February 22, 2012

Briggs Chapter Six: Visual storytelling with photographs

The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures are an essential part of journalism because they allow the audience to have a visual representation of what they’re reading. As humans we are primarily vision based. Seeing something with our own eyes is more impactful than creating our own image mentally.

Steve Buttry taught us that it was possible to have our environment create a story for us. I believe that to be true. As much as a person can sit behind their desk throwing around ideas, nothing compares to actually going out and being a part of a situation. Being a part of something is a different experience than just hearing about it. That is another reason why photos are so important. It makes the reader feel like they were actually apart of the event, rather than just a passer by.

This chapter gives insight on how to capture, use, and manipulate photographs in order to tell a story. I’ve trained myself to use programs such as Photoshop, so that portion of the chapter was another refresher for me. A chance to hone a skill that I already possessed.