Photojournalism: vital form of news

Gallery • 3 Photos

Aaron Yang

“You become oblivious to the fact that the picture drew you in after you start reading. People forget all about the photo,” Wasieleski says. “I think they should remember the photo from the article because it attracted them and then interested them.”

Every newspaper, article, or any type of stories you see with an image in the front, always has a meaning behind it. The definition of what the photo represents is called photojournalism. Photojournalism helps readers connect the photo to the story, and plays a big part in helping readers become more engaged with the stories. Having photojournalism helps stories become alive and gives the story a meaning.

Creativity

One of the most basic formats of photography in news is having its own unique style of creativity. If all photos were simple and plain, there would be no attention towards the articles. Photos can really pull people’s attention if it were to have some sort of style. Having different settings or specific figures that make the image engaging brings out the meaning of the photos.

“Photojournalism is a category of photography for news, and it’s where maybe the news journalists go to a certain part of a country as part of the story that they’re trying to find,” photography teacher Christina Weese said.

Having emotion will bring out the article and its meaning. Having emotions can sometimes help readers realize the time the photograph was taken. It captures the moments of different periods of time.

“I think you can catch a moment of time. Like if there were some kind of big incident that happened, and with photojournalists there, it could really put you at that moment,” Weese explained.

Purpose

Having meaning in a photograph is always what readers look for when reading an article, especially if the photo grabs attention. There are always reasons for the photographs, and after reading articles, the true reason of the photo will show its importance of the article.

“Seeing the pictures makes me feel like I was there and makes the article a bit more interesting so I keep reading and next thing you know I’m done. So the picture helps me feel engaged by making me feel involved,” junior Keith Wasieleski, student of Weese’s photography class, said.

Photojournalism can leave a huge impact on society today because of the amount of meaning a photograph holds. Connecting a story to a photo is a major factor to photojournalism, and is what makes a story what it is by the first impression of the photograph.

“In a way, I would say it leaves more of an impact that any other type photography,” Weese said. “Photojournalism is very important for sharing the story and telling the story in a different way that kind of enhances the written parts of the story. Sometimes they say, ‘A picture has a thousand words’, so you could tell a lot about the story that the author is trying to tell through pictures.”