Journalistic Images: Contemporary Challenges for Visual Research in Digital Journalism

Abstract

This article aims to identify contemporary challenges in researching digital journalism images and propose potential outcomes for addressing these challenges. We argue that the analysis of contemporary journalistic photography requires a departure from traditional approaches used for analog images. Instead, it should be viewed within the ever-changing digital ecosystem in which digital journalism circulates and the new forms of creating, sharing, and visualizing its content that arise from platform context and mobile consumption. We have divided these challenges into two categories: the first relates to topics associated with the studied object, and the second pertains to the research process itself. On the one hand, changes in the nature of the photographic medium, its transmission and profusion potentials, shifts in journalistic workflow and labor relations, evolving professional multimedia needs, audience participation, and new forms of consumption are some of the aspects that need to be considered. On the other hand, we also must deal with the ephemeral quality of digital objects and recognize that researching digital objects is inherently intertwined with understanding the digital ecosystem in which these objects exist. Finally, we identify the digital methods-oriented approach as a potential path to addressing these challenges, mainly because of its characteristics of following and adapting to the medium’s logic