Perhaps people prefer pictures than words?

Since I was little, I noticed something significantly different from my brother, Jackie, and I. I loved reading newspapers and novels, but he preferred reading comic books. My parents always asked him to read more newspapers like me, and their reason was simple: Because one's linguistic competence is positively correlated with the amount he/she reads. Although I was the one to be praised compared to my brother, I did notice that most of my classmates prefer comics, just like Jackie.

The situation hasn't changed much. I still noticed that most of my high school friends would pick up comic books instead of novels when they had a choice. So when I read this article on Columbia Journalism Review, I couldn't help but think of Jackie and my friends.

Since photo galleries started to take up a significant amount of traffic flow in news websites, people responded by asking if photo galleries are helping the industry or killing it. People may blame photo galleries that they ruin the whole point of running a news site, but I don't agree. Journalism has had a very strong bond with photography ever since it was invented, and sometimes photos serve readers better in explaining things that are difficult to present merely by words.

I do understand, though, why some people worry about photo galleries taking over. It is true that photo galleries create this illusion that a specific website generates more "clicks" than others because people would keep clicking for more pictures. However, just like it is mentioned at the end of the Columbia Journalism Review article, advertisers will one day set new rules for news websites and eventually eliminate the false impression made by photo galleries.

Also, not every picture are very self explanatory. So when people see a picture that interests them, they will then seek more information about a certain story. That's when journalism comes in to play.

In general, I don't think photo galleries will ever poisons the journalism industry as much as people worry. Quite the opposite, I see a very powerful attention getter inside the nature of photo galleries. After all, people just love pictures more than words, just like my brother and most of my friends.