Topic: How far does citizen photojournalism bring to professionalism in the new media world?

Keywords: Citizen (Photo)journalism; Public (Photo)journalism; Alternative (Photo)journalism; Professionalism; Higher Education in (Photo)journalism; New Media;

Abstract:

There are much celebrations about the rise of citizen (photo)journalism in the new media era. The interactive content of Web 2.0, that is a WWW world that facilitates communication, information sharing, interoperability and collaboration, allows instant information/knowledge on the virtual platform, that is believed to be civil and liberal. Everyone who is anyone is able to upload information, or specifically news, be it textual or visual, and be a citizen-slash-journalist. Ideally, as Steve Outing (2005) points out in his The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism, by integrating citizen and pro journalism under one roof, ‘It’s this vision of citizen journalism complementing and adding to professional journalism that is so compelling — at least in theory.’ (Outing, 2005) The world could never be more ideal than that, in theory.

In this research paper, my attempt is to look at citizen (photo)journalism from a skeptical perspective. As an aspired individual who wants to a professional practitioner in the new media industry, I question how far does citizen photojournalism bring to professionalism in the new media world. The downside and consequence of citizen photojournalism needs to be looked at squarely. Are we heading for a stage whereas professionalism and professional training will be undermined? (When amateur works) Do we embrace free content over paid work? (Why we need to pay someone to do that if we have an entire world of citizen to provide content) What is the impact of citizen photojournalism towards higher education in photojournalism? (Forget LCC, I am a photojournalist-slash-citizen) It is believed that, in the near future, paid paper and subscribed online news service will be substituted by free paper and free online news service. It is also believed that, for the sake of survival financially, free online news service provider could only trade off the business by selling its client database, work or holding of copyright to large multinational corporate. The case of Getty Images acquires Scoopt spells irony of the paradox of professionalism and citizen photojournalism. In this research paper, I target to point out and discuss the aforementioned areas in the context of work and professionalism in photojournalism/photography.

Yuan Zhen, Thought on the diseased wife No 4; translated by Lin Yutang

“Nothing in the film actually happened,… but everything is true. The relationship Vincent had with Alden in the movie was very much the relationship I had with my brother: everything that I loved, I got from him.”

Nick Roddick interview with Francis Ford Coppola (2009)  London Evening Standard (19 May 2009: 32-33)

Collins, Michael (2004: 255), The Likes of Us: A Biography of the White Working Class

http://www.pepbonet.com/index.html

Positions 8:2 Fall 2000

I was fascinated by the thought of the birth of a minor literary genre, one capable of articulating a personal itinerary into a historical narrative and analysis. (532)

1. Can there be an anthropology of the scream? For the scream itself that said nothing, that emptied its fullness with a high-pitched sound and with its overwhelming power to destroy language, I continue to be at a loss. How can I record the scream, understand the voice, bring it into the symbolic world, pinning it down with signifying chains? Where is the limit, the possibility of speaking for this (im)possibility? Would it mean killing that screaming desire in order to labor into being a new creation? (532)

2. Can there be a cultural study of human pain? Toward the end of my ethnographic study, I was pushing myself to the limit of experiencing bodily pain, which as a universal human experience again defies cultural categories and specific, linguistic symbolization. Can the practice of social phenomenology provide a way to capture the core of human suffering? If pain is forced to be spoken out, what are the cultural differences of inscription, significance, and, finally, even experience of human pain? (533)

3. Can there be a minor genre of resistance? In other words, a yearning for new possibilities of resistance that might be approached through such experiences? Can scream, dream, and bodily pain, those experiences at the edge (often either ignored or trivialized in a master discourse of resistance, whether collective or individual), be taken as acts of transgression? If Freudian psychoanalysis has been attacked for driving all meanings of dreams and screams into the realm of the unconscious, then can we argue that in the borderland between consciousness and unconsciousness lies the very possibility of resistance? And what can we learn from Michel Foucault’s reading of the dream as the odyssey of human freedom? (533)

She had a dream (or nightmare to be exact) two weeks ago. She woke up screaming and sweating in the midnight. And it’s her boyfriend who woke her up as she was screaming while she was sleeping.

The story is like this. She was in a house with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend/ someone dragged her to another scene. It was then turning to be a clinical space, like hospital. The nurse and doctor put needles into her ear, chin, eyelids and all over her body. She was screaming and yelling ‘no’. But the nurse responded, ‘The more you fight against us/this, the more we will put into you.’ She looked over and saw her boyfriend looked at her through a window. Her mother was begging her boyfriend not doing this to her daughter. She fought against all these. And that’s it. She woke up.

