“It Would Be Like Calling a Reporter a Notebook”: Photojournalists’ Perceptions of Newsroom Hierarchy

Visuals occupy a paradoxical place in journalism: photographs and video are central to news presentation, yet the individuals who produce them often hold marginal status in newsroom hierarchies. This study draws on the hierarchy of influences model to examine how U.S. photojournalists perceive, explain, and navigate their place within these hierarchies. To achieve this, we conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty current and former photojournalists and photo editors. Participants described being positioned at or near the bottom of the hierarchy, reflecting a persistent privileging of the written word and organizational routines that relegate visuals to a “service” role. These hierarchies are reproduced through everyday interactions and perceived slights but also negotiated through acts of self-advocacy, relational diplomacy, and emotional labor. The study conceptualizes newsroom hierarchy as sustained by interlocking institutional, organizational, routine, and individual-level forces and resisted through individual agency.