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"Last week's crisis in Haiti has yielded a significant response from photographers and editors in the photojournalism community. Photographers were sent to Haiti on assignment, and others left for the Carribean on spec to document the devastation and help tell the tragic story. In looking at the various outlets for imagery from Haiti, I'm wondering if there might be a new way that photojournalism could capture a story of this magnitude, and if the current, traditional way in which multiple media outlets send multiple photographers to places of crisis has preventable pitfalls of its own."

"The fascinating field of digital forensics couldn't be more relevant for a journalist, researcher or editor. Specialised analysts can test the authenticity of a photograph: how many times has it been saved? Have additions been made to the original, and if so, in which order? Are parts of the image generated by a computer? Professor Hany Farid, based at the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College in the US, explains that photo forensics refers to mathematical and computational techniques "that seek to determine if a photo has been altered from its time of recording, and how/where the photo was altered. "This field of study is highly technical, and while some simple analysis can be done without much technical training, most of the forensic techniques require a highly skilled practitioner.""

"Blood and Dust: Vaughan Smith on the rescue teams saving lives in Afghanistan"

Eye on Image-Making: Eight Tips for Aspiring Photographers By David WeintraubdavidweintraubcloseAuthor: David Weintraub See Author's Posts (37) Recent Posts * Eye on Image-Making: Eight Tips for Aspiring Photographers * Notes from the VisCom Classroom: Teaching Video * Eye on Image-Making: Five Ways to Tell if a Photographer Is Really in Business * Eye on Image-Making: Portraiture Now * Notes from the VisCom Classroom: Is It Better to Teach Full Time or Part Time? David Weintraub is a writer, editor, photographer, and educator based in Aiken, SC. He is the author of eight travel books and many articles for publications such as Photo District News, Outdoor Photographer, and Hemispheres. David has a master's degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of South Carolina, where he is a full-time instructor teaching visual communications and writing. in Business of Photography on April 7th, 2009 I almost don't recognize Shawna Simmons when she appears in my office doorway. A 2007 graduate, Shawna has returned to the University of South Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communication to give several presentations as part of the school's I-Comm Week, an annual exploration of the latest trends in mass media. While an undergraduate, Shawna majored in visual communications. She was my student in our two photography courses, Photovisual Communications and Advanced Photovisual Communications. Now here she is, dressed in a stylish outfit capped by a black leather jacket, having just flown in the night before from New York.

Alfredo Jaar by Phong Bui, Dore Ashton, and David Levi Strauss On the occasion of the artist's current exhibition The Sound of Silence, which will be on view at Galerie Lelong until May 2nd, Alfredo Jaar paid a visit to the Rail's Headquarters to discuss some aspects of his life and work with Publisher Phong Bui, Consulting Editors Dore Ashton and David Levi Strauss, and a group of graduate students in the Art Criticism & Writing program at the School of Visual Arts.

Afghanistan: Pictures Not Taken 'When the press started to feel empowered to show and tell the truth, it was only a matter of time before the military and government powers would retaliate.' By Travis Beard Journalist Ash Sweeting rides in a pickup with the Afghanistan National Police. Photo by ©Travis Beard/Argusphotography. Nothing has more power to communicate the destruction and despair of our time-especially from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan-than photography. But in the sanitized and censored environments now of government and military control, taking the picture can be as difficult as getting it published. In coverage of these wars, freelance photojournalists are indispensible. One after another, news organizations have abandoned the task of informing the public. For editors back home, photojournalists-and the images they transmit-are problematic. But it's not the photographers who pose the problem; it's the truth their images tell. During the Vietnam War, there was the searing image of nine-year-old Kim Phouc running down the road with her flesh melting and fusing into her body after a napalm strike and her brother running in front of her with an expression that recalled Edvard Munch's "The Scream." This photograph spoke to people in ways that words had failed to do. These children were ones the Americans were supposed to be saving, not bombing. Images such as this one did much to turn the tide of that war, but if they did, it was because they conveyed important truths.

One source : A citizen photojournalist site would make sense if there was only one. Photo editors could immediately add it to there daily scouting and verify if anything of interest has been put up. There are so many of them today, including Flickr and other photo sharing sites that it becomes impossible to find, if it exists at all, the right image. It is almost like knocking on everyones door and asking if they have an image. Extremely laborious and completely counter productive.

THEORY: "Susan Sontag - On Photography" "Susan Sontag - On Photography" By: David L. Jacobs, Afterimage, Sunday, March 1 1998 The initial critical reception of Susan Sontag's On Photography (1977) is one of the most extraordinary events in the history of photography and cultural criticism. No other photography book, not even The Family of Man (1955), which sold four million copies before finally going out of print in 1978, received a wider range of press coverage than On Photography. The scores of reviews of Sontag's book extended not only across the spectrum of specialized photography and art magazines - that is, from Popular Photography to Artforum - but also across an expansive range of general-interest and intellectual periodicals from the Christian Science Monitor to the Village Voice, from Esquire to Encounter, and from the Saturday Review to the Antioch Review. What's more, On Photography won the National Book Critics' Circle Award for 1977 and was selected among the top 20 books of 1977 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review.

