The fact, though, is that every digital photographer enhances their pictures. Even just adjusting the colors to make it pop on screen is changing the story, altering reality. Of course, in a newsroom, any blatant manipulation of a picture — even one of the protagonisst of Krug and Niggenmeier’s article, Claudio Palmisano of 10b Photography in Rome, notes that they never ‘alter pixels’ — is a violation of journalistic ethics akin to making up quotes or sources. 

But in a digital landscape, where catchy headlines and niche journalism seem to be key components of profitability, it’s hard to distinguish between what’s bias and what’s best practice. 

Is adding a dramatic light just an attention grabber or an opinion? I’m not so sure. The nature of storytelling through words or images is such that just by picking a subject, it becomes interesting or ‘newsworthy.’ The only underlined sentence in my undergrad copy of Susan Sontag’s On Photography is this:  continued…

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It goes something like this: if you are a professional or amateur photographer, you can upload your photos via Instagram, Flickr, or any other social photo sharing platform. If you’re a journalist, you can search images for free for your blog posts. You copy the embed link, and the photographer’s name comes embedded with the photo.

If the footer bar with the creator’s name doesn’t work for your layout, you go premium. Each photo comes with a price, set by the creator, for each impression. The image is always free for up to 10,000 impressions, and after that, you pay the price. And if you’re article with a picture gets more than 10,000 you should know how to monetize that anyway.

Every time a photo is embedded, the platform generates a unique jpeg with the creator’s name attached, so the photos are easier to track. You can ‘steal’ an Imgembed photo, but it has the artist’s name on it. Win – win.

It gets to the heart of digital copyright and Creative Commons licensing. Goh believes that people want to use creative works ethically, but aren’t very good at it. He says:

There’s a big misunderstanding about Creative Commons licensing. CC licenses mean that you can use the image, but you have to attribute the work to the creator. People often don’t do that or they forget to link back…So they’re stealing because it’s free and it’s easy. We’ve made it so easy, that there’s no excuse to do it the wrong way.

continued…

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Instagram has become an unlikely, yet important, online tool for journalists, bloggers and citizens. Not only is it a great way to shoot stylized photos and on-the-go location shots, but it’s also a smart outlet to turn to when looking for eyewitness accounts of major news — people often turn to Instagram thanks to its quick sharing with social media networks like Twitter and Facebook.

However, these past few weeks have changed the service in a radical way, and now is the time to determine whether it’s the right tool for your photos and your personal use.

1. You Won’t See it On Twitter

This season has been a rocky one for Instagram and one of its biggest propagators, Twitter. Two weeks ago, the companies had effectively “broken up,” with Instagram no longer hosting images through Twitter’s API. Twitter snapped back, effectively distributing its own Instagram clone (with filters to boot) right in its native TwitPic system. continued…

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Users can now share an image on Twitter complete with any created ThingLink meta-data, and it’s all accessible in the tweet itself. That means that, for better or worse, a new level of engagement and storytelling is possible right in the platform of Twitter. A user doesn’t have click to a new page to see  a ThingLink’d image. And a tweet can now contain a short bit of text, an image and several, several links.

Here’s an example of a popular White House photo making its way around the net this weekend. You’re probably already seen it. If not, I explain using ThingLink’s own features.

Here’s that image ThingLink’d and working directly in a tweet: continued…

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Journalism.co.uk has a nice read on the wall-o-local-Instagram pics that the Globe is test-driving in its newsroom. Appropriately named “Snap,” the project is a result of a partnership with the MIT Media Lab, and it displays every local Instagram image on a big map of the area. Neat on its own (i.e., worthy of an Instagrammed pic of its own), and notably, it’s also being used for helping find sources for local stories.

There’s definite newsroom utility to display social media data like this on a map. You naturally are exposed to events, with pictorial evidence, that you may not have otherwise paid attention towards. And you can can pinpoint where that action is happening. That’s practical on a day-to-day basis, and particularly helpful during event like Hurricane Sandy, where much is going on and you’re looking to move your reporting fast. It’s clearly a useful tool (and if it isn’t yet clear, I’d certainty love to play with it.)

