Snap!

Everyone knows that a picture says a thousand words. So it makes sense that in the world of news journalism, a place of short, punchy sentences and word limits, that we'd let pictures do the talking that we don't have the space to do. Sometimes, in fact, pictures have a deeper story than words could ever tell.

Photo albums are a great example of this. Families keep photo albums, or these days, USB’s, full of memories. And these memories are mostly in picture form, with maybe a few words scribbled on the back. People know that pictures tell a story, so when they have a moment they want to remember they take a few happy snaps. You don’t see too many families whipping out their notebooks to take down what’s happening at a family dinner. Instead, Aunty Marg just huddles everyone around for a photo. I, for one, am guilty of sneaking out my Polaroid when a particularly memorable moment arises. So it only makes sense that journalists would start snapping away at the scene of an interesting event.  And since you’d think that journalists would only write about interesting things, there’s a place for a photo in every story.

More and more, photos are starting to tell the story in journalism. Online news websites are littered with photo galleries, and just about every news story published on the web is accompanied by a photo. While some news photos are particularly dull and posed, others stay with you, and convey a much greater meaning than words ever could. Take, for example, this photo taken of the Black Saturday fires. In one picture, so much is said without uttering a single word.

Newspapers, online news and magazines are starting to become the photo albums of the world around us. Sure, words still play a major part. Pictures don’t truly come to life until you hear the story behind them. But it’s important to think about the photos that get put with a story. Just like no one wants to see half of Uncle Albert cut off in a photo, readers don’t want to see some cookie cutter picture that has no life or story behind it. Journalists are getting creative with their photography, and through it are creating some of the best photo albums of history that the world’s ever seen. So snap away, my journalistically minded friends. Because a picture can bring your writing to life, and maybe even give you those magical extra thousand words.