.

• Is the reason to rob privacy a truthful, comprehensive and intelligent account?

Picture Manipulation

• Picture an subject manipulation are as old as photography.

• Digital imaging make it easier to accomplish and harder to detect.

• At stake is the reputation of the news service.

Stereotyping

• Long list.. .African Americans are criminals. Latino are gang members. Native Americans alcoholics...

• Results of images we have seen out of context.

Advertising, Public Relations and Journalism Blurring

• “Advertorials and info mercials”

• Advertising, public relations and journalism have been fused into advertorial.

Documentary Styles

Documentary Styles

• Spot and General News

• Human Interest and pictorial features

• Sports action and Features

• Picture stories

Spot News

General News

Human Interest

Pictorial

Sports Action

Sports Action

• “Celebration of victory and agony of defeat”

Sports Feature

Picture stories

Telling a visual story

Narrative thread

• Difference in visual story telling vs photo illustrated texts is the narrative thread or sequence that tells a story.

• Today to most readers, images are more powerful and capture more attention, than text.

Active vs.. Passive photographs

• Active• Show real people

engaged in real events in real time

• Example: James Natchway’s images of starving mothers and children in the Sudan.

• Passive• Show people in in

situations in which their essential purpose is to have their picture taken for the newspaper.

• Example: Rick Sammon’s travel images

Context of the Photograph

• Photographers and photo editors must strive to give an accurate image of an event or person rather than something taken out of context that makes a good image.

Time and Speed

• Printed news services and especially the web require almost instantaneous news from around the world.

• Photo editing decisions must now be done in minutes and seconds instead of hours and days

Photo editing

• Current decision making constraints require a strong background in news, ethical judgement and philosophical base.

Photo Captions

• Photos engage the eye, captions should engage the mind

• A way to go beyond what the viewer can already see

• It all starts with the photographer who was there and captures the moment

Tips for good captions

• Point out subtleties not apparent to the viewer

• Point out ambiguities and prevent viewer misunderstanding

• Use quotes that add depth to the storytelling image

• Explain technical information

• Relate to the four non visual senses