Generic Visuals, News Production and Professional Authority in the News Industry

This article examines the role that an emergent “object of journalism”, generic visuals, plays in professional journalistic practice. Generic visuals such as stock photos and simple data visualizations have standardized formats and appearances, perform particular design functions and circulate with increasing frequency in the news media. Because they are produced, distributed and consumed regularly and at speed in today’s news texts, it is important to investigate whether and how they are shaping and reshaping the profession of journalism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews conducted at three UK news organizations, we argue that journalists reinforce their own professional authority by imbuing generic visuals with particular news values, drawing on 21st century notions of the journalist-audience relationship to justify the use of generic visuals, and routinizing and standardizing their use. Through our analysis of this ubiquitous but overlooked visual form, we advance understanding of what constitutes professionalism within journalism.