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Abstract
Photojournalism as a practice and as an institution has shaped the landscape of media forever, introducing visual elements to stories and events being reported on, and this is an irreplaceable facet of modern media worldwide. Photographs can have a massive impact on one’s perception of events, and visuals can forever be embedded in our minds in relation to certain times in modern history based on the photo coverage. The work that photojournalists contribute to the world, and the risks they oftentimes take to capture historical, news-worthy events often goes unappreciated and underrecognized, and in exploring photojournalism as a profession and how important the work of photojournalists is, the hope is to show how these crucial members of our media institutions are, and why they should not be taken for granted. Through exploring sources and literature on photojournalism and visual literacy, the synthesis of all these ideas led to this thesis exploring four main areas: photojournalism in the current era of social media, photojournalism’s connection to tragedy, how photojournalism can transcend language barriers, and notable photojournalists who made significant contributions to the profession. In each of these dedicated topics, the goal is to reflect on these ideas, state examples relating to every main idea, cite sources that relate to the context of the examples and arguments being made, and develop an overall conclusion of the indepth look into photojournalism as a key component of our communication-based society and world. There will be added emphasis on the argument of photojournalism having a noteworthy impact on our perception of events, informing them equally as affecting them, as well as a strong case for the urgent need for developing a strong visual literacy to be an informed consumer of media, especially in the modern era were edited, altered, and fake images proliferate widely.