July 13, 2005
Camera Phones Prevail: Citizen Shutterbugs and the London Bombings
A dissertation by Dennis Dunleavy, Ph.D, in digital journalist on how photojournalism history was made last week, as for the first time, both The New York Times and the Washington Post ran photos on their front pages made by citizen-journalists with camera phones.
In his essay, Professor Dunleavy rounds up many of the best quotes and points made by the main stream press and pundits since the events unfolded last week, as well as many of the issues that are coming up with the rise of citizen journalism.
His essay was brought to my attention by professional cameraman Stewart Pittman on his blog lenslinger, where he shares his conviction on how the advent of the digital camera is a touchstone event in the Information Age and describes eloquently in a new entry, how it affects his profession.
Excerpt:
"Fact is, I been luggin' a lens for fifteen years, jumping in ice cream trucks with poles on the top and racing them up and down the countryside, looking for that perfect spot to shoot primitive signals to a rickety towers, all so I can feed some shoplifter mug shot back to a station full of slouchy co-workers. Now with the flip of one pudgy wrist, a housewife in the Frozen Foods aisle can capture a shot of the guy with the chops in his socks and instantly zap it to a global information network before she ever hit's the check-out lane, giving her time to count her coupons and easily out-broadcast my sorry ass in the process. I may be just a greasy photog, but even I know, THAT'S news".
Previously: - The two-person news crew is an endangered species
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