Fortress Journalism

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The BBC College of Journalism released a 92-page document, “The Future of Journalism”. The information in the report is the result of a journalism conference held in London in late 2008:

Today, as technology changes the lives of both journalists and their customers, assumptions about what journalism is and how it is practiced are being re-examined.

The eight chapters include:

  • The End of Fortress Journalism
  • Introducing Multimedia to the Newsroom
  • Multimedia Reporting in the Field
  • Dealing with User-Generated Content: is it Worth it?
  • Video Games: a New Medium for Journalism
  • The Audience and the News
  • Delivering Multiplatform Journalism to the Mainstream
  • Death of the Story

If you are a journalist, this might be of interest to you. Although, ironically, much of it is old news so the report might serve as reminder.

If you’re a corporate photographer, this document might be worth reading or at least skimming. Your business clients have news and information they want to get out to the public and the news media. So perhaps there’s something to be learned from this report.

 

Illegal Motion

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Football has a penalty called “illegal motion” which is when an offensive player is in forward motion before the ball is snapped.

Speaking of offensive, there’s a contest currently being run by a Photoshop magazine (not affiliated with Adobe). The contest winner gets to pretend they’re a pro photographer on the sidelines at a USA college football game. The contest is open only to amateurs.

The prize is “a dream sports assignment of a lifetime” and includes: the winner will be loaned the necessary gear (with which they probably have no experience using); they will go to the stadium’s media room to get a “big spread of all kinds of food”, a “full blown buffet”; they will “mingle with other media folks”; and finally, the winner gets a media pass to shoot on the sidelines.
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Rules of Photography

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If you are an experienced photographer then you probably know all of this. But if you’re just starting out, here are some of the rules of professional photography (in no particular order):

There’s no such thing as a simple shoot.

The layout will change after the photo shoot is done.

The CEO always has a bad hair day.

Size of the group to be photographed varies inversely with size of the room.

The only time you need a reshoot is when there’s no time for one.

Gear always works at home. Gear always fails on location.

The chance of a piece of equipment breaking is proportional to its importance for the shoot.

The chance of a memory card failing is proportional to the importance of the images it holds.

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Release This

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Why do fax machines still exist?

I suspect it’s because of the non-stop flood of press releases sent everyday to newspapers and other publications. E-mailed releases exist but these risk being redirected into an editor’s junk folder or getting lost in the deluge of other e-mails that an editor receives each day.

For some (most?) publications, press releases are a blessing. They are a source of free content and who doesn’t love free?

Smart businesses, public relations agencies and other marketing companies should be taking advantage of the weak economy which is forcing all newspapers to cut back. Now is the time to produce quality, newsworthy and timely releases for their business or clients.
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A word to the wise

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With huge apologies to Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich who wrote the 1997 column later made famous by Baz Luhrmann.

 

If I were to address the graduating class from a photojournalism school here in Canada, it might go like this:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, autofocus would be it. The benefits of autofocus have been proven by photographers, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

Enjoy the technology and power of your current camera model. There’s no need to always upgrade to the latest gear. Oh, never mind. You won’t fully appreciate the capabilities of your camera until it’s long obsolete. But trust me, in 20 years, you’ll look back at your photos from today and recall in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay in your hands and how amazing that camera really was.
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Best Photo Sayings

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Who says photographers don’t have a sense of humour?

My sensor is bigger than yours

Film is a four-letter word

My other camera is a Leica

If all else fails . . . Photoshop!

I brake for photo ops

I’d back up my hard drive if I knew how to put it in reverse.

If at first you don’t succeed, reformat.

Power corrupts. Buy a surge protector.

Trust me, I’m a photographer.

If you’re not in focus, you’re in the way.

I’d rather be taking pictures

A bad day of photography beats a good day of working

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Say Cheese

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Who doesn’t love having their picture taken?

First Portraits

Getting your “official” portrait taken usually starts when you’re one day old, courtesy of the hospital photographer.

This is followed by thirteen years of annual school pictures. Although some grade schools now have “picture day” three times per year.

If you played sports or were involved in any other organized activity when you were young, then you probably had many more official pictures.

When you add graduation and prom pictures, driver’s licence photos, passport pictures and maybe even a few police mug shots :-) then you’ve had a lot of official portraits made. Many of those probably had fake, forced smiles.
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