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The Digital Journalist
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| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Welcome |
| Welcome to the June 2009 issue of The Digital Journalist |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| We Don't Need No Stage! |
| As a child growing up in Michigan in the 1950s, our telephone was connected to elaborate circuitry known as switchboards. The "operator" connected circuits as calls were made, and the technology to automate all that was just coming into being. These operators were often featured in television shows and films of the period, and they were just an accepted part of life. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Let Me Count the Ways, If Possible |
| Look at journalism today. Look hard. Though much of what is taking place is apparent, if you blink, you will miss some of what is happening. Newspapers are closing. Others are failing and will also probably close. Reporters, editors and all manner of staff are losing their jobs. Because newspapers and print in general are under siege, everyone has an opinion about the future of journalism and, to be more specific, news in print. Some say that there is too much serious thinking in the journalism community. Others say there is not nearly enough and much of it is coming too late. But it is hard thinking and needed. Some is practical. Much is academic. All is about the future of journalism. It is about the failed past and missed opportunities as well as a desire to remake journalism if it is to have a future worth preserving. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Tech Tips |
| Is there a firmware update coming for manual video control on the EOS 5D Mark II? |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| The New Stars of Journalism |
| A friend sent me the following the other day. Mr. Thomas Jefferson "on banks" said in 1802: |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| The Reporter's Life: So You Want To Be a Journalist |
| You would think with all the journalists losing their jobs, being tossed out of the game or scrambling to find work, there'd be no one new wanting to come into the pipeline. Not necessarily true, I discover. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Common Cents: Webulicious |
| The first thing you want to do with a potential customer is piss them off. At least that's the philosophy some photographers follow on their Web sites. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Fast Track to Fame |
| Despite the vast opportunity for photographers to gain widespread exposure on the Internet, through social networking sites like Facebook and with just old-fashioned word-of-mouth, it seems that getting a photographer's work in front of potential buyers is increasingly difficult. Many photographers are faced with the dilemma of trying to get attention for their work from previously more accessible audiences such as the photo editors licensing images, and potential buyers searching for that breathtaking image to hang on their walls. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| We're Just Sayin': A Hardware Lament |
| One of the greatest ironies of the last photographic decade, and there are any number of them, has to do with the treatment of some great cameras. Anyone under 25 probably has no idea what the hell I'm talking about. But if you began taking photographs when film was the medium of choice, you will recognize and remember that fleeting moment, at the beginning of the new century, when things got extremely unfair. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Nuts and Bolts: Bad Made Better and Better Made Worse |
| In and around the Seventies, the news magazines began to increase the number of color pages – as much to service advertisers that wanted color ads as to bring color photojournalism to their readers. Over the following years, newspapers would also begin to print much more color. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Platypus Testimonials |
| Before this course, I couldn't imagine producing a project on my own. I walked out believing that I could. Thank you. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Platypus in Portland |
| Having just completed the May 1-10, 2009, Platypus HD Workshop in Portland, Ore., I am resetting my career in a direction that looks forward, rather than worrying about what is approaching from behind. This program was very meaningful to me and I heartily urge anyone thinking about participating in an upcoming workshop to do so. It is to the benefit of your future. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Surviving Boot Camp |
| Portland, Ore. – As someone who lives among U.S. troops as an embedded photographer for The Associated Press in Iraq, I like to think I'm no stranger to discipline. But nothing could have prepared me for the rigors of the Platypus Workshop. I'd heard soldiers tell stories about basic training, about being broken down and built from scratch. Effectively, that's what happened to me. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Hugh Van Es: R.I. in f*****g P. |
| When we heard that our best friend, Hugh van Es, had gone to hospital after suffering a huge cerebral hemorrhage, we were in Amsterdam – where Hugh had first worked as a news photographer back in 1959. We promptly went to one of his favorite 'brown cafés' to think through what it all meant. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Goodies to Go With Your Canon 5D Mark II |
| Although Canon had no major new products to show at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show last month, there was a lot of activity in other booths, as third-party manufacturers hustled to get aboard the 5D Mark II bus. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Nikon D3x: A Review |
| I've had the opportunity to play with Nikon's new flagship DSLR for the last month or so and for what it's worth, here's my opinion. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| E-Bits: Everybody Knows |
| Like the fresh, exuberant display of a young bird in flight, fledgling Obama in his initial days as president reversed some of the more egregious policies of the Bush administration. He then made a sweeping gesture of promised transparency by releasing Justice Department memos that had been created to support his predecessor's policy of torture, euphemistically known as "enhanced interrogation." At the same time, he promised not to oppose the release of additional photographs that document even more evidence of abuse than has been revealed previously. For those following the issue, the existence of more images and videotapes was hardly a secret. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and members of Congress announced there were more following the emergence of the first images in 2004, that the initial images and videotapes were only the tip of a very big iceberg. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Dispatches |
| For June three dispatches take us first to Vietnam, then China and finally Baghdad, Iraq. Justin Mott met and continues to visit a young blind girl who has multiple disabilities in Friendship Village outside Hanoi. Sean Gallagher received a travel grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting this year to pursue his exploration of social and environmental issues in Asia. In Baghdad again, Chris Hondros has a couple of comic exchanges with his driver and takes a train ride. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Baghdad Metro |
| Trains are more novel than tanks in Baghdad and people in cars often gaped and smiled as the train wound its way across traffic. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Nu's Story |
| As I investigated further I saw a little girl rocking back and forth on a small plastic red bucket in the shadow of the concrete staircase. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Desertification: On the Trail of Abandoned Cities |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Artist's Statement on American Indians |
| I have been photographing American Indians for more than 20 years. They are magical and frustrating subjects. It requires time to win the trust of Indians because they have been abused for as long as Europeans have been in America. |
| 07/04/2009 01:40 AM |
| Maggie Steber: Native Americans |
| Maggie Steber had certainly been aware of the native tribes growing up in Austin, Texas, both by proximity and family. She is one-quarter Cherokee but was not raised with any connection to tribal traditions. When she was given photographic assignments to cover first the Cherokee and then other tribal groups across the United States, she considered the first a happy accident and threw herself into it as she always does. She would never consider starting a job without a great deal of research. She wants to know as much as possible, then go into each situation putting the learning aside and being open to the experience. |