I spent a year or more simply exploring the power of photography and trying to develop a basic mastery of it, before I began to address its value as a journalistic device.

Does a writer cheat with photographs?

In the opening days of doing so, I posed the following question.  I’ve become much more forgiving (less rigid?) in the intervening months.  I’m now intrigued by the possibilities of photojournalism and of creating new  hybrids.  Of course, I must admit that the context is important:  visual stories use the power of the internet in ways that writing cannot do as fully.   The media are blended here, and cross-media/transmedia stories work better here.

Can a writer use photos without cheating?  After all, a writer accepts the challenge of recreating the world through words.

But how can a writer compete with the  power of a camera?

Paul Bush

An associate professor at Franklin Pierce University, teaching journalism in all its forms today.

You may also like...

1 Response

  1. I’m not up to the challenge so I rely on photography as an adjunct to my words.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.