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How do photography and videography as subjects impact sports journalism as a career?

Journalism is a vast subject. Does knowing a skill such as photography or videography help in getting work as a sports journalist? Should my columns and articles use only my images or public images? Are these subjects even important to the core of sports journalism or just a bonus for people more inclined to them.

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Andy’s Answer

Hi Justin, I'm not a journalist so I can't speak to that but the use of still images in news is part of the visual hierarchy that an Editor uses to get people to look at a story. When people turn the page of a newspaper or a magazine or when they are scrolling through websites and social media, they look at photographs first. That's a fact confirmed by studies that are done using eyeball tracking software (that's a real thing, look it up).

So photographs are what stop people from turning pages or scrolling. After looking at the photograph they look at the headline. Then the sub-head. Then they read the article (or so the newspaper/website hopes). The longer they spend on the page, the more data the newspaper / website has to show to advertisers. The more time people spend looking and clicking, the more the newspaper / website can charge for advertising space.

And advertisers fund the entire news and social media business model. So advertising is what pays journalist salaries or fees if they work freelance.

All of the above applies to all content, whether it's breaking news, business news or sports news.

So when you look at it like that, photography can have a significant impact on journalism as a career.

And video gets significantly more views online than anything else, so same applies.

So I'd say that knowing how to tell a stories using photo / video (ideally both) would significantly improve your chances of getting work as a sports journo.
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Mohan’s Answer

Photography and videography strengthen sports journalism by enabling more powerful storytelling, capturing real-time action and emotion, and helping journalists engage audiences through dynamic visual content alongside written reporting.
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David’s Answer

Hello Justin,

Having a familiarity with stills and videography are skills that may help in a journalism career. It depends on whom you work for. Small news outlets can require you to provide images and/or video to accompany your reporting. If you're a freelancer these skills could be of value for you.(maybe) It will depend on who your clients are and what sort of deadlines you are dealing with.
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Rajesh’s Answer

Photography and videography aren't the main focus of sports journalism, but they do boost job opportunities in today's media world. Now, sports journalism is all about using different types of media:

- Articles
- Photos
- Short videos
- Social media clips
- Live updates

Many journalism schools and employers now say that a sports journalist should be a multimedia storyteller, not just a writer.
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