She comes up with an idea that it could be a reflection of reality as she is very stressed out by moving and everyday life.

1. Exposure

What’s wrong with me? It’s always wrong. I didn’t realize and understand, not until Leonie Purchas told me: they are all overexposed (Thank God!). Yes, it’s wrong, pictures are overexposed, my pictures are always overexposed. Pictures have lost all the details and tonal quality that they need to. I don’t usually have that problem when I shoot analogue but the when it comes to digital, I become extremely careless. I don’t even look at the light meter, that’s my problem. That’s such a shame. I rely on the picture shown at the back of the camera after the picture is taken, rather than looking at the light meter when the picture is going to be taken. A complete idiot.

Lesson learnt: Always look at the built-in light meter and work with it. There is no way to rush for the picture. Preset the camera to your ‘setting’. Lower the EV value. And it’s ok to shoot underexposed a bit in raw format, you can always tone that up without losing the details, and picture just looks the way i like stylistically. I really have to learn this quickly. Should not make this kind of mistake when I send the application form to LCC…

2. Aperture

What’s wrong with me? It’s always wrong, again. What a loser. I rely too much on a large aperture in order to work with lower shutter speed and ISO value. The depth of field is so limited in large aperture that you may get the hands focus but not the face. Large aperture does work for portrait and long lens when it comes to the crispy-looking action photography. But the large aperture myth needs to be undone sometimes. I should have tried a bit of range like f/8-11 if I need to correlate the background with the subject. My pictures always look out-of-focus, as it is. I need to work on this.

Lesson learnt: Undo the large aperture myth in sports photography, unless it is a very closed-up shoot. I do need a good depth-of-field to tell a bit of the story sometimes.

3. Shutter Speed

At first I start off shooting 1/125 or lower, very often it does not work at all. 1/200 or higher is the starting point if I need to catch an action. With my old camera (Nikon D80), the range becomes really limited if i am not shooting in a stadium (like what I am doing). On a sunny day, I can work on a setting like ISO 100-200, with a smaller aperture plus a shutter speed of no less than 1/200. When it comes to a cloudy day with not much sunlight, the setting wont work, that I need to push to ISO too 400-800 or even 1600. Of course you can imagine the crispiness gone. I think a 1/200 is quite common in most sports photography (I mean football). Andy Steel’s (2008) Sport & Action is a good reference book. He showcases 10 contemporary sports photographers with their work and working method. Worth to take a look. Thinking to buy one myself.

Lesson learnt: Well… I think I can manage to get the shutter speed right sometimes. But the setting does not rule. Have been shooting under cloudy day and even in the rain… of course it doesn’t work at all. Need to explore/ experience a bit more. Finally I replace my D80 with a D700, guess i can work up a bit in ISO. Shutter speed is not as tricky as aperture in my case in terms of image formation (guess I am less aware of aperture back then). So, that’s it.

4. Dynamic-area AF

Haven’t really explored this yet. It is designed for action/sport photography, for sure. Of course it tracks movement and motion, but sometimes what you think is not what it measures. Still exploring what works and what’s not.

5. Single/ continuous frame

Idiot time. I was shooting single frame at the beginning. Viola! And I did miss most of the critical moment when I edited my pictures. Not until Homer asks, ‘do you shoot single or continuous frame?’ and then I realize oh yes there is something called continuous frame! What a loser! I hate to say it sometimes you really need to work with what technology offers. And in sports photography sometimes you really need to rely on luck, not how fast you finger fires. With my D80, I could have a 3fps, that’s not impressive at all. Canon system does better in terms of fps. Now with my D700, I could have a 5-8 fps depends on CF card plus battery setting. Still exploring.

Lesson learnt: Sport photography = continuous frame, no question. Sometimes the most critical/decisive moment cannot be seen from the naked eyes (i hate to say it). But it will give you a sequence in a fraction of time when you edit your pictures. The downfall, of course, you will have thousands and thousands of picture to edit. It hurts your eyes so bad when you edit pictures. And the very subtle difference between frames is quite ambiguous indeed. Most of the time you will have 8 to 11 very similar looking pictures and what you need to do is photo-hunt – distinguish the difference from each and every one of them in order to get a single picture. could be painful if you are not a patient person, like me. Believe me, been that, not yet done that.

