Representing the first collection of its kind, The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism introduces fundamental topics and ideas, delineates the diversity and complexity of this growing field, and creates a foundation for future scholarship and study.

In the contemporary digital media landscape, still and moving images, interactive visualizations and virtual reality, are increasingly important to attract attention, cultivate engagement, inform, influence opinions, and provide a more emotive and immediate viewing experience for news audiences. This Companion draws together leading voices from academia and industry to survey this dynamic and ubiquitous mode and inspire dialogue. Structured in five parts, the volume covers people and identities; practices and processes; technologies, equipment, and forms; theories, concepts, and values; and audience interpretation and impact. Beginning by looking at the history of visual news, chapters go on to explore how visual news is created; how journalists visually represent gender, race, sexuality, religion, “elites”, and ordinary citizens; key ethical ideas and theories behind the creation of visual news; and how visual news is processed, drawing in research from eye-tracking, media psychology, and media literacy. The book ends with a critical look to the future of the field.

The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism is a recommended resource for all advanced students and researchers of Visual Journalism and Communication and will also be of interest to practitioners in these fields.

Nicole Dahmen is a Professor of Journalism in the School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon, USA. She has gained an international reputation for her scholarship, which falls into three key areas, sometimes standing alone but more frequently intersecting: visual journalism, ethics, and contextual reporting.

T.J. Thomson is a senior lecturer (associate professor) at RMIT University, Australia. His research is united by its focus on visual communication. He is the author of To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images (2019), winner of the NCA’s Diane S. Hope Book of the Year award.