'Surveying the spectrum of photography from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Photography: A Critical Introductionis the first book to examine key debates in photographic theory and place them in their proper social and political contexts. While most histories of photography invariably focus on the works of the "great photographers," this book is written especially to provide a coherent introduction to the nature of photographic seeing and its personal and cultural significance through history.
Contributors lucidly examine a range of major photographic theories, histories, genres and issues, covering such topics as key debates in photographic theory and history; documentary photography and photojournalism; personal and popular photography; photography and commodity culture; photography and the human body; photography as art; and photography in the age of electronic imaging.
This completely revised and updated second edition includes detailed case studies; key references, biographies of key thinkers, and margin notes; a full glossary of terms, comprehensive end-of-chapter bibliographies, and resource information, including guides to public archives and useful web sites. The lavish illustrations include images by Bill Brandt, Lee Friedlander, Hannah Hoch, Roshini Kempadoo, Dorothea Lange, Lee Miller, Alexander Rodchenko, Jacob Riis, Sebastio Salgado, Andres Serrano and Jo Spence.'
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Photography.html?id=b-C0rm6hqG4C&redir_esc=y
"Photography bears witness to the passage of time, but it cannot make statements as to the importance of things at any time, nor is it concerned with "truth and beauty" or with teasing out what underlies appearance. Rather, it voraciously records anything in view."
LIZ WELLS, Photography: A Critical Introduction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Photography
"In the book, Sontag expresses her views on the history and present-day role of photography in capitalist societies as of the 1970s. Sontag discusses many examples of modern photography. Among these, she contrasts Diane Arbus's work with that of Depression-era documentary photography commissioned by the Farm Security Administration.
She also explores the history of American photography in relation to the idealistic notions of America put forth by Walt Whitman and traces these ideas through to the increasingly cynical aesthetic notions of the 1970s, particularly in relation to Arbus and Andy Warhol.
Sontag argues that the proliferation of photographic images had begun to establish within people a "chronic voyeuristic relation"[1] to the world around them. Among the consequences of photography is that the meaning of all events is leveled and made equal. This idea did not originate with Sontag, who often synthesized European cultural thinkers with her particular eye toward the United States.
As she argues, perhaps originally with regard to photography, the medium fostered an attitude of anti-intervention. Sontag says that the individual who seeks to record cannot intervene, and that the person who intervenes cannot then faithfully record, for the two aims contradict each other. In this context, she discusses in some depth, the relationship of photography to politics."
"Photography has become almost as widely practiced an amusement as sex and dancing -- which means that, like every mass art form, photography is not practiced by most people as an art. It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power."
SUSAN SONTAG, On Photography
How the Internet Changed after 9/11–Citizen Journalism, Social Media and Mobility
http://www.mediarhetoric.com/blog/how-the-internet-changed-after-911-citizen-journalism-social-media-and-mobility
"Today, we can instantly confirm news. We can now confirm with CNN on our mobile app because CNN streams live footage. We can confirm a tweet more easily and we can also check our friend’s Facebook statuses to see what they know. Ten years ago we would have had to make a call on our cell phone to reach a friend to confirm breaking news, but more than likely we would have used a landline.
Smart Phones, Social Media, Mobile Apps were all discovered because someone wanted to fill a need. Maybe 9/11 was the reason because we saw the potential of the Internet. Unfortunately, the Internet could not deliver the results it could today. Ten years taught us that we want information and we want it now. I believe citizen journalism was finally recognised during the 2005 London Bombing attacks when more people had cameras on their cell phones and captured real time chaos that news media could never capture. I like to call these people “accidental journalists.” Accidental journalists are the people who find themselves in a situation they did not expect, but feel the need to share it on their blog, with a news web site or on Twitter."
http://jameselliott92.wordpress.com
Where citizen journalism has its’ many advantages and disadvantages I think the case studies show my hypothesis stands. it has had a gradual development over the decade, from a term barely known before the millennium to now when anybody can step up and report the news just by taking a picture on their phone, e.g.
“you have hundreds of ready citizens to report you not on daily but on hourly basis. This gives unique coverage, breaking news and headlines of most important events anywhere in the world. Without delays and waiting”
(NewsMeBack interview).
On October 24th 2009, more than 5000 communities around the world came together to call for the reduction in carbon levels to the safe spot of 350 parts-per-million in the atmosphere. The effort marks the world's "most widespread day of political action". Participants uploaded videos and images of their demonstrations on crowd-sourced sites Flickr and CitizenGlobal, inspiring major media coverage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/28/best-citizen-journalism-o_n_405195.html?slidenumber=6%2Fr8gXf7dBM%3D&slideshow#slide_image
Citizen journalism seems to be considered a hindrance by many however welcomed by many others. Citizen journalism can be considered raw and uncensored however this could not be portrayed to the public with the skill of a professional. Some consider the practicality of it serves journalism for the better rather than for the worse whereas some see it as a threat to the media and their future. Some believe that they have a future hand in hand so it is vital to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of citizen journalism to analyse how it has changed and will continue to develop in the future.
Pros
There are considered to be many pros to citizen journalism but the most important probably have to be that it adds a wider berth and colour as it collates information that would not have been placed into the public eye otherwise This can be through a poll, blog or comment, this gives a story a multifaceted view rather than that of the journalist who wrote it.
Social media is enabling a powerful form of citizen journalism with live coverage of events such as hurricane Sandy that allow bursts of information as it is happening.
Cons
The issue with citizen journalism is the professionalism of it but as NewsMeBack states it depends on the person and believes it is an issue with professional journalists too. It is argued that for a good story a journalist needs the skills they could only acquire with training however that is not to say that an ordinary person is not capable of objectively telling us the story. For many, citizen journalism isn’t even an attempt at bettering the media, but simply aiding it to report to the mass media or just to get their opinion out on a public scale and as this is the case it makes the material a good read but also one that is looked at with a great scepticism as a big problem with it seems to be checking the facts, e.g.
“usually citizen journalists record an event and present it to the public, very often without checking all the facts related to the event”
- Hurricane Sandy Case Study
- London Riots Case Study
- Student Protests Case Study
- London Bombings Case Study
- 9/11 Case Study
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