Credibility is our business

(Fox News photographer Chris Poturalski interviews a Sierra Club organizer)

   I have two job-related reoccurring nightmares: my car is stolen with all of my camera gear in the trunk, and I show up late to an event and miss it. 

   Both of these nightmares are awful, but the being late nightmare is the one I hate most because I have to admit to editors that I screwed up.

   Being late to an event can put a news photographer into an ethical dilemma. You would think it’s common sense to accept that if we as news photographers miss an event, we come up with something else to illustrate it. But it's not that easy. With today's job insecurities and fierce news competition, it's tempting to CYA (cover your butt) by doing whatever it takes to get the job done. 

   I bring this up because I recently witnessed two local TV stations staging an event they missed because they were late. It wasn't a life-altering ethical breach, but I was still a bit concerned over their decision to ask the participants of a BP handholding protest at Maumee Bay State Park to repeat what they had just finished. 

   Fox News photog Chris Poturalski and I were there on time, documenting the 15-minute protest. The two photogs showed up as I was leaving. I remember thinking, ‘Well, they could at least get sound bites from organizers and participants with the lake in the background.’ But that’s not what happened.

    Why is this a big deal? Credibility.

    The news business is suffering for many reasons, but loss of credibility shouldn’t be one of those reasons. Trust is what separates us from the social media bloggers and tweeters of the world. Our readers and watchers need to believe what we offer them. 

   What's confusing is that these types of events are actually made for the media. Yes, in a way we're being manipulated to get a message out. But that's our job - to get the news out, whether it's spot news or PR-conceived. 

   This is why it matters - those 10 people at Maumee Bay who had to get back in line and hold hands again will remember that fakery, and go home and tell their family and friends what happened. And that's the beginning of the erosion of our credibility. 

   Bottom line: Keep it in real time... 

                                                              --30--

   

Fox gets it right!

(Fox News photojournalist Chris Poturalski)

   I have two job-related reoccurring nightmares: 1 - My car is stolen with all of my camera gear in the trunk. 2. I show up to an event late and miss it. 

   Both of these nightmares are awful, but the being late nightmare is the one I hate most because I have to tell my editors at the Blade that I screwed up.

   Being late to an event can place a news photographer into an ethical dilemma. You would think it would be common sense to accept that we missed the event and move on to the next assignment. But it's not that easy. With today's job insecurities and fierce news competition, it's tempting to CYA (cover your butt) by doing whatever it takes to get the job done. 

   I bring this up because I recently witnessed two local TV stations staging an event they missed because they were late. It wasn't a life-altering ethical breach, but I was still a bit concerned over their decision to ask the participants of a BP oil spill hand-holding protest at Maumee Bay State Park to repeat what they had just finished. 

   Fox News photog Chris Poturalski and I were there on time, documenting the 15-minute protest. As I was leaving, the two photogs showed up. I thought that at least they could get sound bites from organizers and participants with the lake in the background, which is what they should have done. Well, you know the rest of the story.

   The organizers didn't mind because they got their message across. 

   

Last stop - CBS

This is my last obligatory blog posting for the Kent State NY Media Seminar.

It was sad writing this because it meant the end for one of the best times of my college career, or any time for that matter. We packed so much into eight days that it's hard to remember it all. But for this post I'm going to stay on topic: Day 5 (May 28) at CBS.

We gathered outside of the apartment complex on W. 30th St.

Professors on the left and students at right, meeting outside of our NY apartment

   Destination - CBS studios, where John Filo works. His name might not sound familiar, but the iconic image he captured on May 4, 1970 is famous. Remember the photo of a screaming 14-year-old runaway hovering over the lifeless body of Kent State student Jeffrey Miller, who was shot and killed by the Army National Guard? Filo took that photo, and it earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

   Filo was a KSU photojournalism student at the time, but he’s not a photojournalist now. He stayed in the business for a while, but now he’s currently director of photography at CBS in New York, and he admitted to us that he is content shooting headshots and celebrities. 

John's CBS studio

   He said he doesn’t miss the hard news. I don’t blame him. Constant misery is difficult to witness year after year.

In this current economy, it’s easy to believe that the CBS still photo staff has been cut from 30 (10 photogs and 20 techs) to one. Yes, John is the only CBS still shooter in New York.

Me and John

   I asked him how he felt about the multimedia skills expected of photojournalists these days. He said he didn’t agree with photojournalists required to shoot both still and video on a shoot because doing both deludes the quality of the overall storytelling.

