mapjd@lcc

This is an article of particular interest to the Citizen Photojournalism project. Writer Alissa Quart writes for the Columbia Journalism review amongst others, and in this article, she considers the impact of citizen photojournalism on agencies and professional photojournalism in general.

I must say that during last Sunday's riots in the Old CIty of Jerusalem the citizen journalists outnumbered those who were rioting . At least 6 photographers complained about their difficulties of capturing an image without someone sticking a cell phone or other small camera into the frame . A Palestinian man poked his head of the entrance of his home and asked me to assist a Norwegian man who ran into his home to seek safety but was too afraid to leave the area and was trapped . I helped the man make his way down the alley that separated the masked Palestinian youths who were throwing stones towards the Israeli border police at the other end and told him to stick to my side where he would be more protected by the stone building along the way . This has happened a number of times during my coverage of the Palestinian Israeli conflict and in some ways hinders a photojournalist because they leave the scene to assist someone else , can endanger them further my walking in between lines however even the seasoned professionals have opted out of situations that risked their own safety .

An article by Christopher Michel on the Military.com website, mentioning amongst other things, the first pictures released of Saddam Hussein's capture.

"Do you ever shut down your computer at the end of the week, and all of the sudden it hits you: You haven't kept up with your social sites for the week.twitter-logo With less than 7 percent of all Twitter users using it on a regular basis, it can be a little frustrating knowing you have a tool ready to help grow your business, yet unsure of how to truly use it. Just like blogging, Twitter takes work. But there are ways you can incorporate it into your photography business, and have it start working for you."

A website/blog which accompanies Fred Ritchin's book "After Photography". A very useful and considered piece of work.

"The End of Newspapers: Reality and Information" Looking at the so-called death of newspapers from the angle of authenticity and reliability of photojournalistic images.

Citizen Journalism

"Citizen Journalism and the BBC '… when major events occur, the public can offer us as much new information as we are able to broadcast to them. From now on, news coverage is a partnership.' By Richard Sambrook On the day of the London bombings, the BBC News's Web site used images sent to them by citizens who were affected by the attacks. On the site, people could learn how to submit their video, photographs and words for use by the BBC. "

"A Most Useful Definition of Citizen Journalism It's mine, but it should be yours. Can we take the quote marks off now? Can we remove the "so-called" from in front? When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that's citizen journalism. There are other definitions, but they will have to be discussed in the comments."

"Citizen journalism." It's one of the hottest buzzwords in the news business these days. Many news executives are probably thinking about implementing some sort of citizen-journalism initiative; a small but growing number have already done so. But there's plenty of confusion about citizen journalism. What exactly is it? Is this something that's going to be essential to the future prosperity of news companies?

Throughout history, war has affected media, with conflict often creating an information void. In the 21st century, media has begun to affect war more than

"On the Internet, everybody is a millenarian. Internet journalism, according to those who produce manifestos on its behalf, represents a world-historical development-not so much because of the expressive power of the new medium as because of its accessibility to producers and consumers. That permits it to break the long-standing choke hold on public information and discussion that the traditional media-usually known, when this argument is made, as "gatekeepers" or "the priesthood"-have supposedly been able to maintain up to now. "Millions of Americans who were once in awe of the punditocracy now realize that anyone can do this stuff-and that many unknowns can do it better than the lords of the profession," Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who operates one of the leading blogs, Instapundit, writes, typically, in his new book, "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government and Other Goliaths." The rhetoric about Internet journalism produced by Reynolds and many others is plausible only because it conflates several distinct categories of material that are widely available online and didn't use to be. One is pure opinion, especially political opinion, which the Internet has made infinitely easy to purvey. Another is information originally published in other media-everything from Chilean newspaper stories and entries in German encyclopedias to papers presented at Micronesian conferences on accounting methods-which one can find instantly on search and aggregation sites. Lately, grand journalistic claims have been made on behalf of material produced specifically for Web sites by people who don't have jobs with news organizations. According to a study published last month by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there are twelve million bloggers in the United States, and thirty-four per cent of them consider blogging to be a form of journalism. That would add

"Recent events in the world have again raised the issue of citizen journalism, especially for recording events in the "global war on terror". The events in Mumbai, India, have demonstrated that citizen journalism is now an established way to relate events, such as acts of terror, to the mainstream media-consuming public. This is certainly not the first time that citizen journalists have recorded an act of terrorism. It is unlikely to be the last time. When discussing an issue like citizen journalism, initial clarifications need to be made. The first question that comes to mind: What is citizen journalism? This needs to be broached before anything else in order to bring clarity of understanding and to ensure readers have a common understanding about this key element. There are some who object to the use of the term 'citizen journalist', dismissing it as inadequate in correctly describing what is really happening. "

"For several years, the predominant blog layout has remained unchanged. Posts, usually shortened to fit neatly, sit on top of each other in descending order, headlines over each post. This creates a "log" feel from which the term "web log" or "blog" came. However, redesigns at two of the web's best-known blogs, Techcrunch and Mashable seem poised to shake up the traditional layout, offering slight variations that make the sites appear more like a traditional newspaper. The trend appears to be spreading. While no hard numbers exist, magazine layouts are among the most popular themes for existing blogs. These themes are generating some of the most hype among bloggers. Although the design of a blog is not always of particular import, as many readers read the content in an RSS reader, it is still an important consideration. It is one to which many novice bloggers don't give adequate weight. Choosing the wrong theme can make a site look dated or unprofessional, completely destroying any attempt to modernise one's web presence. For those seeking to enter the blogging realm, or to modernise an existing platform, a magazine theme may be a major step in the right direction. "

List of citizen journalist websites from around the worlkd. Includes the 'independent agency for citizen photojournalists' and AFP's sell/share citpj website.

"This past weekend, the horrific image of a young woman dying on camera in the midst of a protest in Iran turned into a rallying cry for many of those participating/following the events in Iran. In 40 seconds of grainy footage (shot on what appears to be the mobile phone of a passerby), we first see the wounded woman - now identified as Neda - as she falls to the floor into a pool of blood. Two men come to her aid and try to stem the bleeding from her chest. The person filming moves in closer and Neda turns towards the camera, seeming to fix her gaze on the lens pointed at her. A few seconds pass, the bleeding becomes more profuse, and Neda falls unconscious, passing away within moments. "

"# Online bells and whistles can deliver your message with impact, but done in the wrong way, they can annoy your reader. Design gurus Laura Ruel and Nora Paul show you how to do multimedia right. By Laura Ruel and Nora Paul No comments | Archive Link One of the greatest opportunities of multimedia journalism is the ability to make different design choices. Although most online organizations present digital derivatives of their "parent" products - newspaper sites present columns of text, radio sites feature audio files, and TV sites provide video - we are seeing an increase in the number of sites embracing all design options. Radio sites are complementing their audio with photos and/or text, newspaper sites are presenting video and audio slide shows along with their text, and TV stations are supplementing their video pieces with text stories. "

""Should we present this story as an interactive? Before undertaking any large story project be sure to ask: * Who is the target audience for this story? * What do we hope to accomplish in telling this story to them? Then use this decision-tool to see which approach to storytelling is best supported by the research in these studies:"

"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

Reuters take on CJ... the conformity and mediocrity in 21st century photojornalism conform or die?