Photojournalism as a Creator of Values: otherness in Sámi representations

Abstract

The research draws on the insights provided by photojournalism to examine the values and value formation of journalism in relation to power and ethnic minorities. News photos are representations which affect emotions; they engender meanings about reality and settings more subtly than texts. Photojournalism makes value judgments on issues, groups and persons through the size of the photos, settings, poses, the roles depicted, and simply by choosing who is photographed. The material to be analysed consists of news photos dealing with the Sámi published in the Arctic press. My particular focus is the news items dealing with the Sámi and how the ethnic minority is depicted in those representations. The methods to be used are content analysis and formal photo analysis. I use the concept of otherness for determining journalists’ valuations. A simple definition of otherness could be ‘being an outsider’.