‘Citizen photojournalism’ 100 years old?
This story from MSNBC.com purports that when the 1906 San Fran earthquake hit, droves of citizens took to the streets with their Brownie cameras documenting the destruction. I will not dispute that claim. I’ve seen lots of photos from lots of different angles. It was a well-documented event.
What I dispute is the moniker of "photojournalist" being applied to these folks. The article repeatedly calls them citizen photojournalists. Did they all have formal journalism training? Doubtful. Did they all work for a news publication? Probably not. So, MSNBC, what makes these curious citizens photojournalists?
It seems to me they’re just people taking pictures. Plain and simple.
This whole buzz of citizen journalism frequently fails to recognize the fact that there is more to journalism than being at a news event. Calling these citizens "photojournalists" or even "journalists" dilutes the journalism profession.
I’m not arguing the importance of citizens in the media. I am very interested in publications like Backfence or YourHub, but I think there needs to be a distinction between working journalists and observant citizens.
NBC: Quake spurred citizen photojournalism
