Online newspapers first affected photojournalism due to its timing feature. Photojournalists can take a photo at a scene, and with the wire transmission, have the photo immediately online. For those who were viewing the website, they would often know the story or the news before the morning or nightly broadcast aired. Today, online newspapers are having a less beneficial effect on photojournalism. Many photojournalists are getting laid off because others are able to do their jobs. Pew Research Center explains, “Shrinking newsroom budgets play a significant part, but so does the explosion of mobile technology and social media, making it easier for citizens and non-professionals to capture and share images.” Although online newspapers are an example of technological advances within themselves, the technology has essentially destroyed a valuable field of work.
Kira Pollack, the director of photographer at Times Magazine scrambled to keep her photographers busy throughout these struggles. By allowing them to use Instagram to photograph Hurricane Sandy, she incorporated traditional photojournalism with today’s technology. Similar to online newspapers is the idea of Demotix. This is a “new marketplace” that allows free lancers to post photos in one place and gain global attention. Its critics claimed it devalued photojournalists but the company only takes images from photographers whose work compares to the professionals. By incorporating photojournalistic work with online venues, photojournalism is not dying, but rather transforming.
Earlier I researched the process of photogravure. Through photogravure, photography became an art and photojournalists were respected for the many precise steps they had to complete in printing an image. Today, photojournalists are not so respected because of “citizen journalists.” These are amateur street photographers who wind up taking many of the famous photographs we see. Another piece of photojournalism history was the dry plate collodion. This was a process that only allowed portraits to be taken. That is a vast difference from today’s photojournalism because, yes photojournalism is of people, but it is of people doing actions, not sitting still. Photography a hundred years ago was not able to reach mass populations initially because the process took so long. However, Tim Hetherington explains that today, mass communication is all about presenting ideas to wide audiences. These ideas are presented through photos and those photos are presented through online media such as online newspapers.
Although online newspapers and the earlier processes of photography do differ, there are also many similarities. Photography is an art which means it includes creativity. Earlier photographers had to set up the scene, decide what the subject would be, and make small decisions. Today, the basics are no longer creative but there is still room for other forms of creativity. The Getty VP of sports imagery, Ken Mainardis, explains, “I’m pushing my photographers to innovate.” Even though innovation is needed, that just means even more creativity accompanies the process. Another similarity between the old processes of photography and today’s process through online newspapers is the impact on the people. During the times of the Civil War, photos “had a wide-reaching impact on the public’s perception on everything from their leaders to the nature of warfare.” Similarly, photos on online newspapers are updated so quickly that they cover breaking news via pictures. These breaking news stories still include details of the nation’s leaders and warfare effects.
Citizen journalists replacing professional photojournalists
Image By: Kennedy Blue Communications
Image Source: http://smcmatrix.com/2013/12/10/how-social-media-affects-international-citizen-journalism/
Photojournalists have to get creative which means traveling to different places
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