Photography Technology

in
News Media

Abston Photography
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The earliest newspapers date back to
the Roman Empire and were simply handwrit-
ten documents posted in public. These early
newspapers contained the information of the
day such as new laws and general public infor-
mation.
Since the beginning of time, people
have also been painting pictures of events in
their lives. Some of the earliest drawings can
be found on cave walls in various parts of the
world. Painting and drawing pictures devel-
oped throughout the centuries and is very much
part of our world today. Early newspapers
featured pictures that were often drawings by
an artist.
When Johannes Gutenberg invented the
printing press during the 1440’s, a revolution
in information began. The Gutenberg Print-
ing Press greatly increased the speed at which
books and other written documents could be
produced. It was a simple technology and con-
sisted of individual letters or characters being
arranged by hand to produce a plate. The plate
was placed into the press and covered with ink
and could be used to produce many copies of a
particular page. Each page printed was exact
copies of each other and inexpensive to pro-
duce. Printing press technology was incorpo-
rated into the newspaper industry shortly after
its invention.
Developed in the 19th century, cameras
have allowed photographers to capture scenes
and events of the world around them. How-
ever, these early cameras were quite large and
required special chemicals and equipment to
process the images into a final product.
The technology continued to develop
over the years. Companies such as Kodak de-
veloped cameras for the average consumer.
By the 1960’s cameras became small and light
enough that anyone could become a photogra-
pher. However, the development of film still
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required specialized tools and equipment. oped by Fairchild Semiconductor in 1973. It
Newspapers began using photographs weighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and only recorded
more between 1880 and 1897 due to advance- black and white images to a cassette tape. The
ments in technology. A Romanian named Carol resolution was 0.01 megapixels (10,000 pix-
Szathmari is considered to be the first photojour- els), and took 23 seconds to capture its first
nalist. The public wanted more realistic repre- image in December 1975. The Camera was a
sentations of news stories and events. News- prototype not intended for production.
worthy photographs were exhibited in galleries The first true digital camera that could
or copied photographically in limited numbers. record images as a computerized file was likely
Advancements in printing technology the Fuji DS-1P, which was developed in 1988.
made printing pictures in newspapers a little It recorded to a 16 MB internal memory card
easier. However, those photographs still had to that used a battery to keep the data in memory.
be scanned in and transferred to printing plates.
The process of developing the film and making
the printing plates took time compared to to-
day. Computer technology and computer soft-
ware, digital cameras, as well as the creation of
the internet have all worked together to change
newspaper printing.
Digital photography has revolutionized
the photography industry as well as the news
media. An engineer for Kodak, Steven Sas-
soon, made the first recorded attempt at build-
ing a digital camera 1975. It was the first to
use solid-state CCD image sensor chips devel-
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The first commercially available digital cam-
era was the Dycam Model 1. It stored pictures
digitally, and connected directly to a computer
for download.
As digital cameras became smaller and
cheaper it became more common for people to
have a camera accessible. This is especially
true now that many cell phones feature built in
digital cameras. Individuals began taking pic-
tures of events around them and sending them
to news organizations.
Digital photography has increased the
speed of page layout by giving newspapers the
ability to take photos directly from the camera
and place them on the page through the use of
the software. In an article which appeared in
the Mississippi Business Journal, Becky Gil-
lette stated, “For newspaper photography,
digital cameras have become very popular be-
cause of the speed and ease of use. No lon-
ger do most newspaper photographers spend
hours in the darkroom.” Besides reducing the
amount of time spent in the dark room, digital
photography has helped to reduce the cost to
the newspaper industry. This was done by the
elimination of film as well as film development
equipment. Photographers also have the ability
to review the photos they’ve taken instantly to
ensure correct exposure. The use of film often
leads to the discovering of problems later when
the film is processed.
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Many organizations now ask their audience to
submit photos of events in their areas. These
individuals are often considered as Citizen
Journalists who have been greatly aided by the
internet.
While many newspaper companies see the ben-
efits of internet technology, others see the in-
ternet as added competition. Newspapers must
be printed and distributed to subscribers as well
as retailers. All of this processing and print-
ing of information takes time while the internet
allows for breaking news stories to be posted lion dollar old-media institutions and threaten-
immediately. ing the printed world itself.”
Michael Stephens from the Columbia Journal- Digital photographs can be transferred around
ism review states, “Editors and news directors the world in a matter of minutes after they are
today fret about the Internet, as their predeces- taken. Better technology allows individuals
sors worried about radio and TV, and all now with few photography skills to take very good
see the huge threat the Web represents to the pictures. The influence of digital photography
way they distribute their product”. According and other technologies will continue to shape
to Reid Goldsborough, “The relative cost of do- the media industry well into the future.
ing all this is so low that it’s toppling multibil-