Photojournalism: Why Bother?
by Jack Zibluk
Why bother?
I hear the question all the time when I talk about photojournalism education, photojournalism internships and photojournalism careers.
Everybody knows about the what’s happening in the newspaper industry, broadcasts outlets and mainstream media all together. If there are no jobs, scant freelance opportunities and outright derision from the hate-the-media crowd, why bother?
Ironically, there are more reasons — and more important reasons — now than ever to bother being a true professional photojournalist, video journalist, multi-media journalist, visual communications journalist or whatever you want to call it these days.
There are practical reasons to bother, and there are ethical reasons to bother. And they’re all damn good reasons.
The practical reasons to go into the field and to do it well and to do it professionally are largely economic, believe it or not. Professional photojournalism education and experience offer a very high-demand skill set. Every company, every government, every service organization and every NGO in the world needs images to tell its story. They need media skills and media savvy to get their messages across in a highly competitive, saturated visual environment. They need web skills and production skills and great images, great design, and yes, visual people, great writing.
“There are practical reasons to bother, and there are ethical reasons to bother. And they’re all damn good reasons.”
The good stuff will stand out, and it will bring attention to whatever you’re involved in. Several of my students are getting calls and job opportunities as web masters, producers, and public relations/communications professionals. Almost every organization in the universe has a website these days and almost all of them need images. Good images will stand out, and good production values and good writing takes the whole package a quantum further in quality and potential.
In the short run, many, probably most, outlets don’t want to pay for quality. They settle for second-rate content, and they don’t know the difference between good content and good images and the crap. But that may just be the short run. We’re already seeing the backlash against low-quality content. Ill-informed, one-sided content and a myriad of ethical lapses have hastened the decline of traditional media and traditional jobs.
The decline is really a kind of creative destruction. As more amateurs produce crummy youtube videos, as more amateurs send pictures and videos on cell phones, as more people create and use all sort of visual material, the more they will appreciate how hard it is to do it well.
And that will create demand for good work.
When will the demand for quality work come? Nobody knows. But when it does come, and it will, your photojournalism and visual communication background will be in demand, and your work will stand out because the quality will tower above all the schlock.
What will the demand look like? That’s where the ethical part comes in. Ethics is about the effects of the choices we make. Right now, when everybody and their mother has a blog, we have an opportunity to shape that demand. When good professionals put their work out there , and when they promote themselves on whatever websites, social media, and other outlets they can, whenever they can have a discussion on ethics and the importance of good images and good journalism, and whenever they promote their work, they create an appreciation of professional practices and standards in whoever sees that work. That’s how you build and audience, and that’s how you build demand. In the short run, there may not be much direct economic incentive, let alone income, to put your work and your ideas out there. But if enough people do it, and if we work together we have the ability to build that demand, and that will bring the income. Eventually.
And that’s where a good education comes in, and that’s where an internship comes in. That’s where you learn to be a professional, not an amateur with a point-and-shoot or a cell phone.
Right now, we all have the choice of doing and promoting good work, and maybe doing it for low pay, or even for free, or waiting in the dark for the e-mail to come or for the cell phone to vibrate. That’s where organizations like the NPPA come in. They provide a platform to define and promote professionalism, the opportunity to learn from others and the opportunity to reach out to audiences within the organizations and outside them.
And that’s where a good education comes in, and that’s where an internship comes in. That’s where you learn to be a professional, not an amateur with a point-and-shoot or a cell phone.
We face other ethical choices, too. If you use your skills for real journalism, to tell important stories, to bring important information to the audience, and if you do it well, the audience will see it. If you use your skills to sell vinyl siding or time-share condominiums, high quality work will stand out there, too. Making choices about how and where to use your professionalism are part of what ethics are about, too. And ethics are a big part of what the NPPA is about.
So, the economic meteor has hit and dinosaurs are rolling over in the dust. The mammals with brains and skills and warm blood will shape the future. We can shape the evolution of the future by building the profession and building demand for the profession; we help build new markets and new demand for quality work. Or we can wait in the cold and the dark.
Why bother, indeed?
Jack Zibluk, Ph.D., is associate professor of journalism at Arkansas State university. He is a former Vice President of the National Press Photographers Association.
