“Being there”: How Photojournalists Navigate Making Images During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

ABSTRACT Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study, this paper explores visual journalists personal experience with safety concerns as they gather imagery. It delves into visual journalists’ impressions of organizational support and job satisfaction in times of crisis and how that relates to the images they produced and their impression of the journalism industry broadly. In this exploratory study, scholars partnered with the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) to survey 161 visual journalists about how they conducted their work in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, exploring the question: How has the pandemic affected visual journalists tasked with bearing witness and making images that must take place in person? Guided by the hierarchy of influences model, findings indicate that visuals journalists (individuals) and their routines were disrupted during the pandemic, leading to subsequent changes in visual content produced. Moreover, journalists experienced decreases in overall job satisfaction, especially when they felt their news organizations did not prioritize their safety. This research discusses what this means for photojournalism and how professionals should reexamine the burden of bearing witness.