Visual Journalism Research Articles

Bending the frame: photojournalism, documentary, and the citizen

The older paradigm for photojournalists was to simply record events, with the hope and frequently the expectation that people and their governments would be moved to respond to the injustices pictured; as witnessed by the impact of certain images during the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. Given evolving media and political climates, however, including the billions of images now available online from all kinds of sources, the purpose and effectiveness of media, in particular of visual journalism, has been called into question. Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and Citzenship, by author and critic Fred Ritchin, addresses the new and emerging potentials for visual media to impact society. Ritchin examines the historical and contemporary uses of photography and related media to inspire social change. From the unintended consequences of citizen journalism and leaked images such as those from Abu Ghraib, to the new strategies by visual journalists and the targeted human rights projects by documentary photographers, the intention of this book is to provide a much-needed critical approach to the issues involved in such efforts. Also encompassing online efforts, uses of video, and a diverse range of books and exhibitions, Bending the Frame aims for as wide-ranging and farreaching a discussion as possible, asking the critical question: how can images promote new thinking and make a difference in the world?

What does video-camera framing say during the news? A look at contemporary forms of visual journalism

In order to contribute to the discussion about audiovisual processing of journalistic information, this article examines connections between the uses of video framing on the television news stage, contemporary senses, public interest and the distinction values of journalism, addressed here through the perspective of the concepts of conversation and participation. The article identifies recurring video framing techniques used by 15 Brazilian television newscasts, accounting for contemporary forms of audiovisual telejournalism, responsible for new types of spatial-temporal configurations. From a methodological perspective, this article seeks to contribute to the study of the television genre by understanding the uses of these audiovisual techniques as a strategy for newscast communicability.

Illustrating Culture: Consensus and Conflict in the Nineteenth-Century American Picture Press

Joshua Brown. Beyond the Lines: Pictorial Reporting, Everyday Life, and the Crisis of Gilded Age America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2002. 384 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. $49.95. On April 27, 1861, while Fort Sumter lay under siege, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ran a call for artists among the soldiery on both sides of the conflict: Important Notice! To Officers and others Attached to the Armies of the Federal and the Confederate States I shall be happy to receive from Officers and others attached to either Army, sketches of important events and striking incidents which may occur during the impending struggle which seems to threaten the country. For such sketches, forwarded promptly, I will pay liberally . . . The most convincing proof of the reliability and accuracy of our illustrations is, that ours is the only Illustrated Paper which is allowed to circulate freely in the South, and an additional proof is, that it stands a critical examination in those places where the scenes we illustrate occurred . (p. 47) The notice contains in condensed form much of the flavor of Leslie's and, beyond it, the illustrated popular journalism of nineteenth-century America. The call for "sketches"—not written, but drawn—reflected a shift in emphasis within the magazine press, from a cultivated, even elevated form of writing toward a visual journalism, democratically based and directed toward a newly empowered and rapidly expanding democratic polity. Leslie's wanted artifacts of direct experience, marked with the imprimatur of authenticity; it sought to present itself as less a maker of taste and ideology than a conduit linking everyday citizens experiencing the momentous events of democracy and modernization. This Leslie's notice was the clarion call of a new force in American cultural politics: a popular press situated between the scurrilous rags of vested political interest and inflammatory rhetoric and the sober high-style Boston and New York literary magazines. Even as the Union was [End Page 204] sundering, Leslie's was announcing a new American mass culture, based in the promise of authenticity, applying the democracy of sight and the visual to overcome divisions of literacy and language and, beyond that, class, region, and political divisions. This is the first argument Joshua Brown presents in his engrossing study of the illustrated press in nineteenth-century America: that we can trace in this often-cited but rarely studied genre the rise of a uniquely American popular culture. But there is much more to this wonderful study: Brown's narrative is a story, with twists and turns of plot, Dickensian characters and settings, and an equivalently complex set of interwoven themes. Beginning with Leslie's, Brown expands his focus to include the magazine press more generally; watching this segment of popular culture, Brown reveals its hubris—its promise to unite a disparate nation, a promise impossible to keep and often disastrous in outcome. As Brown argues, forcibly and with expertise, "Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper prospered because of its ability to both address and encompass difference. . . . [H]owever . . . this inclusiveness could never successfully bridge oppositions" (p. 46). To survive the very turbulence it reported and exploited, Leslie's turned to the visual, to "pictorial coverage" as a means to disguise, to emphasize, to undercut, to distill, and to disguise its contradictory messages. Let us return for a moment to that call for artists—a densely packed artifact, rich in significance for those seeking to understand Leslie's in particular and nineteenth-century American culture in general. Brown examines the packed canvas of American life during the period, and he has found it necessary to read not just other journals, but the documents and histories of a far wider array of cultural trends and events—not least because Leslie's and other such periodicals promised readers they'd find everything they needed to know, to think, and to believe in their...

