It reminded me that maybe, just maybe, I want to give it a try. Maybe starting January 1, 2009. My earlier January post was inspired by Stephanie Roberts, who still seems to be taking a photograph a day. That’s her with the camera. I did a random Project 365 search and also found Dred242 in the ethernet, and he too has been dutifully shooting every day. That’s him on election day November 4, 2008. Alas looking at their camerassays  they are real photographers, where as for me, well, I am just a citizen media kind of guy.

 It was part of a mini-monument with a memorial plaque to a long forgotten photographer, who I believe was a stringer, at either the Morning Call or Evening Chronicle — there were two papers back then – who raced to a fire and died at the scene in an unexpected gas explosion. I assume that memorial once had a more prominent display at the paper. I am fully relying on memory on this story, so I must contact the now Morning Call to see if that camera is still about and to check the facts on the story. I do believe that memorial should find a home at the Newseum in Washington, DC. As it seems will the whole of the Morning Call some day.

The thought of that memorial came back to me as as I was reading a globeandmail.com ode to citizen journalism that reads in part:

The second that Sunrise Propane exploded into a mushroom cloud, a million thoughts ran through the minds of people like Mr. Riossi. An earthquake. A plane crash. A terrorist’s bomb. Followed by: A YouTube moment.

Indeed,   the 19-year-old Carmine Riossi Jr:

got so close he could feel the heat, he said, eyes wide as he recounted details of the explosion he carefully documented on his phone and posted on YouTube within the hour.

The globeandmail.com headline is: Everything’s on fire, run for your cameras!

Sometimes that might not be the best advice — unless you want to be first citizen journalist who died for his or her YouTube moment.

Now Salon provides excerpts from  “Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove,” published this month by Modern Times. It shows how phony and misleading these uncritical photo opportunities can be. This one was during Katrina. Here is Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana talking about taking George Stephanopoulos up in a helicopter to show the aftermath of Katrina, she is saying:

‘George, before we finish I have to show you one positive thing because I can’t send you back to Washington to produce a story that shows nothing but devastation and disaster.’ So I told the pilot to tack right so I can show George the 17th Street Canal and the work that was going on there. I swear as my name is Mary Landrieu I thought that what I saw with the president was still there — people working, trucks, sandbags, everything. Then I looked down and saw one little crane. It was like someone took a knife and stabbed me through my heart. I lost it.” There, in the cabin of the helicopter, as they flew above the breached canal below them, Landrieu sat devastated.

“I could not believe that the president of the United States, staged by Karl Rove himself, had come down to the city of New Orleans and basically put up a stage prop. It was like you had gone to a studio in California and filmed a movie. They put the props up and the minute we were gone they took them down. All the dump trucks were gone. All the Coast Guard people were gone. It was an empty spot with one little crane. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life. At that moment I knew what was going on and I’ve been a changed woman ever since. It truly changed my life.”

The White House might have some explaining to do, but so must the media. It is not too late. One of the media that shot the original footage should come back and step by step talk to everyone who helped set up that staged production that day. The Coast Guard folks, the contractors, the dump truck drivers, the media and all the folks at the White House.

Most people get their news through video and photos, not to expose these staged productions is to endorse them and give them credence.

Of all the things I have read and heard about the torture in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison — from the ignorant rantings of the blowhard Rush Limbaugh agreeing with a caller that it was no harsher than a fraternity prank to the Bush administration’s defense of the practices to all the stories and debates —  nothing, not even the photographs, have struck me as hard as reading the letters that Harman wrote to her partner stateside. Here they are from the New Yorker article. Remember as you read this she is not a squeamish person, indeed, you might define her as a bit ghoulish, so it makes her words here even more poignant.  

Kelly,
The lights went out in the prison so here we were in the dark—in the prison. I have watch of the 18 and younger boys. I hear, misses! Misses! I go downstairs and flash my light on this 16 year old sitting down with his sandal smacking ants. Now these ants are Iraqi ants, LARGE! So large they could carry the family dog away while giving you the finger! LARGE. And this poor boy is being attacked by hundreds. All the ants in the prison came to this one boys cell and decided to take over. All I could do was spray Lysol. The ants laughed at me and kept going. So here we were the boy on one side of the cell and me on the other in the dark with one small flashlight beating ants with our shoes. . . . Poor kids. Those ants even Im scared of.

