The selection of press photos

Abstract

Our objective has been to find out the most appropriate selective criterions to apply to press photos. To achieve it, we have firstly collected and filtered the selective criterions recommended by many consulted authors, in order to propose a method based on seven selective criterions, which can be useful to the selectors of press photos. Secondly, we have tested our model of selection, using a corpus of 264 press photos removed from the Spanish newspapers El País and El Mundo, in order to explore its real applicability and the value, individual and collective, of each one of the applied selective criterions. The results point to a majority elimination of the analyzed press photos, due to factors like the little own production, the little originality, the little testimonial value or the lacking value for research.