Normative Conflict in the Newsroom: The Case of Digital Photo Manipulation

Digital photo manipulation is often treated in the literature as a problem that occurs when individuals stray from a single set of ethical standards. It is proposed in this study that the newsroom comprises various subgroups, each with unique norms and values, and each seeking to shape newsroom decision making. It is expected that photo manipulation should result from subgroups' perceptions of, and reactions to, this plurality of newsroom norms. This expectation is assessed through both in-depth interviews and a national phone survey of visual journalism managers. In-depth interviews reveal the existence of various sets of norms; these include integrative norms, which reflect the needs of the organization, art norms, and journalistic norms. Journalistic norms are perceived as dominant, but where art norms are stronger, photo manipulation is slightly more likely. Findings also suggest photos are more likely to be manipulated when newsrooms are large and complex and when visual journalists strain to fit visuals with story theme.

Visual Journalism: An Integrated Conception of Visual Communication in Journalism Education

New media technology provides the visual communication academy the opportunity to distance itself from the fractured, ancillary, and skills connotation associated with the field in the past. The concept of “visual journalism” in its integrative sense aimed at training the “complete visual journalist,” provides an opportunity for visual communication to develop an integrated and unified identity, reinvigorate itself, and locate its study at the center of journalism education. It allows the visual academy to create a more integrated conception of the field that is also made more germane to contemporary enterprise of journalism. If cashed-in, the concept should help visual communication overcome its supporting role to take a more central position in journalism education.

Media Convergence/Management Change: The Evolving Workflow for Visual Journalists

This article, based on a national survey of photo editors and Web directors from news organizations publishing, both online and in hard copy, examines the differences in workflow of visual journalists. An evolution in how news photographs are used and in the aesthetic and technical handling is occurring as newspapers embrace new media publishing. As a result, newspapers and news organizations are creating different operating systems within the field of photo editing and Web production. This article was done in conjunction with Kenny Irby, Visual Journalism Group Leader, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Routine news: The power of the organization in visual journalism

Routine news: The power of the organization in visual journalism

Design, writing, research: writing on graphic design

Design Writing Research is a highly acclaimed critical study of graphic design and typography. Profusely illustrated and beautifully produced, it makes a vital contribution to design studies and is an invaluable source for anyone interested in the art and history of books, letter forms, symbols, advertising, and theories of visual and verbal communication. A section on Theory considers the centrality of the written and printed word to post-structuralism and deconstruction. A wide range of design practices are discussed, from the history of punctuation and the origins of international pictograms to the structure of modern typography. A section on Media looks at the role of design in mass communications with erudite essays on stock photography, visual journalism, illustration, advertising and vernacular design cultures. The book closes with History, a section organized as a time-line spanning 200 years of design in America. These historical case studies show how the modern profession of graphic design emerged in response to cultural, political and economic developments in the US. The authors of this new edition, now published for the first time in paperback, have fuelled great interest in the theoretical aspects of design and prompted innovation in design practice.

Computerizing Visual Journalism: Lessons from the Writing Labs

Computerizing Visual Journalism: Lessons from the Writing Labs