Towards better pay together

Newspaper websites offer an abundance of space for pictures and videos. Magazines are sold with cover photos and online subscriptions with the first photos of articles. At the same time, the culture of taking and sharing photos flourishes on Instagram. One might imagine that the value of photos would have increased – and with it, the value of photojournalists, a profession that distinguishes itself from the plethora of amateur photographers with a professional journalistic approach.

However, this notion is misguided. The flourishing of pictures and videos in the media does not equate to steady employment and fair contracts for photojournalists. Downsizing negotiations of media companies have also impacted the photo departments, as demonstrated by Otavamedia outsourcing its photographers in 2020, effectively laying them off and hoping that they would continue to work on a precarious freelance basis.