Browsing by Subject "microstock photography"

The aim of this study is to explore how news websites in Finland have used photos from microstock companies in news articles. When are first the photos in news articles found and how frequent has recent use of microstock photos been? Data on this is collected by analysing search engine queries on Google News by using microstock company names as keywords. What the use of microstock means for the downsized news industry and how traditional structures in the news industry are challenged is discussed in the light of the results. The method follows the line of research called digital methods, by repurposing the search engine academic research and studying the research affordances of it, treating the search engine as a dominant device on the internet. The second part of this study seeks to answer how search results from Google News can be used in research and what limitations there are for finding results over time. This study is inspired by the observation that the genre of stock photography seems to have entered the field of news journalism. The photos are pre-produced for future use, often using models, with visually appealing settings, taken with high technical quality and with a clear idea of what they represent. Stock photo is a major industry that has supplied images for advertising and marketing since the 1970's. Even though stock photography seems to have vast exposure in our society, the academics who have studied the industry state it is “virtually uncharted territory”. Here, the focus is on the use of photos from so-called microstock companies. These are image bank website with instant downloads, where photos are sold with a royalty-free license for ten or at most tens of euros each or with inexpensive subscription plans. Anyone is encouraged to contribute with their photos to the web archive and receive micropayments, a percentage of sales prices, for each sold download. Microstock seems to have entered news journalism with the digitalisation of the field. The theoretical framework of this study is in cultural industries and on the effects that digital network circulation has on creation, which also is related to the theory on power in networks. It seems that the first mainstream news articles with microstock photos have been published in late 2009, and since 2010 the use has become more frequent on certain major Finnish news websites. The most frequent use of microstock photos was found on the major tabloid newspapers of Finland, of which Iltalehti.fi used microstock photos the most. Other news websites that were found using of microstock photos and which might be assumed to have had subscriptions of microstock services during some part of the time studied, 2010-2017, were to a large part among the most popular news websites in Finland. The study on the research affordances found that Google News can be queried with discrete keywords and specific date ranges to find the occurrence of microstock photos, but all results need to be verified manually. Also, different websites act differently and can not be compared accurately without complementing methods, as articles get unpublished and appear in the search engine results even though available online, differently at different websites. The search from a single search query on Google News cannot be treated quantitatively since it is impossible to verify how large number of the articles actually published, that should fit the query, have been included in the search results. Still, results might be used to show indications of trends rather than exact figures for quantitative analysis.