Photojournalism: taxonomies and categorization of journalistic images

Abstract

This study is aimed at systematizing the theories about genders in photojournalism so as to reflect the reality of the photographic production in printed press. The expected contribution is towards organizing concepts, enunciating a methodology for analysis and finding parameters which will be drawn from this systematization. The following presuppositions are adopted: 1) codifying journalistic production is an important theoretical instrument for clarifying and discussing the practices by daily newspapers and their professionals. 2) a clear, straight and updated taxonomic definition can explain the nature of the images that are published through daily press. As a methodological procedure, currently available codifications will be put into correlation, among which, the one created by Cremilda Medina and Paulo Roberto Leandro, in a Arte de Tecer o Presente, of 1973, the propositions raised by Jorge Pedro Sousa, in Fotojornalismo Performativo, o Serviço de Fotonotícia da Agência Lusa de Informação, of 1997, and the concepts presented by Carlos Leonardo Recuero, in Fotojornalismo: a história,a prática e a técnica of 2000. Empirical data were organized with photography samples
obtained in the photojournalistic production of O Estado de S. Paulo, through Agência Estado. A resulting analytical grid was capable of crossing such provisions, explaining conjunctions, redundancies and gaps in those theories. The stratification of issues weighed allowed for new parameters and worked as basis for a taxonomy oriented reference. The new models are instrumental chiefly to journalism students, for a broader understanding of the processes involving the production flow of photojournalistic news.