Visual representations of community in scholastic photojournalism: A thematic analysis of award-winning photographs from the national scholastic press association’s photo of the year contest

Abstract

While journalism awards can enhance social capital and signify quality, they often reinforce a limited, negative perspective of what is newsworthy. This study builds on existing research examining award-winning photojournalism by focusing on the understudied population of student photojournalists. Via a qualitative analysis of 229 photographs from the National Scholastic Press Association’s Photo of the Year Contest, this research analyzes major visual themes and prevalent news values in award-winning scholastic photojournalism. The results from this exploratory study indicate that student journalists visually represent high school as a place for connection, collaboration, and citizenship and present a uniquely positive portrayal of their world. The findings also suggest that conventionalization of topics, tone, and techniques is present in student photojournalism award contests although the themes that are reinforced by this conventionalization are dissimilar to what has been observed in professional photojournalism contests.