History of Photojournalism: Chapter 4: Working within the Digital Age

The digital age has benefitted not only photojournalism and photojournalists but every day picture takes as well. It makes the whole process easier. The taking of the picture is easier, deciding whether to keep or delete the picture is easier and uploading it to a computer or online social media site is much easier as well. Transmitting photos from a cell phone has become much easier. Not only has the process as a whole become easier, but there are many resources online to help with the process. According to WikiHow there are multiple ways to transmit photos from your phone. "There are a variety of ways to do this, from using MMS, a USB cable, a memory card, and more. Depending on your phone and your resources, certain methods may be simpler than others. In any case, you'll be enjoying all of your camera phone pictures on a much larger screen in no time at all."

Photos also do not need to be transmitted from your phone to your computer. They can be transmitted from your phone to across the world. A photo can be taken in Europe and within minutes be posted on an online newspaper in the United States. It is truly mind blowing. Another example of phenomenon is the presidential debates currently going on. Photos are taken throughout the debate and are either posted online or published in online articles before the debate has come to an end. Transmitting from cell phones and laptops has increased the speed in which news is covered. Michael Zhang briefly mentions this topic and how this process was not always this quick in an article posted online. "In our world of digital photography and high speed Internet, photojournalists can quickly and easily send large numbers of high-res photos to the other side of the globe. Things weren’t always so convenient."

Photojournalists have even began using popular social media outlets to get their photos out there faster. Social media outlets that are very popular among young people and high school students. Time
Magazine's director of photography is a prime example of this. She used a popular cell phone app, Instagram, to get photos of Hurricane Sandy out to the public. Some may think this is frowned upon using an unprofessional portal to display such a horrific tragedy. When Kim was asked why she chose this method she responded, "We just thought this is going to be the fastest way we can cover this and it’s the most direct route." Taking a good, meaningful photo, for a photojournalist is like winning the lottery. Taking an awesome photo, being able to immediately have it posted and viewed by millions of people is like hitting the jackpot. Marie McGregory quotes a female photojournalist's feelings about taking a good photograph. "When I shoot a good photo, that's a beautiful day."

Transmission of photos from cell phones and computers is barely even comparable to the color film I wrote about in a previous post. Color film had 24 to 36 exposures and the film could not be developed until all exposures had been used. After the exposures had been used, the film had to be processed and developed. If a photo wanted to be sent somewhere after it was developed, it would have had to been scanned into a computer or it was not possible. Back then, the need for photos to be sent and transmitted was not as necessary as it is now. Newspaper writers and owners were skeptical when adding photos to their papers, therefore the need to send pictures was limited. As Professor Nordell touches upon, "Even when photographs first came out, there was some controversy of whether ... some newspaper owners felt like my paper's not solid anymore, I'm using photographs."

A cellphone fits in a purse or a pocket. A laptop can fit into a backpack or a tote bag. The transmitters from back in the day were back breaking and would not fit into a small vehicle. Having that much equipment again made the process longer. All of the equipment had to be set up, turned on, made sure it was function properly before being used and then packed back up. Chris Wilkins describes what was needed of a photojournalists back in the day. "However, one of the most important job requirements 16 years ago was a strong back. The ability to lift and travel with case after case of equipment, often weighing around 80 pounds each, was a necessity. Thanks to changing technology, those days are a distant memory for veteran wire service shooters." These days all we have to do is make sure our phone or laptop is charged, turned on and we are all set to go. We don't have to carry around eighty plus pounds of equipment. The average cell phone weighs less than a pound while the average laptop these days weighs less than five pounds.

The photo below is of a old wireless, spark, photo transmitter.