Shutter with Happiness: Photojournalism Improves News Sites

Surely, the invention of the digital camera in the '70s made photojournalists everywhere "shutter" with happiness. 

The burgeoning popularity of the Internet reached out with its Webbed fingers to caress and finally to enclose this newfound medium in what would become a perpetual and symbiotic embrace.  Their love children were numerous and popular, despite their strange names – Photobucket, Flickr, ImageShack, etc. 

But all that was a bunch of superfluously convenient fluff.  The epitome of their union – their truly prodigal daughter – was Online Photojournalism.

People no longer had to settle for smudged black-and-white photographs to visually comprehend the News. Everybody's standard was raised when they were given the power to view bigger, high-quality and high-resolution images of current events.  The record of what was going on around everyone became substantially more accurate and aesthetic – it brought the consumer of news one step closer to omniscience.  

Yahoo! News:

This is a perfect example of the miracle that is Online Photojournalism.  

Yahoo!News presents each week in 12 photos – every photo contains a succinct description of its content.  The most recent week is featured at the top of the clean and simple main page, with a main photo that links to a slideshow that is effortless to navigate; beneath it, an easily accessed archive to preceding weeks.

The site is so navigable and uncluttered that the news consumer can feel almost godlike in the control that is offered him.

Reuters:

This online photojournalism site is a little more intimidating.  

It includes many more features – in addition to the Week in Photos and its archive, Reuters includes pictures of the month, pictures of the year, portfolios and more.  

Although there's more room for confusion on their website, there are also more opportunities to keep the news consumer interested once he figures out what's what and where.

Also, the slideshows on the Reuters site are more user-friendly than those of the Yahoo!News site.  You can click on each photograph to get to the next photograph, rather than having to click on small arrow icons.

Truly supernatural.

How to Perfect the Lovechild:

Problem: Neither Reuters nor Yahoo!News provide links to bigger images of each photograph; therefore, neither site makes full use of the power of online photojournalism, which allows the news consumer to view brighter, better and bigger images.

Solution: Include links to bigger images!