Dan Gillmor has updated his very important post, The Demise of the Professional Photojournalist, offering some clarity and pointing to the debate that’s broken out in his comments. He writes:
Some folks are misinterpreting what I’ve written. (Part of this is my fault, for not being crystal clear at the top that I’m talking about spot (breaking) news; I’ve fixed that.)
I’m not saying all professional photojournalism will disappear. Great feature photography is a special skill that amateurs won’t match anytime soon, if ever. There will be many cases, as well, where even the pros get in place to capture the spot-news picture.
But they won’t be able to be everywhere at once. And in an era when news organizations are whacking away at staff as fast as they can, the pressure to use what the community can provide will be irresistible given the money it will save.
I’m not saying this evolution is an entirely positive development (though it will help in some circumstances). I am saying it’s inevitable.
The comments are interesting, and split between those who agree and those who (sometimes violently) disagree, some going so far as to suggest that unless it’s done by a “journalist” it isn’t journalism.
Dan’s update reflects some of what I wrote about yesterday, but I still have a small area of disagreement with him. He says, “Great feature photography is a special skill that amateurs won’t match anytime soon, if ever.” There have always been more talented documentary and journalistic photographers than there are jobs for. Today, the work those people do is showing up all over the internet, not reliant on the imprimatur of a media title.
TAGS: PHOTOJOURNALISM, RETHINKING MEDIA
