Page updated:
Wednesday, 12 September 2007

SPECIAL REPORT...

Getting your message across

THE WHOLE WORLD is watching

New tools, new directions, new opportunities

This 'repurposing' of technologies originally aimed at the entertainment/ home market was not foreseen. For example, rather than use modern digital video cameras to record family holidays, social activists now use them to document street demonstrations. They claim that the presence of cameras encourages restraint by overzealous enforcers of the law. The same argument applies to the presence of journalists, especially photographers and videographers on the battlefield, however this is not always the case.

Some organisations use low-cost, high resolution video cameras to document social and environmental mismanagement to provoke remedial action by authorities. The images can be edited and a soundtrack combined on a computer and the production shown in public or distributed to media organisations.

What the proliferation of communications, recording, editing and distribution technologies means is - to quote the 1960s film about television journalism, Medium Cool - that 'the whole world is watching'.

Following is a brief overview of the changes being brought by digital communications technology.

Communications technology as citizen tools

Concern is often raised over information collection by governments and there has been further concern expressed over the prevalence of video monitoring cameras in public places (in Australia, the use of images made by such devices is limited by law). Less attention has been given to the use of video, communications and online media by citizen's groups in surveillance of the authorities and of business.

A couple incidents make the point:

• in the US in 1991, a bystander with an amateur video camera recorded the bashing of Rodney King by police; the vision was given to a television station which broadcast it; the police were identified and prosecuted
• in May 2004 US soldiers provided digital images to the media to expose the torture of Iraqi prisoners; the military and the US government promised prosecution of those involved in the torture but must have been more than a little alarmed that so many of its personnel had digital cameras with them.

Imaging technologies are widespread today. Amateur video cameras seem to be everywhere and some mobile telephones are capable of taking digital images although the quality is at present poor. It is becoming harder to escape the presence of image recording devices.

Citizen images go global

In 2005, newsworthy images made by citizens went to a global audience.

The images were made by evacuees from trains damaged in the 2005 terrosist bombings in London and during the Bali bombing of that year. Made by consumer models of digital cameras or camera phones, the photographs were of poor technical quality but it was their newsworthiness that led to their publication in the newspapers.

The ubiquity of such imaging devices and the willingness of people to sell their images effectively extends the news gathering resources of the media and complements the work of professional newspaper photographers. In news photography, nothing beats actuallity and the media is likely to increasingly incorporate citizen and amateur photographer's images adn video footage into their workflow when they are newsworthy.

New technologies bring technophobia

Technophobia - the fear of things technological - surfaced in Australia in 2003 in the form of a moral panic when mobile phones with photographic capability appeared on the market. They might be used, it was claimed, in the changing rooms of pubic swimming pools. Some swimming pool management banned the use of the camera phones but little discussion was given as to how this would be enforced. There were no reported instances of misuse and, in the way of most moral panics, the controversy faded away, only to reappear in the case of a man with a camera phone making close-up images of topless female sunbathers on a Sydney Eastern Suburbs beach.

That provoked the mayor of Randwick to propose a ban on photography at city beaches and school sportiing carnivals. His proposal failed and brought sharp criticism from parents, photographers and the public. Photogrtaphers said that they, too, had rights and taking photographs in public places was one of them.

Taking the technophilic approach have been technically literate groups such as the IndyMedia centres that have embraced computers, the Web and digital imaging in pursuit of their anti-globalisation agenda. Entire campaigns have been organised online.

Also seizing the advantages offered by the new mobile digital communications technologies have been organisations like the US-based organisation Witness which uses video technology in the pursuit of human rights. Witness makes available video and communications technologies to groups and individuals around the world to document and expose human rights violations. Reports by people using technology supplied by Witness has been used in court cases and broadcast in the media. http://www.witness.org/

The use of high performance video and stills cameras to document misdoing is a new area of opportunity for advocacy and monitoring groups. The decreasing price and increasing capability of what the market calls 'prosumer' (professional/ consumer: high performance cameras occupying a market niche at the top of the amateur market or the bottom of the professional market) brings the technology within the reach of a growing number. Citizens are repurposing communications and media technologies for their own ends.

Journalism standards still relevant in the digital age

Advocacy material can be made made accessible anywhere the Worldwide Web reaches, although the authoritarian Chinese government has a bad habit of blocking online material they deem unsuitable for the public. With such audience reach comes the need for producers to provide credible and factual content. The new media technologies make this possible more than even before and the best of the advocacy websites stand in marked contrast to those that purvey unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, allegations, disinformation and plain silliness.

The new technologies have turned online-savvy citizens into producer/consumers. At its best, this is genuine journalism because it adheres to the standards of the best journalism practice - those dealing with fairness, substantiation of fact, comprehensiveness of coverage, seeking of truth and so on. In this way, established journalistic practice can be used as a measure of the performance and credibility of online media producers.

Images and the question of manipulation

The use of graphic images

Pertinent to the publishing of information online is the ongoing discussion among media mavens about the publication of graphic images, particularly those of conflict.

Television has rules about the broadcast of such images. Those the content of which are likely to cause revulsion or otherwise offend audience sensibilities are more likely to be broadcast on news and current affairs programmes after children's television hours end at 8.30pm. The US television and press is more timid about publishing graphic images; it seems their citizens are more likely than Australians to be offended.

