Category: Photography

March 19, 2014 media notes: Om Malik on native ads, NYT public editor on anonymous sources, Reuters denies breach

3/19/2014

For Wednesday, March 19, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

Om Malik, the founder of GigaOm who now is writing on technology, contributes an interesting take on native advertising for Fast Company. He says native ads will work, but only for social media. They won't be of great help to traditional media because they interrupt, so Malik says they will go the way of the pop-up ad.
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Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, has clearly had enough of anonymous sources creeping their way into the content of the news organization. She has started an "AnonyWatch" column to identify, and in some cases vilify, the use of anonymous sources in the Times. She unfurls a couple of doozies in her tracking of unnamed commenters and gets some editors to admit it was a mistake to use them.
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Last week The New York Times suggested the Reuters news agency had breached ethical boundaries by staging photos in Syria. Reuters has denied the allegation. The U.S. National Press Photographers Association examines the dispute and raises serious questions about the practices in the field that can collide with its standards, including the role of editing and oversight.
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March 6, 2014 media notes: Crimea broadcaster replaced, critique of Andreessen's vision, Getty opens image vault

3/6/2014

For Thursday, March 6, 2014, here are some media stories of note:

The Guardian's Roy Greenslade reports that the self-appointed Crimean prime minister has closed a Ukrainian television station, 1 + 1, and replaced the frequency with a Russian channel, Rossiya. The channel's broadcast has been terminated, although it is available on cable, satellite and online. In recent days armed guards have barred journalists from entering the peninsula and have been detained as Russia wrests control of the local broadcaster.
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It took a few days, but others are weighing in on Marc Andreessen's vision of a wildly larger and more robust news business. Andreessen wrote last week of an exponentially larger news business with a massive audience grasp that would yield a vibrant business model, essentially a giant Twitter stream of benefit for all. But Ryan Chittum, writing for Columbia Journalism Review, and Rick Edmonds, writing for Poynter, do not exactly concur. Chittum says the problem is that the Internet has unbundled advertising from content, and there is no putting them back together. Edmonds says there is too much competition to suggest the news business will grow heavily.
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Getty Images announced Wednesday it is opening its vault of 35 million photos to permit a limited free use of them online. Kristen Hare, writing for Poynter, nots the limits are notable: non-commercial blogs will embed them, Twitter to share them, and Tumblr pages will feature them. In the days ahead it is likely many will test the boundary, but it is a major step forward for amateurs who want better images to augment their posts.

January 23, 2014 media notes: AP severs ties with photographer, Sochi challenges, covering China

1/23/2014

Here are some media stories of note for Thursday, January 23, 2014:

The Associated Press has severed ties with a freelance photographer who used software to remove the image of a colleague's video camera in a photo of protests in Syria. The AP said he breached its requirements for truth and accuracy. It has also removed all images from him in its archive.
Gawker's Adam Weinstein wonders if it went too far.

Alice Speri, writing for Al Jazeera America, looks at the intimidation of and violence against journalists in advance of the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. The self-censorship and threats have created a "timid press" rarely willing to venture into independent territory.

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William Wan, the Beijing-based correspondent for the Washington Post, tackles the subject of journalist challenges there in a post for Poynter. He argues that, while visas can be denied and websites put out of reach for difficult reporting, self-censorship is the most insidious of the threats.

media notes 11.27.13

11/27/2013

For Wednesday, November 27, here are some media stories of note:

When CBS News placed Lara Logan and her producer on a leave of absence, it followed the completion of an internal report on their discredited 60 Minutes segment on the attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

That report by CBS' Al Ortiz, the executive producer for standards and practices at CBS News, found several disconcerting issues in the reporting and an inherent conflict for Logan that should have been avoided. Among other things, Ortiz concluded the program had the means to verify that the principal source of the segment, British security contractor Dylan Davies, was not telling the truth about what he witnessed the night of the attack. There were enough signs of trouble in the research to stop the report, but it sailed through the vetting process and aired.

Eric Wemple of the Washington Post examines the report and the CBS response to it. Among his five points: CBS and 60 Minutes don't work together, a leave of absence is meaningless, the CBS chairman/60 Minutes produce should also be penalized, it's problematic to investigate the boss, and CBS would have been wise to release the report on the holiday weekend. Brendan Nyhan, writing for Columbia Journalism Review, also criticizes how CBS News handled the controversy, including the scrubbing of the content from the Internet.

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A photographer has been awarded $1.2 million after a court ordered two news agencies to pay for images he took and they used without attribution from Twitter. The court concluded there were violations of the Copyright Act when images he took of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti were redistributed without appropriate compensation. Even though Twitter appears to be a public forum, the court indicated there remain in place requirements should anyone reuse content without permission. Guardian media columnist Roy Greenslade says the case has the potential to set an important precedent, but notes it is subject to appeals.

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In recent days USA Today and the McClatchy group of newspapers in the U.S. have clarified that they are not going to use handout photos from the White House (unless they are of significant news value). Andrew Beaujon, writing for Poynter, notes their moves follow a dispute in which the White House restricted access for press photographers. News organizations protested the move.

Study: Small businesses don't know how to use Web images

5/18/2010

A common complaint from creators is that their work is often used on the Internet without permission. But a new study suggests people just don't know right from wrong.

A subsidiary of Getty Images, the prominent photography service, found many small businesses are in the dark about how to use Web images --- more than 40 per cent of them don't realize they're susceptible to legal challenges when they do so.

More than a quarter of those businesses surveyed don't routinely check on permissions for material and more than half don't understand their legal protection.

In the arrival of new content players, it's not surprising some aren't abreast of the legal boundaries. The study indicates awareness needs to be raised.

Bild offers low-cost digital cameras to citizen journalists

12/4/2008

The Guardian writes today of the offer from German's Bild newspaper in conjunction with the Lidl supermarket chain to offer consumers a low-cost (about 70 euros) digital camera and a direct link to its operation to upload photos.
In the old days, of course, newspapers offered cameras to children or selected groups in order to cultivate pictures in a contest. But Bild's approach is to cultivate a community of contributors, and it's an interesting initiative.