   Whether you agree or not, I don’t think today’s photojournalists have a choice. Learn and do both or get left behind. That’s why there are so many convergence conferences available these days, and why Kent State built a state-of-the art convergence studio.

I do find it ironic that Filo has that opinion, considering videographers are his coworkers. He is at CBS, after all.

   Spending the morning with John was a pleasure. He was kind, enthusiastic and welcoming.  Thanks, John.

                       John in his customary vest outside of his CBS studio

Free Sailor Kisses

This week in NYC was fleet week. There were lots of military running around, mostly laughing/happy to be here more than anywhere else, I presume. This pic of a sailor I took last night at Time's Square reinforces my assumption. 

I'm glad my uniform is collecting dust in the closet, so to speak. Sure, I miss those days, but those were different times. I retired in 2000, during the Desert Storm era. At that point, we lost very few to war. I left the military with a solid career and fond memories. Today's military aren't so happy-go-lucky; but they are certainly brave and more trained.
My thoughts go out to active service members on this Memorial Day. 

Former World Trade Center site in 2010

These gravestones at St. Paul's Chapel were once covered

 in dust and soot from the falling towers.

Construction to rebuild the World Trade Center

area can be seen in the background.

These are FYPD/FD patches collected 

and displayed inside the St. Paul's Chapel.

WTC construction and a WTC glass monument as seen from the Hudson River. 

I took this photo May 24, during a Circle Line cruise to the Statue of Liberty. 

These are photos I took yesterday at the former site of the World Trade Center towers, and St. Paul's Chapel, which is Manhattan's oldest public building in continuous use. It's right across the street from where the towers fell. 

Update (09/11/2014) : I was in New York for 10 days as part of a 3-credit Kent State University media class. I was earning my MA in Journalism Education. I graduated in 2012.

Having a good TIME!

(Lori King photos from top: 1. Exterior of TIME and LIFE. 2. TIME editorial  board meeting. 3. Archived famous iconic images and camera of LIFE photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.  4. Working closet of InStyle Magazine.)

If you like news, there's TIME. If you love sports, there's Sports Illustrated. Fashion? Read InStyle.  

These were the three TIME-LIFE Inc. magazines we toured   May 27, and they were good examples of the diversity of  journalism. 

  I really appreciate the effort put forth by professors Ann and Carl to offer a little something for everyone this week. They tried hard to try please a dozen students who not only range in age, but interests. The common denominator is our  mutual love for journalism and storytelling.

  The students here for the KSU media seminar are a mixed bag of majors. We are reporters, photographers and videographers. We are undergrads and grads. Some are treating cameras as extensions of themselves, and others hardly use one. Many of the students have yet to begin their first job, while a few of us are ready to share our extensive experience in the classroom, teaching our possible replacements.

  The highlight of this day was witnessing TIME’s editorial meeting, lead by executive editor Nancy Gibbs, the most published front cover reporter in the history of this 87-year-old national news magazine. In that one conference room were all of the TIME photo, web and news directors, and I couldn’t help but feel like a star-struck tourist.

  The big news of the day for all three magazines, as well as the AP and New York Times, is the conversion of their content to the iPAD. All of our guest speakers agreed that the iPAD is a game changer, and web designers were busy working on the apps so readers could play the game.

Gibbs described the age of electronic mobility this way: “TIME will have the same bloodline, but different metabolism.”

I've heard nothing but positive comments about the iPAD, despite the tremendous added workload on the staff. So, I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Now, please excuse me while I read my old-fashioned hard copy of TIME.

(In future blogs I will include more comments from various editors on the topics of electronic media, the power of advertising, the slow death of newspapers, etc.)

Photos from New York

The following photos are a mixture of New York scenes (suggested by Jolee) and media tour snapshots (required by Prof. Ann). They are taken with a Canon G11, a digital camera I highly suggest to any photog looking for a light-weight vacation option.

The American Museum of Natural History

Statue of Liberty

View of NY taken from the Empire State Building

Empire State Building as seen from 

a subway stairwell

TIME magazine editor's morning meeting we were 

privileged to witness.

A portion of Time Inc.'s archive

collection, including the May 4th Kent State photo spread (forefront)

shot by KSU alumn  John Filo, now director of CBS photo operations

(we visited Filo in his NYC studio today)

KSU journalism professor Ann Schierhorn rides the NYC subway.