The present situation of news photography in modern news reports

News photography, as a product of the combination of news and photography, is a live documentary of news events, a news report in the form of photos with text descriptions, and an independent arm of news reporting. Its manifestation is to mount photos. With the in-depth development of journalism, news photography has become a global activity, and enhancing the visibility of newspapers has attracted the attention of China newspapers. Vivid news photos appear more and more prominently on the page. Therefore, it has become an urgent task for the prosperity and development of journalism in China to improve the understanding of the important position and role of news photography, put news photography into the track of news reform, pay equal attention to graphics and text, and especially strengthen the study of news aesthetics. News photography is the product of the combination of news and photography, the live documentary of news events, the news report in the form of photos and text descriptions, and the independent arms of news reporting. Its manifestation is framed photos. Compared with written news, it has the characteristics of visual visibility, field verifiability and typical generality. Compared with TV news, it is more concise and has more preservation value. On the layout, it is easier to highlight the theme, beautify the layout and enhance the visual effect. During the ten years from May 4th Movement to July 7th Incident, with the vigorous development of domestic anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary struggle, news photography in China has made great progress. There are many new things in news photography, such as newspaper photography supplement, photography organization, photographer and so on. It has greatly promoted the development of news photography and met people's social needs. A large comprehensive pictorial, represented by Good Friends, attaches importance to current affairs photography, publishes a large number of social and political photos and reports current affairs news at home and abroad. This period produced many photos reflecting natural disasters, wars, sufferings of working people, imperialist invasion and other major events. These photos record the achievements of Chinese journalists and are a mirror of our modern history. People can see that the Chinese nation is brave and unyielding, and constantly struggles, struggles and advances under the heavy oppression of the dark forces. Due to the limitations of the times, news photography in this period also contained some negative and even reactionary elements, but the mainstream was positive. News photography appeared after Le Monde and was not valued by many people at first. Analysis of the reasons, first, the initial stage, poor photographic plate-making conditions, the effect is not ideal; Second, the cost of taking pictures is high. It was not until 1920 that the "News Photography" magazine (The Times) appeared in China that newspapers began to have the concept of image propaganda. However, for a long time, the role of news pictures has been fixed on decorating and beautifying the layout. As an independent form of news reporting, it has not been recognized by people. In the 1980s, with the development of electronic technology, the editing, typesetting and printing of newspapers were gradually replaced by laser phototypesetting and offset printing, which greatly improved the picture effect on the layout and increased the number accordingly. However, there are few independent news photos, and there are many photos with written reports. As Feng Xiliang, editor-in-chief of China Daily, said in "The Position of Journalism in Today's World Newspapers", nowadays, photographic news, written news and advertising news are listed as three major disciplines of journalism abroad. Because the appearance of TV has affected people's reading habits, some new trends have appeared in foreign newspapers in adopting pictures. For example, the newly-founded USA Today adopts a full-color version, with a large number of photos and a large space. Huo Simmons, executive editor of Washington post, predicted: "This represents the development trend of newspapers in the future ... In the method of photo reporting, 5-6 groups of photos with internal relations are used to illustrate the process of an event, and a concise text description is used to form an independent and complete news report, which has been widely adopted by American newspapers." Feng Xiliang thinks: "China press should pay attention to and study these tendencies, and foresee that news pictures will play an increasingly important role in newspapers and periodicals." Drawing lessons from foreign experience, China Daily 198 1 English edition was established, and news pictures were widely used. People's Daily published news pictures in batches on the front page. It has changed the mode of "supporting role" and "beautifying" in the past, which used news photography as the layout text report, and was well received by readers. However, news photography, as an independent reporting form, has just begun to be recognized, and it will take a process and a certain time to be fully accepted in the press. Therefore, the phenomenon of "emphasizing text over pictures" often appears. What is commendable is that the older generation of photographers have never relaxed their efforts, publicized the status and role of news photography in various ways, and tried their best to show the characteristics of news photography in practice. It is necessary to be "illustrated" and "illustrated". Until 1990 Asian Games, newspapers published a large number of news pictures with good quality, large space and new arrangement, and photo news received unprecedented attention from the press. Jiang Qisheng, an old photographer, put forward the view that "words and photos are the two wings of Qi Fei" and "both words and pictures are equally important", and asked the editor-in-chief, photojournalists