So that was the start of my shift. They’ve been stripping “the fucked up” prisoners and handcuffing them to the bars. Its pretty sad. I get to laugh at them and throw corn at them. I kind of feel bad for these guys even if they are accused of killing US soldiers. We degrade them but we don’t hit and thats a plus even though Im sure they wish we’d kill them. They sleep one hour then we yell and wake them—make them stay up for one hour, then sleep one hour—then up etc. This goes on for 72 hours while we fuck with them. Most have been so scared they piss on themselves. Its sad. It’s a little worst than Basic training ie: being naked and handcuffed. . . .

But pictures were taken, you have to see them! A sandbag was put over their heads while it was soaked in hot sauce. Okay, that’s bad but these guys have info, we are trying to get them to talk, that’s all, we don’t do this to all prisoners, just the few we have which is about 30-40 not many.
The othernight at 3, when I wrote you, the firefight . . . 3 killed 6 injured—Iraqis. . . .
Its time to wake them again!!!

And later that same day, on her next night shift, Harman wrote:

 

Oct 20, 03
10:40pm
Kelly,
Okay, I don’t like that anymore. At first it was funny but these people are going too far. I ended your letter last night because it was time to wake the MI prisoners and “mess with them” but it went too far even I can’t handle whats going on. I cant get it out of my head. I walk down stairs after blowing the whistle and beating on the cells with an asp to find “the taxicab driver” handcuffed backwards to his window naked with his underwear over his head and face. He looked like Jesus Christ. At first I had to laugh so I went on and grabbed the camera and took a picture. One of the guys took my asp and started “poking” at his dick. Again I thought, okay that’s funny then it hit me, that’s a form of molestation. You can’t do that. I took more pictures now to “record” what is going on. They started talking to this man and at first he was talking “I’m just a taxicab driver, I did nothing.” He claims he’d never try to hurt US soldiers that he picked up the wrong people. Then he stopped talking. They turned the lights out and slammed the door and left him there while they went down to cell #4. This man had been so fucked that when they grabbed his foot through the cell bars he began screaming and crying. After praying to Allah he moans a constant short Ah, Ah every few seconds for the rest of the night. I don’t know what they did to this guy. The first one remained handcuffed for maybe 1 ½-2 hours until he started yelling for Allah. So they went back in and handcuffed him to the top bunk on either side of the bed while he stood on the side. He was there for a little over an hour when he started yelling again for Allah. Not many people know this shit goes on. The only reason I want to be there is to get the pictures and prove that the US is not what they think. But I don’t know if I can take it mentally. What if that was me in their shoes. These people will be our future terrorist. Kelly, its awful and you know how fucked I am in the head. Both sides of me think its wrong. I thought I could handle anything. I was wrong.
Sabrina

Then back to the story again:

On Tier 1A, Harman liked to sneak cigarettes and doses of Tylenol or ibuprofen to prisoners who were being given a hard time. These small gestures gave her comfort, too, and it pleased her that prisoners sometimes turned to her for help. But Harman was generally as forgiving of her buddies as she was of herself. When toughness failed her, and niceness was not an option, Harman took refuge in denial. “That’s the only way to get through each day, is to start blocking things out,” she said. “Just forget what happened. You go to bed, and then you have the next day to worry about. It’s another day closer to home. Then that day’s over, and you just block that one out.” At the same time, she faulted herself for not being a more enthusiastic soldier when prisoners on Tier 1A were being given the business. When she was asked how other M.P.s could go at it without apparent inhibition, all she could say was “They’re more patriotic.”

As I have said, nothing is as strong an indictment as her own words. Then coupled with her own photos, the true picture of what happened in Abu Ghraib is all the more sad for a country that once prided itself on being on the side of human rights. Yet, for all the power of her words, which are more powerful than those of Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris, who wrote the story, it required journalistic digging to put it all into perspective.

Indeed, that’s a lot of what this citizen journalism, we media talk is all about. It is a fine weaving of the personal and the professional into a higher grade of journalism. It can be done and must be done for us to better to understand who we are.

Any how, read the story, it is a great piece of journalism — and watch for Errol Morris’ documentary Standard Operating Procedure. Of course, the whole package, the New Yorker Story, all the video sidbars, make for the kind of multi-media package that most news organizations only dream of having, but apparently can have with a little more investment in time and money.

