Buzzword

Citizen journalism is the buzz word du jour. Obviously we feel strongly about it. And why not? As many photographers and journalists are out there in the world, they can't be everywhere at once. As the trend grows, I suspect we will see some journalists protesting - after all they went to college for 4+ years to learn all about writing or taking photos. How does the average citizen guarantee to be unbiased? With Adobe Photoshop and similar programs available, how do we know the photo is genuine and not altered? The truth is, we don't. However, I think the course of citizen journalism will be self-correcting. If too many altered pictures come to light, the media and the public will no longer accept it. And believe me, altered photos may be published, but it will be a rare one that isn't exposed eventually.

The originality of our news and photos has fast been disappearing over the past few years. When you pick up your hometown newspaper - how many articles have been gleaned from the Associated Press or Reuters? When you look at the weekly magazines at the supermarket, how many identical photos do you see in different magazines from the same large conglomerate photo agencies? The first time you see the Golden Globes dress review, maybe you care. By the time you've seen it in the 7th magazine?

Tonight, the places to be for a photographer are in Park City, Utah at the Sundance Film Festival, at the premiere of "Breaking or Entering" in New York or in Los Angeles, your pick of the premieres of "Funny Money" or "Smokin' Aces". At any one of these events, there are between 30-60 photographers. Imagine being the photo editor looking through 100 or more photos from each of these photographers tomorrow morning. Now imagine being the photo editor and seeing that great shot of ______ (fill in the blank). That there is only one of, because Joe/Jane Smith - Citizen at Large - was the only one on the scene. Which photo are you going to use?