This article is about the unique word–image relations as these appear in international news production. This is achieved by analysing the labour of a particular team – the keyword team – in the news picture production routine at the powerful Thomson Reuters international news agency. By analysing the daily work of keyworders at Thomson Reuters, I explore how the word–image problem is demonstrated, and settled, in international news production. Similar to the picture categorising mechanisms in the stock business, I argue that word and image relations in news media can also be productive, serving as a cultural practice that helps extending the shelf-life of archived pictures, thus increasing news picture sales worldwide.
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