What I think is worth noting beyond the obvious ingenuity, however, was the main story that according to the article Chris Marstall, creative technologist at the Boston Globe, actually produced during Hurricane Sandy. After spending “about eight hours staring at Snap” during the storm, this piece says that Marstall didn’t know what story to pick up and write. “Eventually I figured out that the interesting story to tell was that everybody was staying home and getting drunk in their apartments, doing a lot of day drinking,” he said.

continued…

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When Mediabistro asked Atchity for the key to making sites more engaging, his answer was simple: great visuals.

“Users never get tired of photo galleries,” he said. “As long as the user experience is good (i.e. not reloading the entire page for each new picture), photo slide shows are something that audiences really respond to. Slide shows with good captions are an easy traffic win for online writers and producers.”

For the full interview, read So What Do You Do, Matt Atchity, Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes?

– Andrea Hackett

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In just a few, painless clicks, ThingLink lets users do just that. After creating an account and logging in, the site lets you easily upload images from Facebook, Flickr, a website or your computer and then tag the pictures with rich media content. You don’t have to leave the page you’re on — all the content is embedded within the photo.

See how news organizations could have used ThingLink with this well-known photograph. (Just hover your mouse over the dots.)

continued…

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A photo of the Boston Common from April 1910. Image courtesy of the Boston Globe Archive

The collection, known as “From The Archives,” will be updated every Thursday with three to five photos from 1872 — when the paper, then called “The Boston Daily Globe”, first started — to present day. One important thing to note: “From The Archives” is only for print and digital subscribers.

The news organization’s photo editors will “compile the galleries from more than a million staff photographs, many of which are being digitized for the first time,” said the press release. Many will be based on a specific event or theme. This week, the photos all have something to do with the Boston Common. continued…

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The Times added another dimension to Harmon’s already captivating account with multimedia “quick links.” These links not only showed Canha’s quirks through video and his talent for drawing, but provided an important facet to understanding his character and experience. It is the perfect example of how multimedia can be used to complement a more traditional piece, the powers of print, photo and video woven into one experience. I spoke to Harmon about the piece, which drew attention from journalists and Silicon Valley types alike. continued…

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For multi-platform journalists, presentation is often just as important as information when it comes to telling your stories. Some journalists go for a simple approach, such a social media profile which chronicles their adventures in the field with links to interesting topics of discussion. Others are more bold, as is the case with BOLD Edition.

The website’s credo (and corresponding video trailer) illustrate their concept beautifully.

/bōld/, not hesitating or fearful in the face of actual or possible danger or rebuff; courageous and daring; not hesitating to break the rules of propriety; beyond the usual limits of conventional thought or action; imaginative; striking or conspicuous to the eye; flashy; showy.

“BOLD Edition exists based on the premise that every story exhibits figurative or literal elements that embody The Bold,” says Clarence Smith Jr., editor-in-chief. BOLD Edition stories are comprised of thoughtful storytelling, compelling original photography, and beautifully shot video trailers.

BOLD Edition’s first story — “The Sting” — chronicles a cyclist’s journey on retrieving his rare bicycle that was stolen by a local criminal. Through the use of video and photography, BOLD Edition transforms this into a gripping tale of redemption and justice. BOLD Edition is an amazing example of how multi-platform journalism can really give a more well-rounded yet nuanced perspective into everyday stories.

Find out more about BOLD Edition at http://www.boldedition.com, or you can follow BOLD Edition on Facebook and Twitter.

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Tackable's first iPad application, TapIn Bay Area

Tackable is a live photojournalism platform with a very interesting workflow for delivering news. Reporters and editors create photo assignments for users, and users complete those assignments using their mobile devices. Users can also send in their own photos to help reporters create articles faster based on what’s happening in a particular area.

Think of Tackable as a social network that maps user-generated local news. So far, the service has been a hit in the San Francisco Bay Area where Tackable is based. The service is trusted by over two dozen newspapers owned by MediaNews Group in the Bay Area, including the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and the San Mateo County Times.

The gaming mechanics behind Tackable’s application, TapIn Bay Area, are the real draw for the application. Uploading photos and completing assignments earns you points, which can in turn be used for discount vouchers and other deals. The Spartan Daily application, one of Tackable’s test implemetations, turns users into roving reporters and makes the discovery of news into a real-world scavenger hunt. Users are rewarded for participation, and editors and reporters gather news from several active sources. By partnering with newspapers, Tackable can utilize the papers’ audiences as a stable audience base for the app.

