Relevance of Photographs in Newspaper Journalism

Abstract

Photographs are very important in mass communication as a whole and specifically for newspaper/print journalism. Photographs on newspaper pages greatly stimulate public interest in current events and human angle stories by attracting and retaining their attention. These photographs are mainly used for two purposes – to supplement news stories and for advertisements. The absence of photograph on newspaper pages would make the publication dull and unattractive. These photographs can either be aware, semi-aware or candid photographs. Some of the prominent Nigerian newspapers of today are Vanguard, The Guardian, The Sun, This Day, The Punch, The Nation, etc.A major function of a photograph in newspaper/print journalism is that it jumps or eliminates literacy barrier by visually you are communicating to the illiterate what he can't understand in a written words. A very important aspect of photograph on newspaper is that while it attracts attention, it communicates and gives credibility as readers will almost certainly believe stories with accompanying pictures as evidence the event actually happened as reported. Dominant photographs appearing on the front pages of newspapers should be representing a news story in the newspaper which should also be highlighted on the page of the same edition.