Comments on: Prom photos http://jasonkristufek.com/2008/04/29/prom-photos/ We Media, Journalism, Content Strategy, Technology, Social Media Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:34:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Cameron Knight http://jasonkristufek.com/2008/04/29/prom-photos/comment-page-1/#comment-56 Cameron Knight Thu, 01 May 2008 17:40:32 +0000 http://wemediaguru.wordpress.com/?p=65#comment-56 We are currently neck deep in prom photos. We are a group of six weekly newspapers and two daily newspapers. We are covering close to 35 proms in the course of four weeks. I'm using a combination of stringers and staffers. We have a pretty consistent group of stringers. I tell everyone covering a prom to shoot 3-5 photos that would be considered for print with full caption information. Then the rest of the photos they shoot can be "grip and grins." Obviously, our staffers produce better photos, but when we're covering this many proms, it's impossible to staff them all. Frankly, we're not half way through the season yet, and the galleries have gotten more hits than anything else on our websites. I think the first one up had nearly 10,000 hits in the first few days. I don't feel grabbing "grip and grins" is all that challenging, and in a case like this, I feel like the audience which is used to YouTube and MySpace is forgiving of quality issues. Of course we want to represent our craft in the best way possible, but I do believe that providing the content at all puts our craft in the minds of people and gets them thinking about photography. As journalists we have to balance content and quality everyday. I story about a zoning meeting that end 20 mins before deadline will most likely not be written that well or be that interesting, but the content itself has value no matter it's packaging. A record of high schoolers at prom has value whether it's shot with a point and shoot or by professional, the content (the faces of happy kids attending an important moment) outweighs the packaging (the technical quality of the photographs) to our audience. We are currently neck deep in prom photos. We are a group of six weekly newspapers and two daily newspapers. We are covering close to 35 proms in the course of four weeks. I’m using a combination of stringers and staffers. We have a pretty consistent group of stringers. I tell everyone covering a prom to shoot 3-5 photos that would be considered for print with full caption information. Then the rest of the photos they shoot can be “grip and grins.” Obviously, our staffers produce better photos, but when we’re covering this many proms, it’s impossible to staff them all. Frankly, we’re not half way through the season yet, and the galleries have gotten more hits than anything else on our websites. I think the first one up had nearly 10,000 hits in the first few days. I don’t feel grabbing “grip and grins” is all that challenging, and in a case like this, I feel like the audience which is used to YouTube and MySpace is forgiving of quality issues. Of course we want to represent our craft in the best way possible, but I do believe that providing the content at all puts our craft in the minds of people and gets them thinking about photography. As journalists we have to balance content and quality everyday. I story about a zoning meeting that end 20 mins before deadline will most likely not be written that well or be that interesting, but the content itself has value no matter it’s packaging. A record of high schoolers at prom has value whether it’s shot with a point and shoot or by professional, the content (the faces of happy kids attending an important moment) outweighs the packaging (the technical quality of the photographs) to our audience.

]]> By: Annette Schulte http://jasonkristufek.com/2008/04/29/prom-photos/comment-page-1/#comment-55 Annette Schulte Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:17:37 +0000 http://wemediaguru.wordpress.com/?p=65#comment-55 Jason, this conundrum is a great illustration of the clash that's rocking newspaper journalism as a whole. What's so disruptive about social media's rocking of the journalism boat is that the journalist is no longer the central figure. You're spot on, I think, with your assessment that audience demand should be a driver for us. Ours has gotten to be a rather elitist business.We have a tendency to say, "I'm a professional. In my professional opinion, what the audience wants has less value than what I want to give them." We cannot behave that way all the time anymore. It makes us irrelevant. And this isn't just an issue for word journalists. Visual journalists are also facing a brave new future. In the future, those who are still journalists do it all -- words, visuals, context. Jason, this conundrum is a great illustration of the clash that’s rocking newspaper journalism as a whole. What’s so disruptive about social media’s rocking of the journalism boat is that the journalist is no longer the central figure.

You’re spot on, I think, with your assessment that audience demand should be a driver for us. Ours has gotten to be a rather elitist business.We have a tendency to say, “I’m a professional. In my professional opinion, what the audience wants has less value than what I want to give them.”

We cannot behave that way all the time anymore. It makes us irrelevant. And this isn’t just an issue for word journalists. Visual journalists are also facing a brave new future.

In the future, those who are still journalists do it all — words, visuals, context.

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