The State of News Photography 2018

Abstract

First paragraph: In 2015 the World Press Photo Foundation, the University of Stirling, and Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism launched the State of News Photography survey to document the hopes, fears, practices and changes in the work lives of those who make a living from taking photographs in the digital age. Over the last four years, these annual surveys produced an unrivalled database of insights. Along with the reports published by the World Press Photo Foundation (see Hadland, Campbell and Lambert 2015, Hadland Lambert and Barnett 2016), the data has enabled scholars to publish more detailed research on issues such as gender within photojournalism (Hadland and Barnett 2018), the state of sports photojournalism (Haynes, Hadland and Lambert 2016), as well as to further investigate the high degree of risk to which so many photographers are frequently exposed (Hadland, Lambert and Campbell 2016). While a survey of photographers who have entered the annual World Press Photo Contest between 2015 and 2018 provides detailed insights into the lives of working photographers, many photographers do not enter the competition for a variety of reasons. As a result, we do not claim that this data represents all photographers or the industry as a whole. However, detailed responses from 5,202 photographers from more than 100 countries over four years does capture many of the key issues facing people who choose to make a living from photography. This report will summarise some of our key findings over the last four years, identify new areas of interest, and reflect, in particular, on issues of gender and diversity and their impact on the industry going forward.