6. Cropping (horizontal and vertical)

Most of the frames that I shoot are useless, because players are cropped in a way that is not tolerable. I usually use a 55-200mm zoom lenses and shoot horizontally. Complete idiot. There is a grip attached at the bottom of the camera that I can shoot vertically, as simple as that. Turn my camera, take vertical pictures, end of conversation. A horizontal picture with the lenses is not designed for football/ action/ human. If you posit the action figure at the centre, there will be too much on each side and the head and feet will usually be cropped out of frame. Of course horizontal works to tell relationship and with a 24mm it looks very different. But a vertical works on football/ action/ human because if you posit your subject at the centre, usually there is nothing cropped whilst the background is not too busy.

Lesson learnt: Turn your camera, there is a grip, and you are allowed to take pictures vertically.

7. Composition

When I edit my pictures, I find it boring or flat because (ok i am boring and flat) figure/ player in the frame is not recognizable (a comment from tutor). I try to organize a picture to tell they are playing football, but not a picture of a subject. So usually the figure fades out in the background and there is nothing at the foreground. It looks flat and boring, yes.

I still don’t know how to comprehend and improve in this aspect, as most certainly it is the way I see thing. One instance, there is a sequence of pictures that I consciously took: one player is resting and looking at the team practicing, vertical, with a very cloudy sky. I think the sky does depict the resting one’s mind and visually it looks what I like, simple and quiet, with a twist on it. When the sequence goes, the coach interrupts the ‘scene’ by approaching the resting player, the final picture of the sequence looks like this, the resting player and the sky become the background while the coach, albeit a bit out of focus, become the subject and the foreground. Finally I choose this one out of the sequence, as it is much powerful picture when comparing to others. I have a subject/foreground in action while a background to comprehend the story. I love it (but I have to admit that I think it’s not going to work as someone interrupts what I see…)

Lesson learnt: Think about a foreground in my picture. Also think about the background as well. I cannot keep taking pictures that look like a background or pictures with a nonsense background. Ok I am talking bullshit now but it’s the craftsmanship that I need to learn a lot better.

8. Angle & Level

That’s an interesting one. I keep taking pictures of someone’s back, from someone’s back. They are faceless most of the time. Comprehension:

1. Maybe I follow my subject after them. So what I usually see it’s their back.
2. Maybe I am not confident enough to take a few steps forward and take a picture. That’s a big problem.
3. I usually shoot at my height/ eye’s level without realizing to move a bit.

Lesson learnt: Take a few steps forward, further. Face and facial expression are important. My height does not do me any favour at all. Work that. As simple as that.

Enough for one goal. A bit more review later.

1. Subject Matter

I worked with Phoenix FC, a gay football team that based at East London, in February 2009. It was a game between Metropolitan Police and them. I found out the match through the LGBT Month organized by the council of Tower Hamlet. I was thinking, well, it should be exciting! I have never photographed sports/action before. And I feel good to do volunteer work for the council. So I sent email to the organizer and asked whether they needed volunteer to photograph the event. It did take a bit of time to communicate. And finally I make myself to the football match out of the blue.

Lesson learnt: contact is important; getting access is important; and yet I need to get myself there if I want to be there. Sometimes it takes you ages to communicate with different parties on the Internet, through email, on the phone and so on. If nothing really happens, go and meet them in person. Explain what you want to do. Somehow you can see some friendly faces there. And the assignment can take off.

I did/do enjoy photographing sports/action. I am very intrigued by body movement and action, especially the balletic quality from a soccer player. I managed to get one or two picture(s) that I like (out of 800 frames, what a loser) (and I am going to do the technical review later). I believe it will be a very good training if I can manage to get one genre right. Sport, gay sport, well fair enough, should be fun and exciting! I have the contacts with a police officer and the team manager. After the weekend, I emailed the team manager and the police officer to see what can be happened later. I was very anxious of calling and emailing people – not because of the ‘people skill’ that I have/don’t, but I have an intense fear of being rejected by people or how to start a conversation professionally (ok, that’s an ego issue, I need to work on that…) But the contact somewhat was worked by itself. I managed to get to the regular league the football team play every Sunday, usually at Regent’s Park. During the second meet, after the game, I showed the manager and the players pictures that I did last time. They seem to be pleased. A picture later is published in the Pink Paper, a national paper for LGBT community. So, an idea is molded for my Easter project, a photographic essay for Phoenix FC. I was pleased to have that in mind. I don’t like to feeling of not getting something to work on. And I have made a decision to just work on one idea for my Easter project, to be really concentrated on one thing.

