What Is Photojournalism?

Photojournalism is a form of journalism that uses images rather than words in order to tell a story or report some significant news. It is now usually used to refer to still images but in some cases it also refers to the use of videos in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close genres of photography such as street photography by using a strict ethical framework which demands that the work is honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strict journalistic terms. Photojournalists must be well informed and knowledgeable about events happening in the world. They deliver news in a creative and entertaining format.

Photojournalists have been around as long as cameras and show the world what they want to and what they should be seeing. An example of this is this photograph by Don McCullin. It shows a shell-shocked soldier in Vietnam in 1968. Due to propaganda everyone back in the US thought that everything was fine for the soldiers and they were enjoying fighting for their country but this picture exploited the fact that soldiers were severely damaged by the things they saw. This is just one case of many in which photojournalists have captured a photograph which cannot be explained with words that’ll give the photo justice.