The evolution of photojournalism in the Internet era
Civic photojournalism is not a new phenomenon, writes Dan Gillmore , a well-known expert in the field of citizen journalism and the author of We are the Media (like all Gillmore articles, the book is published under a free license).
Since the advent of mass photography and video filming, people have been trying to capture the events of the life around which they have witnessed. Newspapers and magazines always bought these pictures with pleasure: for example, an amateur video of the Kennedy murder in 1963 was bought for $ 150 thousand (about $ 500 thousand with our money). Nowadays, with the modern development of mobile photo equipment, tens of thousands of people would make such a video and photographs from all possible angles. This is the apogee of the development of citizen journalism, which we are witnessing with the development of blogs and mobile computers in our day. The events of September 11, 2001, as well as the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the terrorist attacks in London showed that there is nothing for the professionals to do. They can not cope with such work.
Never before have professional photojournalists felt such strong competition from the amateur army as they do now. According to Gillmore, in the near future this process may lead to the disappearance of the majority of professional photojournalists (only the elect will remain, and this will be a very rare profession).
Individual professionals will not be able to compete with the huge media sphere, which generates a lot of content on the Internet after any more or less significant event. The quality of photographic equipment among the population is getting better, so that in the future the level of many amateur shots will satisfy even the most demanding requirements. According to Gillmore, the last stage of the “extinction” of professional photojournalists will come when there are convenient services, where customers can find and buy the best from photography and video clips.
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Such services appear now. Some of the most popular YouTube videos are the real journalistic work. For example, recording a nervous breakdown on the racist soil of American comedian Michael Richards produced a bombshell in the US.
The number of views of this video on YouTube is 900 thousand. Even umputun devoted almost half of its anniversary podcast to this topic.
The quality of amateur videos and photos is not very impressive yet, but it will certainly be improved as technology develops. One by one , new sites appear that position themselves as an exchange for content created by a community of citizen journalists. The largest media change the design and appeal to the audience with a request to send their content .
Practically burying professional photojournalism, Dan Gillmore speaks of the need to develop new rules for the transition to a new work model. Need to solve problems with copyright and fakes. As you know, amateurs can make a photomontage without hesitation to draw attention to their work.
However, not everyone agrees with Dan Gillmore that professional photojournalists will have a hard time. For example, Robert Scoble is confident that in the era of the Internet, they have additional sources of income . Some professionals earn thousands of dollars on contextual advertising alone on their blog, not to mention the fact that the Internet provides the opportunity to sell their photographs through dozens of photobanks around the world.
Since the advent of mass photography and video filming, people have been trying to capture the events of the life around which they have witnessed. Newspapers and magazines always bought these pictures with pleasure: for example, an amateur video of the Kennedy murder in 1963 was bought for $ 150 thousand (about $ 500 thousand with our money). Nowadays, with the modern development of mobile photo equipment, tens of thousands of people would make such a video and photographs from all possible angles. This is the apogee of the development of citizen journalism, which we are witnessing with the development of blogs and mobile computers in our day. The events of September 11, 2001, as well as the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the terrorist attacks in London showed that there is nothing for the professionals to do. They can not cope with such work.
Never before have professional photojournalists felt such strong competition from the amateur army as they do now. According to Gillmore, in the near future this process may lead to the disappearance of the majority of professional photojournalists (only the elect will remain, and this will be a very rare profession).
Individual professionals will not be able to compete with the huge media sphere, which generates a lot of content on the Internet after any more or less significant event. The quality of photographic equipment among the population is getting better, so that in the future the level of many amateur shots will satisfy even the most demanding requirements. According to Gillmore, the last stage of the “extinction” of professional photojournalists will come when there are convenient services, where customers can find and buy the best from photography and video clips.
')
Such services appear now. Some of the most popular YouTube videos are the real journalistic work. For example, recording a nervous breakdown on the racist soil of American comedian Michael Richards produced a bombshell in the US.
The number of views of this video on YouTube is 900 thousand. Even umputun devoted almost half of its anniversary podcast to this topic.
The quality of amateur videos and photos is not very impressive yet, but it will certainly be improved as technology develops. One by one , new sites appear that position themselves as an exchange for content created by a community of citizen journalists. The largest media change the design and appeal to the audience with a request to send their content .
Practically burying professional photojournalism, Dan Gillmore speaks of the need to develop new rules for the transition to a new work model. Need to solve problems with copyright and fakes. As you know, amateurs can make a photomontage without hesitation to draw attention to their work.
However, not everyone agrees with Dan Gillmore that professional photojournalists will have a hard time. For example, Robert Scoble is confident that in the era of the Internet, they have additional sources of income . Some professionals earn thousands of dollars on contextual advertising alone on their blog, not to mention the fact that the Internet provides the opportunity to sell their photographs through dozens of photobanks around the world.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/4807/
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