Calling the Shot: What Visual Journalists Call Themselves and Why It Matters
Calling the Shot: What Visual Journalists Call Themselves and Why It Matters
Kyser Lough and Andrea Briscoe. “Calling the Shot: What Visual Journalists Call Themselves and Why It Matters,” paper accepted to the Visual Communication Division of the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, Tampa, March 12-14, 2026. Abstract: This study examines what visual journalists call themselves and why those labels matter for how the field defines its boundaries and legitimacy. Through the lens of journalism as an interpretive community and metajournalistic discourse, we analyze self-reported occupational titles provided in open-ended “Author Profession” fields by entrants to the Best of Photojournalism and Pictures of the Year International competitions. The dataset includes 41,047 contest entries from 3,337 individuals across four years, yielding 489 unique profession labels. Through textual analysis and subgroup comparisons, we map common terms and interpret how naming practices reflect definition making, boundary setting, and professional identity in a precarious visual journalism landscape.
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