Throughout March, there are many matches played every Sunday. I went and took pictures of the game. I showed the pictures to classmate and tutor. There are flaws in the technical aspect. But one thing does speak loud in reviewing, that is, is that a documentary that I want to do, or just action photography that I was doing? Leonie Purchas and John Easterby do raise the question, so do the classmate. I haven’t really thought of it at the beginning. But the more pictures that I take, the more I feel a wrong way that I was heading. Not that it’s the subject matter per se. It’s more a problem that I ‘see’ and approach. It should be a documentary of the gay football team not just action photography, if it were a visual narrative of someone’s life. After week 10 tutorial, I try to put this thinking in mind. And I struggle, as at the beginning I was thinking action photography, now that what I need to do is a documentary. There were quite a bit of bouncing between poles. And it does not do anyone’s good.

April is a slow season. The Ireland league is canceled due to credit crunch. And I have spent too much time and energy on G20 summit and other’s assignment. Two weeks ago, I sent a proposal to the manager in a new approach. I write up a proposal, about a documentary of ‘a gay in a day’ kind of thing for my Easter project. And I hope I could get one or two members of the team to be involved. Definitely I need something refreshing for my Easter project. I try to generate something new from the existing situation. I haven’t got any response from any of the members yet. A bit too little, too late. A bit of disappointment of myself.

Lesson learnt: be really sharp-eyed of what you want to achieve at the beginning. It sounds really stupid to say it but yes! If I could realize what I want at the beginning I could have saved loads of time/energy to focus on the subject. To do a documentary project of someone’s life is a big difference to some action shoots of a football team. The degree of trust, involvement and access is just way too different. Maybe I wont have it, and that’s ok not having it. But it’s good to know at the beginning, not whining at the end. Cannot afford to make the same mistake again.

Portrayal and representation. I am very aware of that. And I am being too aware of that. I could not help thinking that, and this thinking does not do my photography any good at all. In the uni, I first encountered the idea of ‘representation’ in the cultural studies and comparative literature classes. We talked about postcolonial gaze, male gaze and stuff like that all the time. I went on with training in social/cultural anthropology, the education really shapes the way I should see and capture the world in a less judgmental manner (but I am making judgment on people, funny!) I have a strong believe that I should not take pictures that look… ‘stereotypical’, end of conversation. I keep telling myself, ok, how to capture gay sports that looks less stereotypical? I was/ still am finding a way to make it. And honestly, I am not able to do that. I try to avoid taking pictures that look typically gay/ femininely gay. And my pictures end up to be… crap, boring, don’t get the point, not editorial. Have been talking this to my friends, classmates and an editor from Hong Kong, one of them asks me, ‘is it too much to do for an Easter project?’ I do not refute the question, neither I agree to. But what I can comprehend right now is that, it is such a pain to struggle in portrayal and representation without taking picture. And I have a feeling that I will go on with this issue for quite a long time. I then went on having a look of sports photography, documentary pictures of LGBT, pictures in newspaper’s sport sections, Gay time, Attitude and so on. I am looking for a fine medium/ balance in representation. So far, nothing is seen yet. (Or I haven’t found that out)

Lesson learnt: I think the issue in representation will live on and on if I keep on working in this subject matter. I am not ready/ convinced to give that up. Yet don’t do thinking and stop taking pictures. Keep on trying making pictures that I find it justify. Perhaps I am not able to show any of them in my Easter project (Argh… fmh…). It needs not to be right in-your-face, exploring-sexuality-3am-dancing-half-naked, sucking-someone’s-big-dick-in-the-middle-of-the-field, and the subject that I worked with does not do it that way. At the same time, don’t turn the face/eyes around. Keep on looking, observing, go beyond the surface. There must be something subtle and beautiful in it.

So what I can say at this moment is that there is quite a pain and failure in choosing and working with my subject in a documentary approach, and I do struggle in representation. If I am going to show this for my Easter project, it will look incomplete, definitely. (alright, it’s ok to screw up sometimes…) There will be some more matches in May that I shall work on. And I shall explore a bit more in getting into their life. At the same time, my guts tell me I should prepare for a Plan B as well. Instead of working on one subject that I wish, I have contacted another subject for my Easter project. I haven’t really getting there so I will leave the reflection later.

Lesson learnt: don’t be innocent, always have a Plan B. old enough to know that well…