Tackable’s Bay Area-centered application, TapIn Bay Area is currently available for both iPhone and iPad.

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In light of Los Angeles’ recent Carmageddon, above is a geotagged Flickr map of the empty 405 highway.

For example, if you have a reporter covering a huge parade, a bike tour, travelling along the coastline, taking a wine tour across the country, or you want to collect reader photos from a highway closure — really, the use cases are endless — an easy way to get interactive, live content from the field is through a Flickr map. And, you can accomplish it all from email, with no extra apps or training required. continued…

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When you’re an independent journalist, it can be difficult to raise funding for purchasing equipment, covering travel, and pursuing your stories. Crowdfunding is a popular method of fund raising, and services like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and ChipIn can make the process easy. There’s now a new crowdfunding platform on the Internet — Emphas.is — and it’s specifically for photojournalists.

The project acceptance process on Emphas.is is very similar to other crowdfunding services. Photojournalists must draft a compelling proposal including a detailed budget, and a team of advisors reviews the proposal for acceptance onto the site. Contributions start at $10, and like Kickstarter, projects must be fully funded by the proposal’s deadline in order to receive funding.

Emphas.is has an interesting model that builds on the traditional notion of crowdfunding. If you fund up to 50% of any given project, you can acquire first publication rights. The site has already funded six projects, raising just over $75,000. Emphas.is has forged partnerships with Reporters without Borders and World Escapade Travel Insurance, and the British Journal of Photography (among others).

The site is still fairly new, and there are several interesting photojournalism projects available for funding. The specific niche that Emphas.is serves can help projects stand out from other crowdfunding platforms, especially with the possibility of acquiring first publication rights. Take a look at the projects over at Emphas.is and help fund the next great photojournalism project!

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WHEN: 8 weeks, May 24 – July 19
Online Chats: Tuesdays, 8-9 p.m. ET

WHERE: Online. Click here to register.

LEVEL: Intermediate/Advanced

In this class, we’ll explore the many interactive digital tools available to today’s journalist. Through weekly assignments, you’ll gain hands-on experience building maps, photo galleries, slideshows, and timelines, and learn how to use live-blogging and curation tools to take advantage of social media and real-time reporting.

In order to maximize the technology available, you have to know what tools are out there and when and how to use them. We’ll discuss innovative examples of journalism and technology to determine the best practices for developing your own tools and storytelling techniques. Students can opt to post stories and packages to their own blog or website, or contribute to a private class blog.

In this class, you will learn:

• How and when to use interactive online tools to enhance your reporting
• How to present and curate information using maps, video, photo galleries, slideshows, and timelines
• What role social media should play in your research, reporting, and promotion
• How to use a Content Management System and the basics of site management
• What you need to know about Flash as a journalist

By the end of this class, you will have:
A portfolio of interactive components to support your reporting including a map, video clip, photo gallery or slideshow, timeline, live-blog transcript, and curated social news package. You’ll also gain familiarity working with a Content Management System.

Click here to register today! As an added bonus for our faithful 10,000 Words reader, use the promotional code WORDS50 to get a $50 discount!

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According to ONA, the MJ Bear Fellowships will help identify and celebrate young digital journalists working independently or for a company or organization who have demonstrated that they deserve support for their efforts and/or vision, either through professional experimentation, research, or other projects. This is the inaugural year for the fellowships, and the search committee will select three journalists (two in the US or Canada or one internationally). Selected fellows will receive a personal ONA mentor for six months, a full year’s membership with ONA, and registration, travel, accomodations and recognition at the 2011 Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet (ONA11) in Boston, Sept. 22-24.

Eligible journalists must be age 23-30 (as of Sept. 22, 2011), fluent in English, and must not be full-time students. The deadline to apply for the MJ Bear Fellowship is Monday, May 30, 2011, 11:59 p.m. ET. For more information about the MJ Bear Fellowships, please visit the Fellowship’s website.

Fellows will be announced in July 2011.

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