From the street to public service

Humans of New York’ photographer’s journey to journalism

Bibliographic Data

ID7478343
AuthorsJessica Roberts (0000-0001-7884-5714, Boise State University, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume20
Issue11
Pages1480-1496
Publication date2017-03-09
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1464884917698171
OpenAlexW2592170085
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited17

The ‘Humans of New York’ social media feed, featuring photographs of people in New York City – and in recent years also Iran, Syria, and other locations – has amassed nearly 18 million Facebook followers, spawned multiple books, and inspired various copy-cat projects. Over the 6 years since its creation, the feed has evolved from an assortment of photos of individuals in New York to an intentional, morally conscious portrait of the perspectives and lived experiences of the inhabitants of New York and other places, and has resulted in real-life consequences for the subjects, ranging from donations to projects to invitations from the president of the United States. This article analyzes the ‘Humans of New York’ posts in the context of public service ideals of modern journalism as laid out by scholars, professional journalism societies, and leading news organizations. This analysis considers the perspective of the posts through the captions that accompany each post and finds that, since 2011, the feed has changed its narrative focus from the photographer to the subjects, who share their stories in their own words. In this way, the ‘Humans of New York’ feed satisfies several aspects of the public service ideal of journalism, lending support to the idea that new media sites created by non-professionals, or citizen journalists, may be able to satisfy some of the social responsibilities of the press, and offer lessons for both professionals and amateurs

Art · Business · Context (archaeology · Ideal (ethics · Journalism · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Portrait · Public relations · Public service · Service (business · Social media · Sociology · Technical Journalism · Visual arts · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Studies and Communication · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · History · Law

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