Journalism now- Contemporary photojournalism

Photojournalism is defined as capturing topical photographs of current events, allowing a story or piece of news to be explained through one or a series of photographs. Photojournalism allows revelations and truths to be published through the medium of photography, explaining a news story or event which usually contains high emotion or a topical issue.

As technology has increased over time, creating photojournalistic material has become easier. Digital photography, smaller, lighter and faster cameras have been created allowing easier transportation and storage. As a result of this, photographs can be captured anywhere, including remote locations where it would have previously been impossible to capture and upload photos quickly. The photographer can then record moments in time whenever a topical event happens. Modern cameras also have a much greater display resolution, this allows greater colour and detail to images resulting in a greater understanding of what the photograph is showing.

These cameras also contain greater memory; allowing hundreds of photos to be stored rather than switching film or running out of storage. Contemporary photojournalism also allows photographs to be uploaded as soon as they are taken, using a laptop or computer which can be easily transported. This means that the long process of waiting for photographs to develop can be discarded and the news can be published as soon as they have been taken.

The creation of the internet has helped to widen the way in which photographs can currently be viewed; photojournalism appears more in news papers or magazines, but also with the creation of the internet more photographs can be found online. As a result, the volume of photographs that are widely available to be viewed has also increased. People wishing to view photographic news no longer have to travel to a gallery, or buy a magazine or newspaper as the photographs are more widely available to them.

However it is argued that there may not be a demand for photojournalism at all in the future. Contemporary photojournalism differs from that of the past as the topical subjects people find interesting have gone through rapid changes. Consequently the market for photojournalism now includes a demand for celebrities. Photographer Jeff Moore said: "Recently a good friend who is pretty well-known in the business went around to various magazines with an idea for a news story. Most of them liked it, but lost interest when they found out there weren't any celebrities involved."

Contemporary photojournalism also includes citizen journalism, this is a result of any citizen being able to pick up and use a camera to capture and publish any news events which they have witnessed. This is a result of the wide availability of cameras, now found in mobile phones and other portable devices. This increases the scale of photojournalism so that it is not reduced to only professional companies creating journalism and instead allows the public to create photojournalism as well.


Sources:
BBC Viewfinder
Daniel Bersak-Photojournalism
Reuel Golden-Photojournalism- 1855-Present