<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>While staff photographers are losing their jobs, news agency networks have become main suppliers of visual content to the news media. A global news site such as the Guardian leans to news agencies for most of its selected visuals. In tandem with the expanding visual power of new agencies, the ethical standards of the wholesalers are challenged by increasing amounts of user generated content, distant editing, and the live-streaming of breaking news. This article discusses editorial dilemmas prompted by proliferate, high tech processing of visual content by the news agencies’ global networks, exemplified by the coverage of terrorism. The analysis is grounded in a variety of empirical data, and aspects of Manuel Castells’ theory on communication power provide a theorizing framework for the discussion. The study suggests that the visual power of today’s news agencies rests on three interconnected processes of handling imagery: agency infrastructuring, technological infrastructuring and global newsroom infrastructuring.</p></abstract>

While staff photographers are losing their jobs, news agency networks have become main suppliers of visual content to the news media. A global news site such as the Guardian leans to news agencies for most of its selected visuals. In tandem with the expanding visual power of new agencies, the ethical standards of the wholesalers are challenged by increasing amounts of user generated content, distant editing, and the live-streaming of breaking news. This article discusses editorial dilemmas prompted by proliferate, high tech processing of visual content by the news agencies’ global networks, exemplified by the coverage of terrorism. The analysis is grounded in a variety of empirical data, and aspects of Manuel Castells’ theory on communication power provide a theorizing framework for the discussion. The study suggests that the visual power of today’s news agencies rests on three interconnected processes of handling imagery: agency infrastructuring, technological infrastructuring and global newsroom infrastructuring.

The Visual Power of News Agencies

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Visual Power of News Agencies"}

While staff photographers are losing their jobs, news agency networks have become main suppliers of visual content to the news media. A global news site such...

The Visual Power of News Agencies

Published Online: Nov 28, 2017

Page range: 25 - 39

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0412

Keywords
photo agency, new technology, visual journalism, communication networks, terrorism

© 2017 Astrid Gynnild, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Visual Power of News Agencies

Published Online: Nov 28, 2017

Page range: 25 - 39

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0412

Keywordsphoto agency, new technology, visual journalism, communication networks, terrorism

© 2017 Astrid Gynnild, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
photo agency, new technology, visual journalism, communication networks, terrorism