Last time I looked at Flickr there were about 300 photos posted about the event. Look through them closely. As you do, be sure to watch the slide show of the black and white photos by Tikigod, who is, in fact, Nik Wilets. Wilets, whose self portrait is on this post, now specializes in interactive media and design at Morris DigitalWorks™ ; however, he has a degree in photojournalism and worked as photojournalist in the past.

Over all the years I was a magzine editor, I found that meeting photos were often boring, except probably to the people attending the meeting. However, that might have been because the photojournalists shooting them were bored or weren’t much better than the amateurs, at least, on an artistic level.

Now that takes us back to SoCon08. Look at Wilets photos are they better than the others? Is black and white a lost art that should be revived? If you were a photo editor and Wilets was on your staff, would you send him to the meeting or just let the conference attendees fire away and you take the best of what they shoot?

Is there be much of a future for photojournalists? Should newspaper or web editors be hiring more photojournalists or fewer?  Or should they be hiring fewer photojournalists, but better ones? Or should they use their money to hire people who write, shoot photos and do video, even if there might be a trade off in quality in one of those areas? Would there be a trade off in quality?

Our SoCon08 has been fortunate because we are, in part, about citizen media. So we are getting some of the best of the amateurs to shoot for us. Still would that be enough if you were a news site? If you were starting a web news organization today, what role would photos and great photographers have in it?

I know my answers. I would try to hire as many great shooters like Wilets as I could and knock the socks of my viewers each morning, no matter if I was in print or online. The more amateur stuff out there, the more appealing will be the stuff by the pros because it will continue to stand out.

It’s not that easy, the project tutorial says:

This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.

There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.

Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.

Of course, this post would have made more sense if I had done it prior to the New Year. However, I just posted a question : “Is it too late?”  at the Project 365 discussion group — this year Project 365+1- Jan 1st 2008 for the leap year –and they say although most folks started on January 1, if you want to start now, go for it.

Personally, I am not sure if I want to make the commitment, I already have a very full plate; still the idea intrigues me.  And I think having students in media classes, even beyond photojournalism classes, shoot a photo each day might be a good idea. I teach a feature writing class and it might help the students become more aware of the world around them — and it might do the same for me.

There’s the Canon SD1000 for stills (the same model I already carry everywhere); a nice Panasonic 3-chip camcorder (consumer, not pro-sumer…we need to remain portable, you know); shotgun mic; an external hard drive the size of a Bible for footage; and a laptop the size of a boogie board (Dell, not MBP, but hey), all jammed into a spiffy and very comfortable backpack with our Choose or Lose Street Team ‘08 logos embroidered thereupon.

As they were filling his backpack, they were also filling his head with legal advice:

Yes, to appear in my videos — even if it’s because you stepped up to a microphone to ask John Edwards a question, in front of all those people and cameras — you need to sign my Guest Release. Otherwise, it’s the cutting room floor for you. I’m also going to need someone who is authorized to represent the Atlanta IBEW to sign my Location Agreement, saying I have permission to film there. Oh and I have to slap up Cablecast signs at the door, warning the rest of you that you’re wandering into the line of fire. Meanwhile, my MSM rivals will be pointing and laughing at me, who is now neither as credentialed as a “real” journalist, nor as free from restriction as a “citizen” journalist.

And who are those MTV citizen journalists:

The rest of the Street Team seems pretty cool — even the small handful of Republicans! Well, what do you want, it isMTV after all, so our conservative caucus definitely has the look of a token minority; but I’m sure Vermont, Rhode Island, Indiana, and I believe even Alaska (she’s hard to call) will do you right-wingers proud. The group is split right down the middle in gender, and, as an ever-so-slightly snarky article about our orientation in the Boston Globe says, we even have enough diversity to appeal to “Hispanics, African-Americans, and lesbians.”

She neglected to mention that we are also really, really, incredibly good looking, and do other stuff good, too.

By the way, Shelby will be at our SoCon08 conference on Feb. 8-9, 2008 at Kennesaw State University. We just broke the 146 registrant mark, so are on our way to 200 people at the conference. Having Shelby there will be like having your very own American Idol star sharing dinner with you. Who will you be dining with Friday night Feb. 8? Sign up now.

Yo, Shelby bring your gear. We want our MTV. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

Update: Marietta Daily Journal reports that Trooper Grant Rowe didn’t stop in time and caused this six car rear end crash chain reaction. He was just on general patrol.

Every time I tout citizen journalism, I say it is an opportunity for people to get their own voices heard and not have to depend on mainstream media, and it is happening.