The future is unwritten

This course did not so much introduce me to the tools of the digital age as it reinforced and re-educated me to the inter-connective powers of blogging and linking, but especially to the social media network that is developing exponentially.

Previous Experience:

I have experienced the power of blogging. Four years ago, while embedded with a local Army Reserve unit in Iraq, along with the daily articles and photographs I sent to the newspaper, I sent blogs on a daily basis that were more of a personal diary, sharing my perceptions and experiences with the troops and on the forward operating base. I believe that I received more responses from the soldiers' families about the blogs than I received from the newspaper's readers about the articles.

Here is a gallery of photos from my embed in Ramadi, Iraq:

http://billschaefer.smugmug.com/Journalism/Journey-to-Iraq-Ramadi-Iraq/7562956_NHsN2#488768250_LPC6g

My experience at the newspaper has inclueded producing a number of photo galleries and a few audio-slideshows using the software Soundslides and Audcity.


Pros and cons of multi-media

It affects my work in both positive and negative ways. The positive is in the way it improves the way I tell the story, whether I'm recording ambient sound or interviewing someone, sometimes while capturing the audio the subject reveals something that has remained hidden until that moment and then I know to stay on the watch for that moment to capture it with my camera.

The negative is that it is rare to find the time necessary to capture all the facets of multi-media, photos, audio and video, let alone find the production time to adequately edit all those components into a cohesive, linear story.

Where do we go from here

But, as I wrote in my lead paragraph, it is the power and potential of the social media networks that this course has opened my eyes to understand. As journalists we have to incorporate blogging, linking, RSS and multimedia, in our daily work, it is the next wave of reporting, 21st century journalism, and it is the social media network that we must utilize in transmitting our work.

You can make better use of all these tools by constant use. It's like a language, as you use it more you become more fluent and more proficient. And as you use it more, you will develop more connectivity to an expanding community, a community that has no borders, no borders and no restraints, other than the ones you impose on yourself.

Civil discussion behind the cloak of anonymity

After reading the mean-spirited, vituperative comments on the online blogs and responses to articles in the newspaper I've become a strong supporter of identifying yourself with your comments. It is something that newspapers require in letters to the editor and I think it is something that needs to be adhered to in online discussions.

I'm enough of a realist to know that what I'm advocating won't happent anytime soon. There are too many craven people out there who don't have the honor or spine to let themselves be identified with their spiteful opinions.

However, there are people who do sign their comments and when I read their statements I find that even if I don't agree with their opinion I find it easier to respect them and the argument that they advocate.

I don't advocate cracking down on the comments unless they become simply an ongoing spitting match between two individuals or the comments and discussion becomes one of such a distasteful, personal feud that has absolutely nothing in common with the debate. Even then it may be better to "give them enough rope, to hang themselves."

I guess you could have a referee, just as they have in boxing matches or athletic events, to oversee and officiate the discussion to keep it within the bounds of good taste. But then the question becomes who is the arbiter and why do you draw the line where you do?

It's not surprising, at least here in America, that some of the more obnoxious posts and comments can be found about sports teams, athletes and coaches. There's very few things that will rise the blood pressure and bring down a reign of terror at the local newspaper's website like an under performing coach or team. Perhaps this phenomenon in not limited to the States. I know by observation that there are many futbol fans through out the world and I'm sure they're apt to express their sentiments with little civil discussion.

Visual manipualtions violates trust of readers/viewers in reporting the news

I'm late to join the class discussion but I've been avidly following the ongoing discussions. Over the years that I have worked as a photojournalist every so often there arises an outrage when it is discovered that an award winning photograph has been manipulating some of his photographs. These days it is so easy to manipulate photographs digitally but in the past photographers also manipulated photographs by managing the situation to "create" the photograph, the image, that they wanted to portray.

In fact in can be persuasively argued that Dorothea Lange's famous photo "Migrant Mother" is a manipulated image and it has been proven that the image was manipulated in the darkroom. If you look at the series of images, the negatives from which Lange's famous image came from, Lange took a variety of images eliminating some of the children until she arrived at the iconic image and the image was retouched. I've included a link that shows the retouched image.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html


Almost three years ago, Allan Detrich, a veteran, award-winning photojournalist with the Toledo Blade, had to resign after it was discovered that a photograph that was published in the Blade, had been digitally manipulated. Detrich's manipulation was to "clean" up the photograph's composition by eliminating the legs of some people in the background of the photograph. The manipulation would not have been discovered except for the fact that other photojournalists photographs of the same event were not digitally altered. The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) reported on the controversy. Here is the link to their report.

http://www.nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2007/04/toledo03.html

The NPPA has taken a very pro-active stance against the manipulation of news photographs and has a Code of Ethics. I've included the link to the Code.

http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/ethics.html

It's an unfortunate fact of life that in the pursuit of the perfect image or the perfect story, journalists and photojournalist sometimes find it convenient to manipulate, alter and at times simply create fiction. Past examples include Janet Cooke's story on a child heroin addict in the Washington Post, Stephen Glass's reporting for the New Republic and Jayson Blair's reporting for the New York Times.

When these transgressions were revealed, as hard as these publications tried to redeem their journalistic integrity, the public response seems to be of an attitude that their deepest suspicions of journalism are only confirmed, despite the self-flagellating efforts by the New York Times to review all of Blair's reporting and printing a public report in the paper revealing even more transgressions.

As a photojournalist I find it difficult to accept the class assignment to take one of my photographs and digitally manipulate it but I'll accept the task. There have been times in the past at the newspaper when we will digitally alter a photograph to accompany a story and on those occassions we always label the photograph as a "Photo Illustration".

I've taken a photo of a nun in Maaloula sweeping the trash early in the morning and by using the cloning tool in photoshop I've added additional trash for her to sweep. Similar to what Mr. Detrich did in his photo but he eliminated the legs of the people standing in the background.

Ethical reporting by journalists and photojournalists protects not only their individual integrity but the integrity of the community of journalists and photojournalists.