Mid Sweden University

Paper abstract

Recent research has shown that photographs dominate over text in newspapers, especially but not exclusively on page one. However, a widespread shift to tabloid-format newspapers, new design concepts, and a pre-planned template and shifting reading habits, contribute to placing new demands on front-page images. At the same time, the emergence of digital editions in the past two decades and the introduction of video and web-TV updated on a 24-7 basis have made newsroom practices more complex.

Such recent and ongoing shifts raise questions that are the point of departure for this paper, specifically concerning decision-making processes about visual journalism and the characteristics of news photographs. Thus, through newsroom observations and interviews, and drawing from theories of news judgment, gatekeeping and commercialization, this study analyzes discursive practices and routines in two Swedish newsrooms. The specific focus is the process for page-one photographs and visual content in digital newspaper editions. A second aim is to examine what the increased visualization of the news means for photojournalism or, simply put, what constitutes photojournalism on page one. This is addressed through an aesthetic analysis of how images construe news value.

The purpose is to learn how visual journalism is discussed, framed, understood and valued, how decisions about images are made and who makes them, and how the chosen images adhere to journalistic ideals. The study is currently underway with results forthcoming in the spring of 2015.