Writing
How Visual Storytelling has Changed the Journalism Industry
Timeline: December 2023
The world has drastically shifted since journalism began. Although the industry started with newspapers and written articles, it has evolved into a visual wonderland. Broadcast news and photojournalism are used to capture an audience more than ever before. The concept of visual storytelling has allowed people across the world to visualize from a distance and make their own opinions about people, places, and things.
To show the timeline of the changes in the journalism industry, and how social media has played a large role in the process, I wrote a white paper essay with examples.
Research
Before writing the white paper, I did extensive research and found 15 sources full of information on the topic. They ranged from textbook chapters to online articles to primary source journals.
I started by learning about the journalism industry as a whole from the perspective of other professional journalists and writers. While the industry started with print work, I learned it moved to visuals over a long time period, and that is because more people are visual learners. Through my research, I found 65% of people are visual learners and that people process visuals 60,000 times faster than words (Business Twitter).
Then I did extensive digging into what journalism looks like today. Although there are still newspapers and print-focused publications and websites, visuals are often included along with the text. I looked deeply at the types of visuals used, including images, videos, and graphics, and why they are so important.
The Process
Doing the research was the first step in the process. Next, I made an outline that breaks down everything included in the final paper. It’s not the prettiest document, but it helped understand what was most important to include and ensured I did not forget anything when writing.
A large part of the idea for the white paper was including examples of how news organizations and journalists use visuals. I spent time going through news outlet websites and social media pages to pinpoint specific examples of how visual storytelling was used.
The writing was the most time consuming part of the project. I spent multiple days writing and editing the white paper.
Conclusion
As a working journalist in broadcast news, I see how visuals are used everyday and how important they are to what I do. Television news would be extremely boring with the creativity used to make video projects and graphics. The journalism industry has not only been changed by visual storytelling, it has helped visual storytelling in other industries evolve. This is a paper I am extremely proud of as someone who is so passionate about visual news.