Producing newsworthy images
By Valentina Grossi
English
Based on ethnographic fieldwork at the Agence France-Presse photography service, this article examines the socio-technical foundations underpinning the production of press photographs’ newsworthiness and the stabilization of their situation in time. While the paper helps to denaturalize the temporality of these photos, it also highlights that their relation to time is socially structured by “assembling systems”, themselves governed by specific professional standards. By showing that the production of press photographs’ newsworthiness is closely intertwined with specific evaluation and registration work, this paper contributes to existing literature on the evaluation and production of value.
Keywords
- news images
- temporality
- assembling
- scriptural work
- evaluation
- valuation
- infrastructure