Relearning photojournalism

Allan, Stuart and Gormley, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3009-6879 (2026) Relearning photojournalism. In: The Routledge Companion to Journalism Education. Routledge Journalism Companions . Routledge, London, pp. 294-305. ISBN 9781032641034

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Abstract

Paradoxically, at the very moment when journalism has arguably never been more visually-oriented in its purview, the resources necessary to support the commitments of related practitioners – photojournalists, news photographers, videographers, multimedia content creators, documentarists, data visualisers, graphic illustrators, and the like – have never been stretched more thinly, where they have not been rationalised away altogether under budgetary pressures. Rigorous diagnoses of this paradox, let alone efforts to facilitate critical deliberations regarding pragmatic solutions, continue to elude the sustained attention they warrant within journalism education. In striving to encourage wider dialogue and debate regarding possible ways forward, this chapter begins by identifying several formative issues giving early shape and direction to photojournalism courses as they emerged in the 20th century. It resonates with our purposes here, namely because she explains why it proved necessary, in her view, to unlearn much of what she had been taught in order to convey the complexities of certain social issues with sufficient reportorial integrity. Next, the chapter provides a case study drawn from Anna Gormley’s research, where she similarly shows how and why photojournalism’s commitments can be embodied differently to generate more empathetic types of photo-reportage. Refugees equipped with cameras to relay their first-hand experiences often feel empowered, their imagery posing a direct challenge to stereotypical misrepresentations devaluing their humanity. Finally, the chapter makes a positive argument for revitalising the teaching of visual journalism on the basis of the preceding discussion. Pedagogical boundaries must be expanded to be more inclusive of alternative news values and priorities, particularly from the perspective of those otherwise marginalised or unobserved, and thereby alert to nascent forms, practices and epistemologies of visual reportage emerging across news and social media platforms.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	20th century; Budgetary pressures; Case-studies; Content creators; Journalism education; Multimedia contents; News media; Positive arguments; Social issues; Sustained attention
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN4699 Journalism
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment
Depositing User:	Anne Pengelly
Date Deposited:	14 Jul 2026 13:51
Last Modified:	14 Jul 2026 14:00
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16425

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