I meant to write a blog last night but unfortunately was too tired after University and quickly headed to bed so I could wake up early and take photographs of the Anzac day parade. It was at the Anzac day parade whilst (I was taking photographs) that I got the idea for this blog. I noticed that taking photographs has become more and more popular. Almost everyone was taking photographs of this news-worthy event. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the people at the parade will want to share their photographs on the Internet.
This blog will be discussing how the distribution of photography has been affected by Web 2.0. More importantly, I wish to focus on how Web 2.0 has caused a rise in Citizen Photo-journalism and allowing the number of Produser Photographers to expand.
What is Citizen Photo Journalism?
Citizen Photo-journalism is basically an off-spring from Citizen Journalism, where anyone can “Create their own journalism” (Noyes. 2007) It is Web 2.0 facilities such as Wikipedia and Blogs that allow this process. The reason why Citizen Journalism has become popular is because consumers no longer want information told to them, they want to be able to create and interact with the news (Timmer.2007) Citizen Photo-journalism follows the same concept by focusing on telling journalism through photos.
How is it different to traditional Photo-journalism?
Photo-journalism is not new, like traditional journalism, it has long been noticed as a respectable medium. In the same way to how journalism is critiqued, photo-journalism has been critiqued for being selective in the news it represents. Traditionally, photographs for newspapers or magazines were hand selected by editors and photographs were produced by paid professionals with costly cameras (Malik. 2006).The professionals still exist but are now competing with the amateurs who are posting their photographs on the Internet for free on their blogs or on photo-sharing websites such as Flickr. The amateurs are creating their own journalism through photography.
Citizen photo-journalists also show different perspectives than a professional would especially when they are actually “part of the news”. A perfect example of this is of the photographs taken during the London Bombings in 2005. The photograph taken by Adam Stacey straight after the train had been hit, is what became on of the most well-known photographs from that event. (Gillmour.2006) As Dan Gilmour states “the production values of the image are hardly professional. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the utter authenticity of the image, made so by the fact that the man was there at the right time with the right media-creation gear.” (2006) This is another example of how Citizen Photojournalists differ from the professionals.
Citizen photojournalists are Produsers
The word Produser was first coined by Axel Bruns (my lecturer at QUT). A simple way to define this word is this:
Produser= Producer + User.
A Produser is a person who is a user as well as a producer of the Internet. That is, they not only produce information but also help to make it grow by editing and adding new information. Produsage allows users to contribute in shaping an ever growing community of information and knowledge. (Bruns. 2007)
I find Citizen Photo-journalism to be a great example of Produsage. Just look at this Flickr group named Photojournalism 2.0's homepage. The members of this group are contributing more and more information through photographs of certain events. Although they can not edit anyone's work, they can post a discussion board thread or write a comment on a photograph. This is user-based contribution.
News website such as Yahoonews have given in to this trend by allowing users to upload photographs on their You Witness News website (Malik. 2006). The photos that are seen as newsworthy are then published in various areas of the Yahoonews website by editors. Yahoonews has found a way to compete with this new form of photography by recognising it as a new medium.
Photo-journalism blogs
We all know about blogs (if you don't, your reading a blog write now!), there are thousands of blogs on the Internet that are created by Citizen Photo-journalist. In news blogs, the writers blog about events, current affairs and so on. Citizen Photo-journalists do just that but with photographers instead of words.
Here are a couple of links to Photo-journalism Blogs I found Interesting:
Focused on PhotoJournalism- This photographer pretty much documents his life through Photography and produces some interesting results. There are also links to his Flickr page and other blogs he's created.
Travels Accross the Equator- This blog has photographs from this bloggers travelling experiences.
The World Through my Eyes- A blog from someone who lives in South America that documents life in his country.
And if you want more... Here is a link from BlogCatalogue which has will guide you to many more Photojournalism blogs.
Conclusion:
I believe that Citizen Photo-journalism is a growing trend and that Web 2.0 is aiding this style of produsage by allowing users to share and contribute to "their own journalism" through photography. Give it a couple of years and we will all be walking around with cameras in our hands just so we can be "at the right place at the right time" and capture a news worthy moment. We will all be Citizen Photo-journalists!
References:
Bruns, Axel. 2007. Produsage: A Working Definition. Produsage.org:
http://produsage.org/produsage
(viewed 25/04/08)
Gillmour, Dan. 2006. The Decline (and Maybe Demise) of the Proffesional Photographer:Centre for Citizen Media:
http://citmedia.org/blog/2006/12/04/the-demise-of-the-professional-photojournalist/
(viewed 25/04/08)
Mailk,
http://gigaom.com/2006/12/04/yahoo-reuters-cameraphones/
(viewed 25/04/08)
Noyes, Katherine. 2007. Journalism 2.0 : Power to The People. Tech news world:http://www.technewsworld.com/story/57193.html
(viewed 25/04/08)
Timmer, John. 2007. Anonymous “Good Samaritans” produce Wikipedia’s good content. Ars Technologica: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071018-anonymous-good-samaritans-may-produce-wikipedias-best-content.html
(viewed 25/04/08)
1 comment:
I very much enjoy your style of writing; you manage to be concise, thorough, while still remaining personable. This post captured my attention because I wrote my own on citizen journalism - it was interesting to read about the same concept, from a photographical point of view. Your post had a really readable form, it flowed from one concept to another nicely. The titles throughout helped, too.
In regards to what you posted: I would have liked to see more of an emphasis placed on the negative connotations of citizen photojournalism in regards to professional journalism. You state that ‘professionals still exist but are competing with the amateurs.’ I would be interested in hearing both your perspective, and scholarly perspectives, on whether traditional photojournalism is under threat from amateurs. I know that in regards to citizen journalism, there is a strong voice that feels that media journalism is under threat, many a dire prediction of the death of journalism, etcetera. An equally strong voice assures the doomsayers that news media will always be needed, if not just to be the standard setters for ethical, unbiased, reputable reporting. Is this the case for photojournalism?
You seem to be optimistic and quite certain that the citizen photojournalism movement will only grow: ‘Give it a couple of years and we will all be walking around with cameras in our hands.’ What will this mean in regards to professionals? Will they be displaced, replaced? Why will we possibly need traditional photogs if everyone can be a photojournalist? You reference Dan Gilmour’s article ‘The Decline (and maybe Demise) of the Professional Photographer.’ I feel you could have utilised this article a little more, expounded further. Do you think that professional photographers have a place in the fragile Web 2.0 ecosystem? It would have been interesting to read an exploration of this.
Thankyou for the interesting read, though!
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