The Role of Photojournalism in Charity and Social Issues

This proposal focuses on conducting qualitative research to understand how photojournalism influences people's attitudes towards charity and social issues. It involves analyzing case studies where photojournalism has been used to raise funds for natural disasters and other humanitarian causes. The goal is to identify the effectiveness of photojournalism in inspiring donations and community involvement, with a focus on its impact on charity organizers and individuals. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of photojournalism in promoting social responsibility and charitable giving.

DOES
PHOTOJOURNALISM
HELP RAISE AWARENESS
FOR CHARITIES?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
RESEARCH QUESTION ..............................................................................................................................................1
RATIONALE .................................................................................................................................................................1
ACADEMIC CONTEXT ...............................................................................................................................................2
RESEARCH METHOD .................................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................................................5

What role does photojournalism play in creating
awareness for charities
Journalism plays a key role in creating awareness among people. Though the written description is
effective enough to describe the factual content of the events but the inclusion of images of visual
content can create significant impact on readers and people. It is also possible that facts given by written
description lack validity but the pictures can express the reality and extent of seriousness for the topic. I
Photojournalism provides opportunities to journalists to convey the real picture of particular situation
which cannot be expressed with mere words. The picture will lead to an emotional appeal which is not
found in word description. . This category of journalism is highly effective to raise any social issue in a
way that people can emotionally connect through it and thus can contribute to resolve the issue (An
Introduction to Photojournalism, 2018). For example, In a flood prone area if people require help then it
requires that people donate something for the purpose. This charity event can be made successful only
if people will find them real and necessary. A mere factual description may not force them to part in
such events. However, the appealing images can motivate and inspire readers to discover the reality and
to take a step ahead for the appropriate solution. This proposal aims at addressing the following
research questions:
Question 1: What impact does photojournalists create in describing a case study as compare to
theoretical description only?
Question 2: How photojournalism encourages individuals to participate in charity events
Question 3: How photojournalists can create awareness about charitable events and can contribute to
increase the participation of public in such events?
Question 4: What are the ways in which photojournalism can affect the charity related decisions of an
organisation and society?
Charity events refers to the activities which aimed at providing assistance to community or people who
needs help for their survival but are unable to do so. For instance in case of natural calamities it is
important that attention of society must be drawn so that they can help the affected area and its
inhabitants. The photojournalists can help in the issue by bringing the incident into lime light. These
research questions must be addressed as it will not only improve the social inequalities by promoting
charitable events but it will also provide benefits to business organization. When photojournalists covers
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the charity events conducted by organisations then it gives message to consumers that organization is
not only profit oriented but also works for the welfare of community. It will help organization to
increase its brand value among customers. The profit oriented companies can use this tool for
performing charity oriented tasks. It will be an efficient marketing tool for them to improve their brand
value among customers. The higher brand value will make it easy for people to recognize and remember
the organisation With this approach the noble cause of humanity will also be fulfilled thus companies
will be able to server their duties towards society as well. The proposal will analyse how
photojournalism can help business organisations and individuals to make these charitable events
successful and efficient.
RATIONALE
Photojournalists have the ability to address the important issues and concerns with highly
influencing way of images. The imagery description seems to be more realistic and appealing as
compare to the theoretical description. ?? According to Trapp, 2018, certain facts can create impact only
when they represented visually. For instance for a charity event associated with animal shelter people
may not pay proper attention towards it but when the same story is described by using realistic
conditions of dogs and other animals living in miserable and terrific atmosphere then people find it easy
to trust the news. The imagery description of needy animals will encourage more people to come
forward for the charity event.
In the same context Andersen, 2017, assumed that photographers have great skills of
communication. With the help of photographs photojournalists can convey their message to the readers
and as a leader can ask for their attention towards the matter. Though this study support the concept of
charitable marketing in which business groups use charitable events and images of their pictures for
marketing purpose but it does not give any evidences that photojournalism can inspire people to
actively take part in charitable activities. However, the biggest strength of the photography is that it can
build emotional connectivity with the audience and can describe it.
For example When photographers publish the pathetic images of the painful situations or any
event which need support from other communities then photojournalist can publish the story to make
