ohkphoto
Snow White
Food for thought . . . . .
Startup Aims to Make it Easier to License Amateur News Photos for $20
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Startup Aims to Make it Easier to License Amateur News Photos for $20
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... But while that Twitter shot becomes a $.25 after a couple days, the real photojournalists' captures become indelibly etched in our minds when they eventually appear.
Other than the quality issue, another major difference between media sourced from "citizen" journalists and professional journalists is the verifiable authenticity that comes with images from trained, reputable real journalists. There have already been instances where news outlets have published images from these "citizen" journalists only to find out later that the images were faked, a hoax. I guess that media outlets that are willing to distribute these images have no issue with trading their reputattions as unbiased, dependable news sources in the name of saving a few dollars. It is certainly a different world than that in which I received my training in which as a journalist your reputation was never, ever for sale.
But I do those extraordinary captures by incredibly talented photojournalists . . . you know, the ones that Getty lusts after.
Unfortunately Getty Images has also succumbed to the money crunch of producing news by slashing what they pay for images. A few years ago they went to a flat-rate $50 use fee, regardless of content, placement, distribution, etc., with the photographer getting 60% of that ($30).
...uses a combination of an algorithm and a manual process to analyze more than 100 million images shared everyday via Twitter. The company identifies the .03 percent of these images that they consider valuable and newsworthy,...
Huffington Post is the largest news organization to publish CrowdMedia photographs thus far. The site ran a pair of images of the Asiana Airlines plane crash at San Francisco Airport created by Twitter users. (It’s worth noting that the majority of the 50 images in slideshow created by Huffington Post for their article on the crash were created by pro photographers and sourced from traditional news agencies like Getty and the Associated Press.)
Some things won't change - there's no substitute for talent, skill and training (and the right equipment?).
Tell that to the entire photo staff at the Chicago Sun Times that was fired and replaced by reporters with iPhones and "citizen" journalists.
Better yet, tell that to the editors at the Chicago Sun Times that made the decision to fire the entire photo staff.