Those opposing the transmission and publication of graphic images say that images of the mutilation and killing that is part of any war should not go ahead because viewers find the images offensive. Supporters of publication claim that graphic images should be published because they represent the truth of war. Viewer offence is not a criteria for image selection because there is a public right to know. Withholding such images from publication is to conceal the truth.

According to Australian videojournalist, David Brill (SBS Dateline, war videographer), who has seen more than his share of wars: "People don't like to be disturbed by graphic images of war. There is image censorship in the US. Editors pull graphic pictures. We are censored by the military and government - governments do not want us to face the truth of war". (More on David Brill: Bearing Witness - the Lives of War Correspondents and Photojournalists; Leith D, 2004; Random House, Australia - ISBN 1 74051 260 X and his biography: The Man Who saw Too Much - David Brill, Combat Cameraman; Littl J, 2003; Hodder Headline Australia - ISBN 0 7336 1465 5).

There is a strong argument that graphic images of conflict and disaster should be published where they genuinely illustrate some event and are relevant to the material reported. The controversy is relate to another current among media producers - the digital alteration of images.

Images have always been altered, of course. When news pictures were processed in darkrooms by chemical means, qualities such as contrast were altered to make the images clearer and improve the picture quality. Images would be cropped, usually to remove extraneous content. The difference now is that software such as Adobe Photoshop makes it much easier to completely alter an image by processing, cutting and placing features that appear in it. Parts of an image can be removed and new material placed.

Photojournalism ethics propose that images must remain true to the actuality in which they were taken. The only manipulation permissible is that which is analogous to the practice with chemical film technology. The more extreme manipulation of images in which elements are removed or new ones added should not masquerade as photojournalism but should be clearly labeled as 'photo-illustration'.

The convergence of journalism technologies

Convergence describes how distinctly different forms of media - print, radio, computers, mobile phones, video, photojournalism - are being brought together through the new online media. This is evident on the websites of major news outlets such as those of the Fairfax press and the ABC, where text is supplemented by still and video images, sound and illustration. Some sites provide space for audience comments and make use of the weblog format to generate a dialogue on topics between journalists and readers/viewers .

Broadcast television, too, has been integrating online media into its structure. Some television programmes, mainly current affairs, open an online discussion space to further talk about topics after broadcast.

A number of newspaper and news magazines offer news delivered not only by the Worldwide Web (in addition to their print edition), but by email newsletters and transmission to PDA's (personal digital assistants). The offering of similar services for web and email-connected mobile phones is under way.

While the term 'multimedia' might sum up this varied delivery of information, convergence is much more than that... it is a trend that is forcing the restructuring of media presentation, the way news is gathered and the roles and skills required of journalists.

The US report, State of the Media 2004 (www.Journalism.org) stated that "convergence seems to be inevitable... online journalism appears to be leading more to convegence with older media rather than replacement of it... when you look closely at audience trends... institutions that were once in different media... will be direct competitors on a primary single field of battle - online".

In the US, the report states, the Web "is the only news media... seeing audience grow, especially among young people... more than 55 per cent of Internet users aged 18 to 34 obtain news online in a typical week" (source: UCLA Internet study).

The growth in usage of the Web as a source of news parallels the decline in the readership of US newspapers since 1990. Similar concerns are held for the future of Australian newspapers - readership is growing only slowly if at all - however only part of the blame can be slated at online news sources and media convergence. Newspapers might not be heading for extinction but the industry is concerned about attracting younger readers. The proliferation of colour supplements on lifestyle, food, investment, employment, information technology and other themes are an attempt to increase readership by delivering information in formats that have more visual appeal than conventional newspapers.

New work practices

Convergence is forcing new ways of working and the acquisition of cross-media skills by journalists. This is more pronounced in the US than Australia, however the media is a global business and it is sure to impact here in a similar way.

The shape that journalism might take in future is seen on the Digital Journalist website (http://www.digitaljournalist.org). Digital Journalist provides training and monitors convergence and the changes being brought by digitalisation in newsrooms and in journalism training. The site emphasises the need for visual journalists to be proficient in both digital stills and video production, including editing and the use of software.

Similar multi-skilling will be required of journalists working in the print media. Skills in writing for both print and online media are likely to make journalists more adaptable and employable. More so, especially in smaller media outlets, if the writer can use a digital stills camera and image editing software.

Fragmenting the news

The multiplicity of news media made possible through digital technology raises questions about the fragmentation of audiences and the economic viability of some print media publications.

Scenarios envisioned include:

• smaller media markets as news consumers adopt particular digital technologies to source the information they want, leading to reduced use of media such as newspapers and broadcast television
• the financial viability of such reduced-use media is threatened by a lack of growth in advertising revenue as advertisers diversify their purchases of media advertising space to the emerging specialist media formats (such as website advertising)
• the ability to select the type of news delivered by online media may lead to a narrowing of knowledge of current affairs.

Unlike television and radio broadcasting, which is transmitted in the hope of attracting the greatest number of listeners or viewers, and the publication of newspapers which aims to attract the greatest number of readers, will the new media with its specialised audiences lead to the 'narrowcasting' of content of only the type demanded by consumers? In this scenario the media becomes more specialised and narrower of focus.