other people aware of the issue. Along with the motivation it also provides chance to stable section of
society to assist the needy groups by means of charitable events. For example there are numbers of
people who are capable to help others but they are unable to do so because most of the time they find
it difficult to analyse that which charity events are realistic and which are fake. But when photojournalist
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publish images then it becomes easy for the donors to identify the actual scenario without any piece of
doubt. It enables them to make charity with free hands without any doubts regarding the originality of
charity event.
ACADEMIC CONTEXT
According to Good and Lowe, 2017 the non -profitable organizations or the groups who work for
the charitable events may not have sufficient budgets for promoting their requirements among public.
The photojournalist can help such charitable groups by taking photographs of their work, events,
working atmosphere and their work. It will not only help these non-beneficial organizations in their
noble cause but will also reflect the actual scenario of such events. It will make easy for people to decide
and check reality at their own so that they will not hesitate in making their donation or contribution. As
per the views of Hadland, Lambert and Campbell, 2016, the biggest factor which prohibits the capable
section of society from doing charity is the trust issues. When they are informed or when they read
about such events they naturally have questions regarding trustworthiness of the event. Most of the
time they find it unnecessary and wastage of effort to check the originality of such charity activities. But
when such events are highlighted with real images by photojournalists then it gives them assurance
regarding the reality of event. Hence, they do not hesitate to contribute for such charities. It is also
argued by Grayson, 2014, that photojournalism can also suffer from the drawbacks because advanced
technologies have made it possible to morph photographs. Thus, photojournalism does not guarantee
the reality check of events.
However, it is also possible to modify the written updates and to convert them into misleading
facts. Photojournalist also suffers from number of risks which can even be life threatening for them. In
order to bring the facts in front of the society and charitable groups they have to cross number of
hurdles. For instance photojournalists can appeal for the emotional charity for a flood event only when
they will publish such appealing image. In order to take such image they will have to enter into flood or
dangers of the real situation. In order to bring the real side of the events photojournalists can even risk
their life and resources. It helps people to notice the events and provide their support in the hard time
by the means of charity. The rapidly changing and advanced technologies has lead to use of high
resolution cameras. It is easy for people to capture such images and to execute such charitable events at
large scale without any geographical restrictions (Smith-Rodden and Ash, 2017).
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RESEARCH METHOD
For addressing the above mentioned research questions qualitative research methods can be
used. This research method observes and make analysis without implementing any numerical form of
data. For example the analysis and observation of people can answer the question that how society
consider the imagery description. The response of audience can be compared in both cases when they
are informed about event with and without photojournalism. Though photographers does not work
only for the purpose of charity but their functions gains the attention of people easily. Thus, when they
raise any social issue it is easily noticed by communities and they make an attempt to give helping hand
to overcome the situation.The case studies can be considered as the best tool for this type of research
method (Smith, 2015.).
For instance when an area is affected by natural disaster and it is required to raise fund for the
same. The government appealing and efforts of social workers will affect the audience. It can be
reviewed. But after certain time when the same news is presented among common people via
photographs of the damages and painful children and groups then it gains the attentions of masses at
new level. All people, organisations begins to notice the severity and began to plan for charity at great
extent. They are highly inspired for charity because they are well aware about the extent of damages in
flood region. This would have been impossible without photojournalism. Thus, qualitative research
method is recommended for the proposal. For conducting qualitative research interviews can be
conducted with the participants who gets to inspired for charity by articles from photojournalists or by
group discussions with charity organizers and people that how photographs inspire them for charity.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andersen, R., 2017. Media, Politics, Compassion, and Citizenship in the Post-humanitarian
Debate: Visual Storytelling and the Humanitarian Imaginary. In Routledge Companion to
Media and Humanitarian Action (pp. 13-27). Routledge.
Good, J. and Lowe, P., 2017. Understanding Photojournalism. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Grayson, L., 2014. The role of non-government organisations (NGOs) in practising editorial
photography in a globalised media environment. Journalism Practice. 8(5). pp.632-645.
Hadland, A., Lambert, P. and Campbell, D., 2016. The future of professional photojournalism:
Perceptions of risk.Journalism Practice. 10(7). pp.820-832.
Smith-Rodden, M. and Ash, I.K., 2017. The Effect of Emotionally Arousing Negative Images on
Judgments About News Stories. Visual Communication Quarterly. 24(1). pp.15-31.
Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage.
Trapp, M.M., 2018. Faith and Charity: Religion and Humanitarian Assistance in West Africa.
Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Louis Audet Gosselin, eds. London: Pluto, 2016. 256 pp.
Online
An Introduction to Photojournalism, 2018 [Online] Accessed through
<https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/an-introduction-to-photojournalism-2688644>
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