hi randy
i worked for a newspaper many years ago
and in the 90s they got rid of their staff photographers
and just gave the reporters a point and shoot cameras.
this sounds about the same.
Printable View
hi randy
i worked for a newspaper many years ago
and in the 90s they got rid of their staff photographers
and just gave the reporters a point and shoot cameras.
this sounds about the same.
Maybe it's a Chicago thing. This old time favorite Loop restaurant did the same thing a few years ago. Got rid of the Union by tricks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Berghoff_(restaurant)
I will never eat there again.
Thom Hogan has an interesting read on this and the newspaper industry as a whole: http://www.bythom.com/index.htm
It might be worthwhile noting that Birkshire Hathaway's media branch is hot on buying newspapers under the right circumstances. The long article linked above has a clue as to what Warren Bufett means when he says that papers are a good investment even while the Internet influences a financial downturn when he stated: "Newspapers continue to reign supreme, however, in the delivery of local news. If you want to know what’s going on in your town – whether the news is about the mayor or taxes or high school football – there is no substitute for a local newspaper that is doing its job."
Local papers run properly. I was a staff news photographer during the terrible years of the Seventies when newspapers were in dire shape. I worked for four, and was director of photography at another. We made money when the Sun Times / Daily News was losing. We did it by having a heavy concentration upon local events with lots of photos, usually a picture page per issue (they were daily papers.) Funny, but our staff photographers went on to very good careers. One to National Geographic, another to win three Pulitzers, myself to magazine work...
Local! The Sun Times has local papers but ... but what? A shitty paper? Competing against themselves with smaller papers? It is not all about the Internet.
I am finding http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/ has very useful LOCAL news for me. Heck, they even interviewed me recently, but I did not make the cut.
And, whenever I comment, as I often do, it gets pasted right into FB for my friends to view.
A good read on NPR website:
Photo Staff Firings Won't Shake Pulitzer Winner's Focus
link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow...medium=twitter
When I want to see cops spray pepper spray into the faces of little girls, I looked for cell phone videos, and found them.
When I wanted to watch the Boston Bombings, I looked for cell phone videos and found them.
When I wanted to see a British soldier being cut to pieces by Islamists, I looks for cell phone videos.
When I wanted real images of the Syrian civil war, I looked at the candid photos of a Japanese Trucker War Tourist.
Mainstream media offers me nothing in terms of breaking news. Commentary and opinion, yes. Not news, media can't compete with actually being there. In every case mentioned, there were no photojournalists there to get the content. They just can't get it or don't get it(in the OccupyWhatever cases). And I can't watch bobbleheads, for at least 10 years now; they talk to 6 year olds now and I just get nothing from them but elevated anger(some people are more tolerant of being talked down to and insulted like that).
What is missing is investigative journalism. Yes, we hear all about bombings and such. But have you seen an in-depth report of the various factions involved in Syria, for example? We are left to scrounge for sources on the 'net, not knowing if we're reading a reasonably impartial assessment or someone's paid propaganda, or even gibberish someone wrote up in their underwear surrounded by empty pizza boxes, having no knowledge of the subject.
Pizza boxes?
If you've not already seen it, I suggest watching "Shooting Robert King". Pizza boxes are the least of the worries.
Anyway...
There is nothing to force the void on real Syrian news. If a trucker amateur from Japan can 'report' on the Syrian Civil War, then so could real photojournalists(if they wanted to). When I get my media outlet 'news', it's usually reading Huffpost(which is just a blog), CNN, and AP feeds; and I get more photos and videos from Toshifumi Fujimoto FB posts in a day than I have from them since January combined.
On the otherhand,
If you're saying that I need bobbleheads to analyze and tell me what to think, this opinion is wrong.
I can't really remember the last example of investigative journalism(besides maybe Wikileaks). Most sanctioned stories for the last decade seems to be written with a script, written by some government or corporate official. Can you give an example of one that's not, it might remind me.