Our RSS feeds
LATEST JOBS:
resize text: decrease text sizereset text size increase text size

Online Journalism News

Photo opportunities wasted

Most leading news sites are no better at using pictures than magazines were in the 1920s, according to one of the world's leading experts on photojournalism.

In a sobering interview on the state of photojournalism in online news, Professor of Photojournalism at San Francisco State University Ken Kobré, told dotJournalism that pictures are rarely used to create drama or excitement. "Instead they are merely used to break up a long, grey column," he said.

Mr Kobré, author of the photojournalism bible 'Photojournalism - The Professionals' Approach', says that even leading sites in the US and the UK such as the BBC and Guardian Unlimited have often 'ghettoised' and 'segregated' pictures from text.

He added that, while there has been a revolution in the use of photojournalism in newspapers, online sites have gone backwards.

Part of the problem, according to Mr Kobré, is that news sites tend to be rigidly formatted. This means that pictures are slotted into existing page layouts.

"So one of the tools of using size to emphasise importance and drama is not being used. It is easy to make internet pages fixed in terms of format - that makes it easy to get the page out every day - but the reverse is that it is not good journalism."

For the full interview, see Missing the big picture - Ken Kobré talks to dotJournalism.

See also:
BBC.co.uk: http://news.bbc.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
united kingdom | united states | online news | online sites | san francisco state university | internet pages | ken kobr |

Sign up here for our free, daily email newsletter to get all the latest stories, jobs, tips and more.

Got a story? Email our news team: Laura Oliver; Judith Townend or telephone +44 (0)1273 384290. You can also follow us on Twitter: @journalismnews / @LauraOliver / @JTownend.

Comments

No comments

You must be registered in order to post a comment. Click here to register or login below if you are already registered:

    

Forgotten your password? Please click here



JOB OF THE WEEK

Online content producer

With experience writing online and working to daily deadlines as well as money/finance expertise for Which? ...more

Freelancers for hire

...see all

DISPLAY ADVERTISING

image

Target our journalism community of 16,800 subscribers and 140k+ visitors monthly. Call Chris on 01273 384291

Advertisements

How fast is your broadband?

Broadband Speed

Test your speed now

Click for
broadband for business deals from Broadband Genie


Everyday Sale

everydaysale.co.uk - your voucher codes experts