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This case study uses a diversity and critical thinking exercise in a photojournalism class to show how journalism educators can incorporate race and gender conversations about ethics and judgment into traditionally skills-oriented courses. It is crucial that journalism students learn how to apply their skills properly in an era of social unrest, inequality, and dwindling media trust. Democratic citizenship and journalism are intertwined, but often the bigger ethical conversations are left out of skills-oriented courses. This can lead to a disconnect between the skills themselves and the responsibility of practicing the skills, especially when it comes to matters of power and representation. The field of photojournalism remains predominately White and male, which makes it all the more crucial for students to interrogate their own biases to ensure ethical coverage of their communities. The assignment asks students to make 36 portraits of strangers, and the subsequent classroom exercise has them confront their inherent biases by looking at the demographics of the people they photographed compared to the general population. Data for this case study consist of observations of the classroom conversations and a reflexive journalism exercise the students completed afterward. Findings indicate this exercise is a successful way to introduce racial and gender considerations as part of photojournalistic ethics and judgment. Students initially neglected to think about representation and diversity in their selection of people to photograph but afterward said they could effectively incorporate reflexivity into their work in an effort to provide more representative imagery and confront their own biases.

Environmental journalism helps readers better understand the relationship between humanity and humanity’s home, but visual aspects of this type of reporting often focus more on conflict and distant human suffering. Though this is somewhat changing in print media, there remains a lack of focus on the action-forward type of reporting that might mobilize and educate readers toward what can be done about environmental problems. This study looks at environmental journalism visuals through a solutions journalism perspective, which compels journalists to add to their coverage of problems by asking and showing what people are doing about it. Through a content analysis, we explore how the environment is visually represented in solutions-oriented news stories. We found key differences based on story topic, as well as how people were included and depicted within the images. We also discuss the significant reliance on outside sources for images used in these stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the issue of image control in journalism and photojournalism. It highlights how efforts to limit journalists' access to information can be seen as a way to control the narrative or maintain a certain image. The author emphasizes the importance of firsthand observation in understanding the complexities of image control and suggests that researchers and photojournalists should strive to widen their definition of stakeholders and be skeptical of their motivations. The article also emphasizes the need for reflexivity in research and acknowledges the potential biases that can influence analysis. Overall, the article encourages researchers to continue exploring the topic of image control and draws inspiration from photojournalists' dedication to being present in the field. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines how solutions journalism education translates to professional practice, through in-depth interviews with current media professionals who encountered solutions journalism when they were in college. Findings suggest that solutions journalism education resonates powerfully with students, and incorporating the practice in J-school curriculum may have the potential to reengage disenchanted students. Whereas there remain significant barriers to practicing the approach in the workplace, participants revealed that their encounters at university with solutions journalism positively affected their reporting style, interview skills, and perspective of journalism's role in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uncovers routine and individual-level influences upon the content of US front-page images. This examination is justified by a news-image environment increasingly dominated by a small number of central agencies and with a lack of photojournalist diversity. At the routine level, differences are assessed based on whether images are taken by an on-staff photojournalist or a wire photographer. At the individual level, differences are assessed based on the photographer's race and gender. The visual content studied includes three general categories: photojournalistic news values (presence of people, activity of persons of people in the image, whether eye contact is portrayed, emotional hierarchy, and topic), representation (race and gender of people or persons in the image), and visual elevation (circulation of the image in which the image appears, image usage, and image topic). Results of the study show a number of significant routine-level differences, but fewer differences based on the individual characteristics of the photojournalist, which primarily pertain to the representation of subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of constructive and solutions journalism has grown in recent years, led by claims of positive audience effects. Our systematic review of 22 effects experiments across 19 studies found that solutions and constructive news stories unequivocally affect audience emotions. Clarity is needed for other dependent variables. Consistency is needed in theoretical constructs and the independent variables used. Focus needs to continue to extend beyond the United States and Western Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic activity surrounding constructive and solutions journalism has surged in recent years; thus, it is important to pause and reflect on this growing body of work in order to understand where the field can and should go in the future. We conducted a systematic review of existing literature on solutions and constructive journalism (N = 94), in an effort to (1) describe the state of this field by identifying the patterns and trends in the methodological and conceptual approaches, topics, institutions, countries and practices involved in this research, and (2) illuminate potentially important gaps in the field and suggest recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restricting Los Angeles Paparazzi: California's Legal Efforts Impacting Free Press Rights. I enjoyed the field observation chapter, where Azriel spent a week in the field embedded with other paparazzi and working as a freelancer himself, but wish that it contained more than a brief summary of the various activities of a paparazzi. [Extracted from the article]