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| Image via CrunchBase |
(by pio dal cin) In the Eighties when I was an “assault” photojournalistgoing from war to war dodging bullets and avoiding landmines to establish myself in the media world as a freelance, I was elated when the +The Associated Press offered me to “string” for them in the North Eastern part of Italy.
They would call me at anytime of the day sending me on a particular assignment. I was working exclusively with film and I would develop my own in my small but efficient dark room. The photos were sent via a slow modem. It took about twenty minutes to send a picture into the mainRome office.
I was happy. I felt to be a part of a great photo agency and it was very rewarding for me.
Many years have gone by and the era of digital has hit the photojournalism like a tornado. Suddenly everyone could be a reporter, given a camera (or a smartphone) and being at the right place at the right time it’s all that takes, no previous photojournalistic background required.
With this situation I would have expected that great agencies like +The Associated Press , +Reuters would clean up their guns and get one step ahead right? Wrong.
On the Boston Marathon‘s bombing that I have followed step by step on myTwitter account I realized that most of the news were updated immediately by citizen’s journalism effort, faster that any other newspaper or news agency (with the sole exception of the Boston Globe who was right on top of the news).
Tonight I red about a Guardian’s Article about a tweet from AP that managed to send the Dow plunging.
What is wrong with you +The Associated Press ? Have you so radically changed that the news are given out without first making sure of the source? (rule number one for great journalism). You need a remodeling job probably. You should be one step ahead, not one step behind citizens trying to cover a news.
If you are short on staff I am available.
