Columns, Opinion

KING: Instagram transcends traditional news media

The platform that is most well known for selfies is becoming increasingly important in another field: reporting breaking news. Instagram is reaching its unique potential as a photo sharing social media site to captivate viewers and tell stories in single images.

The wide reach of the platform has influenced news outlets to use it to source images and cover stories around the world. Outlets like NBC News have open submission of photos via Instagram that are verified and posted to its site. Instagram photos played a role in providing news on the recent terror attacks in Paris, as images like this were used to grab viewers attention and tell a narrative in a single photo:

Instagram’s image-sharing power is also used to humanize stories and make them more relatable by placing emotive faces on the subjects of news stories. Instagram’s unique reporting style of single, striking images can create both awareness and empathy. This photo shows a child refugee’s journey through the forests of Europe, striving to reach “a better life.”

One of the most defining aspects of Instagram’s news reporting potential is its attention-grabbing nature. Instagram’s images are stand-alone, and provoke enough interest in themselves to inspire viewers to click on them and read into their meanings. Phrases like “West Bank” often yield an immediate association with violence and religious tensions in the minds of Westerners — but National Geographic has used Instagram photos to inform their viewers of the peaceful lives of the population. Photos like this capture the daily lives of people living on the West Bank:

 Instagram bring images that illustrate to a global audience the circumstances of people we could not otherwise imagine. For example, there are not many cultures which Westerners could view as more distant than that of the indigenous people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In this vein, Instagram puts a face on distant people and age-old tribal practices.

This photo offers a window into the daily lives of isolated, indigenous people, as well as allows us to connect with those people in some way. We are inspired to look into the news story behind the photo, and to understand that what we see as plight may actually be traditional ways of life that are threatened by deforestation, climate change and incursion by developed societies. Instagram’s photos capture intrigue to inspire interest in current events. Images like this one are used by National Geographic to capture interest in the natural world. While this photo is stunning and captures natural beauty, the picture in itself does not deliver substantial news information. When viewers are struck by a captivating image like this one — a lake brimming with jellyfish — they are moved to click on the photo and become informed about the changing patterns of warmth in the world’s oceans and their effects of different species. Instagram can be used to inspire interest and curiosity, which makes viewers more likely to read and retain information about what they see.

Instagram can also be used to get information about developing stories from reporters on the ground with Internet access and a smartphone. We can read countless stories about the influx of migrants from Iraq and Syria into Europe, and the struggle that refugees fleeing violence face. News outlets use Instagram photos to bring viewers inside refugee camps, to humanize the migrants and provide a better understanding of the camps across Europe. This photo posted by Aljazeera shows the nature of the buildup of migrants seeking to pass through to Western Europe.


The global reach of Instagram transports users into the daily lives of distant people, and helps us to see developing stories as they appear on the ground. The photos used by outlets are a reminder that the news stories we read are someone else’s reality. The availability of photo sharing lets viewers see breaking stories and human experiences up close, and in vibrant color.

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