and editors to try their best to reform the single "word mind" and increase the "picture mind". Since then, the value of news pictures has been publicized. As an independent form of reporting, a large number of news pictures appear on the page. Some important news photos not only occupy a prominent position, but also enlarge the space. However, compared with foreign countries, it is rare for China newspapers to let pictures play the leading role, make headlines and occupy a good position. There are two main reasons: first, the concept of pictures is weak, and the position and role of news pictures in news communication are not well understood. The value of news pictures is only reflected in layout design, not as an independent means of reporting. Therefore, for quite a period of time, this newspaper only published photos of major meetings or state activities of major state leaders, while other news photos were not only rarely used, but also were small in length. They were only used as tools to adjust or beautify the layout, and their news value was difficult to reflect, and the unique functions of news photography were not fully exerted. Second, the theory and practice of news photography lost its own value because of the interference of "Left" thoughts in the past. Whether in the Great Leap Forward era or when "class struggle is the key link", the authenticity principle of news photography has been severely suppressed and distorted. What is reported is not the live documentary of news, but the director and manipulation according to political needs, which fundamentally shakes the theoretical basis of news photography and distorts the true face of events in practice. Therefore, news pictures can only "adapt" to the needs of the times, and real news pictures are not used or used less. News also loses its ideological and artistic quality because of its empty content, repetitive theme and single technique, and even fewer pictures can be put well. Even now, the power of photo news is still weak, and the situation of "emphasizing text over pictures" still exists in the layout. News photography is a unique form of news reporting. Pictures with written descriptions can give readers a more intuitive, real and vivid feeling, and let people understand the original intention of news events at a glance. This newspaper should bring news photography into the track of news reform and pay equal attention to graphics and text. To achieve "paying equal attention to pictures and texts", we must first update our concepts, get rid of the long-standing concept of "emphasizing texts over pictures", correctly understand the position and role of news photography in news reporting, and consciously treat picture news and text news equally, so that pictures and texts can fly with me. Secondly, we should do a good job in building a team of news photographers. On the basis of renewing ideas and correcting attitudes, we will strive to improve our quality and technical level and produce more and better news pictures. The quality of photography team mainly refers to the reporter's thinking and shooting style. As a journalist, we should grasp the mainstream of the times, be very clear about what to praise, criticize, advocate and oppose, be sensitive to news and shoot typical moments with the characteristics of the times; In addition, the reporter's shooting style directly affects the quality of photos. The documentary nature of news photography is a principle that every journalist must follow. Do not resort to deceit, do not pose, and advocate snapshots, which requires reporters to do more research, go deep into the news scene, be good at observation, and capture the typical moments of events in time; Third, you must write down the title of the photo. News photography is the combination of news photos and text descriptions, that is, recording the news facts that are happening through photography, and reporting with text descriptions and news information, which are inseparable. For news photography, the visual impact comes from photos, and the strong emotion lies in the use of words. A good written explanation should not only give a clear and concise description of news facts, but also have literary color and emotional communication, so as to improve the visual sense and deepen the theme. Because text description depends on pictures, the author should be close to the pictures according to their contents, flexibly use different narrative styles (narrative style, comment style, dialogue or quotation style, poetry description style, prose style and communication style), and even add some necessary background materials to increase the depth of his report. Fourth, there must be a corresponding layout form. Editors should determine the corresponding layout according to the quality of news pictures, and arrange them with pictures as the center to improve the communication effect of news pictures. Fifth, we should strengthen the study of news aesthetics. News aesthetics is the integration of news and aesthetics. To strengthen the study of news aesthetics is to find the best combination of the two, apply aesthetic theories and methods to news reports and improve the aesthetic value of news reports. In the past and now, some news reports mostly adopt a straightforward way, ignoring the emotional beauty, formal beauty and angle beauty of news aesthetics. When people face the ever-changing world, there is always a desire, a speculation and an expectation in their hearts. From the perspective of news psychology, it is a news desire, that is, a desire for the unknown world, while from the aesthetic point of view, it is an aesthetic emotion generated by expectation. In this kind of mood, the integration of psychological factors of social times, national traditions and people's deep psychological factors determines the readers' acceptance of news and the realization of news value. The so-called emotional beauty means that news reports can arouse the inner beauty of readers and produce songs of the soul. As a reporter, to make news valuable, we should stimulate readers' emotions and express the good value of news according to different countries, different folk customs and different periods. For example, during the "Ten-year Unrest" in China, the material life was very poor, and the focus of people's concern was the supply of non-staple food. Such news can always make readers have a strong interest in reading and a sense of pleasure. Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, with the steady growth of the national economy and the continuous improvement of material life, people no longer care about the supply of non-staple food, but turn to beautify and decorate their own lives and environment. Since the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with the deepening of political and economic system reform, the focus of social attention and the news that can arouse readers' emotions most have turned to anti-corruption and promoting honesty and reemployment of laid-off workers. However, different countries and different national cultural traditions have different aesthetic psychological characteristics and different feelings for the same news. For example, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of New China, a national model worker commendation meeting and experience exchange activities were held in Beijing, which aroused the enthusiastic attention of readers in China and became a household news. But in western countries, the response is dull, because western countries are very strange to "model workers". Therefore, different countries and beliefs will have different news needs, and the acquisition of news aesthetic feeling will be different. The crux of the problem lies in the author's discovery and perception of beauty, which has risen from the functional intuition of images to a thorough understanding of the combination of psychological perception and rationality. In this way, in the face of human joys and sorrows, social changes and natural vicissitudes, we will never be indifferent, but will embrace life consciously or unconsciously, praise life, eulogize social progress and show the truth, goodness and beauty of life. Arnold Newman, a famous American portrait photographer, put it well: "Taking pictures is not just with a camera, but with our hearts and minds. These photos not only show specific themes, but also reflect our own ideas. Every artist should make himself an intrinsic factor in his works. Otherwise, this work will become a laundry list-no thoughts, no feelings, no meaning. " Formal beauty is the most common and direct beauty that people feel. Formal beauty refers to the regular combination of various formal factors (such as color, line, shape and sound) in life and nature. A good and high-level work needs the author's aesthetic pursuit and polishing, and needs to create a form suitable for people's appreciation habits from the aspects of content selection, structure setting and modeling form to satisfy people's spiritual enjoyment. When reporting news events, we should not only tell readers the ins and outs of the events, but also let people enjoy the beautiful scenery and arouse readers' psychological excitement. Therefore, news language must be concise and vivid, avoid complicated fiction and rhetoric, and present news facts concretely, truly and vividly in plain or bright language. Rodin, the master of art, once said, "Life is not short of beauty, but of discovery". The beauty of things depends on the author's grasp of "beauty". Through the investigation of the external characteristics of the scenery, such as shape, structure, dynamics, color, light tone, space and the relationship between subject and companion, we can find themes and forms with aesthetic value from the outside to the inside. To arouse readers' emotion, the author should be deeply moved first, which requires the author to constantly improve his aesthetic level, master aesthetic laws and improve aesthetic creativity. Comrade Zhou Enlai said: "The production of works can be accidental, but this accidental acquisition is based on long-term accumulation and cultivation." To improve their aesthetic creativity, we must first go deep into life, gain creative passion from real life and raise awareness; At the same time, we should absorb nutrition from politics, philosophy, culture and other artistic aspects, which is the internal cause of the success of photography creation. Only by practicing such skills at ordinary times can we make a quick response and seize fleeting opportunities. The angle of news report is the reporter's observation point of news facts and the entry point to reflect objective things. What is the best way to reflect the news facts with beautiful connotation in the form of beauty? This is the angle beauty of news aesthetic feeling. "Looking horizontally, the ridge edge becomes a peak, and the distance is different." We can get inspiration from Su Shi's poems, which shows that the same thing can be observed and reflected from many angles. From the aesthetic point of view, beauty is a flowing category, which consists of countless fixed categories. Therefore, as long as the signs of beauty in things are the essence of things, then this beauty is worth capturing and reflecting. Things have many angles, but not only the positive and the closest reflection to the essence is the most beautiful. Aesthetics pays attention to implication, multi-level and multi-angle, and has a certain sense of distance. Aesthetically, we often use "seeing the micro-knowledge" and "profound meaning". In the choice of news angle, "novelty", "strangeness" and "cleverness" are the best aesthetic angles. With the in-depth development of journalism, news photography has become a global activity, and enhancing the visibility of newspapers has attracted the attention of China newspapers. Vivid news photos appear more and more prominently on the page. Every reporter should seize the opportunity and make more contributions to news photography.