photography in newsmedia

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Photography Technologyin

News Media

Abston Photography


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sisted of individual letters or characters beingarranged by hand to produce a plate. The platewas placed into the press and covered with ink

and could be used to produce many copies of a particular page. Each page printed was exactcopies of each other and inexpensive to pro-duce. Printing press technology was incorpo-rated into the newspaper industry shortly after its invention.

Developed in the 19th century, camerashave allowed photographers to capture scenesand events of the world around them. How-

ever, these early cameras were quite large andrequired special chemicals and equipment to

process the images into a nal product.The technology continued to develop

over the years. Companies such as Kodak de-veloped cameras for the average consumer.By the 1960s cameras became small and lightenough that anyone could become a photogra-

pher. However, the development of lm still

The earliest newspapers date back tothe Roman Empire and were simply handwrit-ten documents posted in public. These early

newspapers contained the information of theday such as new laws and general public infor-mation.

Since the beginning of time, peoplehave also been painting pictures of events intheir lives. Some of the earliest drawings can

be found on cave walls in various parts of theworld. Painting and drawing pictures devel-oped throughout the centuries and is very much

part of our world today. Early newspapersfeatured pictures that were often drawings byan artist.

When Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press during the 1440s, a revolutionin information began. The Gutenberg Print-ing Press greatly increased the speed at which

books and other written documents could be produced. It was a simple technology and con-


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required specialized tools and equipment.Newspapers began using photographs

more between 1880 and 1897 due to advance-ments in technology. A Romanian named CarolSzathmari is considered to be the rst photojour -nalist. The public wanted more realistic repre-sentations of news stories and events. News-worthy photographs were exhibited in galleriesor copied photographically in limited numbers.

Advancements in printing technologymade printing pictures in newspapers a littleeasier. However, those photographs still had to

be scanned in and transferred to printing plates.The process of developing the lm and makingthe printing plates took time compared to to-day. Computer technology and computer soft-ware, digital cameras, as well as the creation of the internet have all worked together to changenewspaper printing.

Digital photography has revolutionizedthe photography industry as well as the newsmedia. An engineer for Kodak, Steven Sas-soon, made the rst recorded attempt at build -ing a digital camera 1975. It was the rst touse solid-state CCD image sensor chips devel-

oped by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1973. Itweighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and only recorded

black and white images to a cassette tape. Theresolution was 0.01 megapixels (10,000 pix-els), and took 23 seconds to capture its rstimage in December 1975. The Camera was a

prototype not intended for production.The rst true digital camera that could

record images as a computerized le was likelythe Fuji DS-1P, which was developed in 1988.It recorded to a 16 MB internal memory cardthat used a battery to keep the data in memory.


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The rst commercially available digital cam -era was the Dycam Model 1. It stored picturesdigitally, and connected directly to a computer for download.

As digital cameras became smaller andcheaper it became more common for people tohave a camera accessible. This is especiallytrue now that many cell phones feature built indigital cameras. Individuals began taking pic-

tures of events around them and sending themto news organizations.

Digital photography has increased thespeed of page layout by giving newspapers theability to take photos directly from the cameraand place them on the page through the use of the software. In an article which appeared inthe Mississippi Business Journal, Becky Gil-lette stated, For newspaper photography,digital cameras have become very popular be-cause of the speed and ease of use. No lon-ger do most newspaper photographers spendhours in the darkroom. Besides reducing theamount of time spent in the dark room, digital

photography has helped to reduce the cost tothe newspaper industry. This was done by theelimination of lm as well as lm developmentequipment. Photographers also have the abilityto review the photos theyve taken instantly toensure correct exposure. The use of lm oftenleads to the discovering of problems later whenthe lm is processed.


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Many organizations now ask their audience tosubmit photos of events in their areas. Theseindividuals are often considered as CitizenJournalists who have been greatly aided by theinternet.While many newspaper companies see the ben-e ts of internet technology, others see the in -ternet as added competition. Newspapers must

be printed and distributed to subscribers as wellas retailers. All of this processing and print-ing of information takes time while the internetallows for breaking news stories to be postedimmediately.Michael Stephens from the Columbia Journal-ism review states, Editors and news directorstoday fret about the Internet, as their predeces-sors worried about radio and TV, and all nowsee the huge threat the Web represents to theway they distribute their product. Accordingto Reid Goldsborough, The relative cost of do-ing all this is so low that its toppling multibil-

lion dollar old-media institutions and threaten-ing the printed world itself.Digital photographs can be transferred aroundthe world in a matter of minutes after they aretaken. Better technology allows individualswith few photography skills to take very good

pictures. The in uence of digital photographyand other technologies will continue to shapethe media industry well into the future.

photography in newsmedia

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