Many turn to internet for Sri Lanka war news By KRISHAN FRANCIS - 11 hours ago COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - With mainstream journalists barred from Sri Lanka's war zone, Tamil expatriates desperate for news of loved ones have turned to small Web sites for reports and video from across the front lines. Much of their reporting comes from locals - some of them former journalists and aid workers - who are working anonymously in the war zone and e-mailing their reports to editors in Europe. Para Prabha said his London-based Euro Television Web site receives clips from about six reporters and cameramen working inside the war zone under dangerous circumstances. The site is devoted to issues related to Sri Lanka's Tamils and the government's offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels. "One of our reporters was killed in February, caught in artillery fire, and a lot of other colleagues have left us because it's too dangerous," Prabha said. Another Web site, War Without Witness, uses aid workers on the ground to film footage, according to one official from the site who would identify himself only as Sam. He would not name the groups helping him, fearing reprisals from the government.

Welcome to the Hub -- the world's first participatory media site for human rights. Through the Hub, individuals, organizations, networks and groups around the world are able to bring their human rights stories and campaigns to global attention and to mobilize action to protect and promote human rights. Watch and forward the 60-second Hub video. What You Can Do On the Hub The Hub is an interactive community for human rights, where you can upload videos, audio or photos, or simply watch, comment on and share what's on the site. You can use each media item on the site to encourage individuals to learn more and to get involved by providing direct links to resources, advocacy groups, campaigns and actions that they can take to make a difference. Additionally, you can connect with groups or create one of your own to feature your work on the Hub. Every week you can watch the three most urgent videos contributed to the Hub, and hand-picked by our editors. Who can join the Hub? Anyone with a valid email address can join the Hub. Users of the Hub include human rights workers, students, academics, filmmakers, journalists, activists, teachers and concerned citizens worldwide.

Study from 2007 on 'hyperlocal journalism' - more from the perspective of web-editor, but with some useful information. "The rule in hyperlocal citizen journalism is that no one size or shape fits all. This study, funded by the Ford Foundation, sought to take a snapshot in time of a robust phenomenon - specifically, the development of hyperlocal community news sites - that is changing and growing week by week."

"Corentin Wauters: Gamma is one of the most famous photojournalism agencies. Some even call it legendary. How important has it been for photojournalism? Michiel Munneke: I think Gamma - but also others like Magnum, for instance - played an extremely important role from early years on, especially in documenting crucial news events around the world. It's important to realise that in those days you had magazines like Life and the Picture Post who very generously allocated tens of pages to events like the war in Vietnam, for example. Those publications and photographs made a huge impact on their readerships. I think it's fair to say that the founders of Gamma, like Raymond Depardon - although he moved to Magnum at the end of the '70s - and Gilles Corron, who died in 1970 in Cambodia, can be classified as legendary. They played a very important role in news documenting in those years. Raymond Depardon said that in 1966 you only had to travel far away and take three shots to get published in magazines Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur. How has the profession of photojournalism changed since Gamma was founded? If Depardon was saying that competition for space in publications like Paris Match or Le Nouvel Observateur is stronger, then he's absolutely right. Competition is far more severe. Circulations are going down, advertising revenues are shrinking, and consequently budgets for journalism and for photography are being cut. image Nowadays its very rare that publications send photographers for assignments overseas. Take a renowned magazine like Time. They still have photographers on staff but they very rarely get assignments to go overseas. It's a sign of the times. Gamma, but also other big photojournalism agencies like Sipa, were founded in Paris. The city had a big name as a centre for photojournalism. To what extent is that true today? I think for those years it was really true. But now, in the era of globalisation and digitisation, it doesnâ

"Defining journalism now During my 11 years as a copy editor, I spent a lot of time with my nose in a dictionary. I doubt that I ever looked up the words journalism or journalist. Today, prompted by a question on Twitter, I did."

"There are times when technological change catches up with an idea. Now is such a moment, as social media transform how people receive and share news and information. Just a few years back the notion of journalism being a conversation, not a lecture, wasn't embraced widely in an industry content to transmit what reporters learned to audiences expected to consume it. Comfort with that notion grew as online comments and live chats assumed a role that Letters to the Editor once held on their own, albeit with greater anonymity and often less civility. Then, from the "audience" spilled forth blogs and photos, videos and tweets. Soon, the words "citizen" and "journalist" were joined in a marriage brokered by technology and nurtured by convenience as news organizations shed staff yet still needed to produce "content.""

"The Kaieteur News, one of Guyana's daily newspapers, is notorious for publishing explicit front-page photographs of crime scenes and murder victims, an editorial policy that has roused controversy in the past. But the gruesome photo and accompanying report that led the paper's edition of Saturday 31 October, 2009, triggered widespread outrage not at the Kaieteur News editors but at the Guyana Police Force:"

What I guess goes through my mind when I'm taking a picture is I'm thinking wordlessly about how all these elements relate to each other and I'm thinking again wordlessly about finding a balance that I look for a point that seems central to the picture and when I find that point that tells me where to stand and where exactly to aim the camera. - Stephen Shore

"There is an unmistakable seriousness as well as a handsome hospitality in the range of method and morality, topic and topography on show." Times Higher Education Supplement The past two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest, research and writing on visual culture within the humanities and social sciences. journal of visual culture is an international, refereed journal which is a site for astute, informative and dynamic thought on the visual. The journal publishes work from a range of methodological positions, on various historical moments and across diverse geographical locations. It promotes research, scholarship and critical engagement with visual cultures.