Working in the digital age
There are two frequently asked questions, are bloggers photojournalists and do photojournalists blog? There are many different perspectives on the first question. In my opinion, bloggers certainly can be photojournalists, and I think photojournalists do have blogs. Some say that all the pictures they have that are worth sharing have stories written with them so there is nothing left to share on a blog. So in my opinion, blogging is more of a hobby. However, I think blogging has had a big impact on photojournalists as a new technological advancement.
Image Source: www.blogger.com
Blogging is defined as an online journal. In this online journal, there can be photos, ideas, collages, recipes, just about anything can go on a blog. Blogs first came out in 1997 from the use of college students. The term “weblog” was attributed to Jorn Barger who developed the term from “logging the web.” In 1998, marks the first known notable famous weblog. In the early 2000s is when blogs started to blow up. Now blogs are used by many people just talking about their everyday lives. They can talk about new recipes, make-up routines, hair products, or just blog about how they split their coffee on their new shirt. But more specifically, blogging would be helpful for photojournalists to share their photos to be recognized. Their photos can be viewed by anyone and everyone and they don’t need to be approved by an editor or their boss because the photojournalist themselves will have control over their own personal blog. This allows for photojournalists to add stories to their photos or let the photos speak for themselves, the possibilities for creativity are endless.
Blogs also open up new lines of communication between photojournalists and viewers. As Tim Hetherington had mentioned in his interview, “What I mean by mass communication is, I’m interested in forming ideas coherently, and presenting them to as wide of an audience as possible.” This allows for the journalists to receive feedback from their viewers which helps keep them in the loop about what people are interested in seeing. Another advancement like this is snapchat. Snapchat allows companies to advertise and share stories with the feature that allows viewers to interact and comment on their opinions/thoughts.
This technology is lifechanging for photojournalists, just like some of the pre-digital technology was during that time. With blogs, you can snap a picture on your digital camera and immediately upload it to your blog for your viewers to see. Although in pre-digital times, nothing compared to this, the closest thing to it was having the luxury of portable cameras and being able to snap a picture at any given moment with no set up required. An example would be the SLR camera with interchangeable lenses. Not only was the camera portable, but it also had the ability to change a lens which would completely change a shot. In Professor Nordell’s video on pre-digital photography he says, that because of portable cameras being introduced in the 1950s-1960s this allowed photojournalists to be more discrete when taking their pictures. T This new technology allowed photojournalists new tools to enhance their creativity which is kind of like what blogs do for photojournalists. Any type of new technology that allows a photojournalist to be more creative in their work is a useful and helpful tool for them. As Chris Wilkins mentions in the article, "The changes in quality due to evolving technology are obvious."
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