THE POWER OF THE PHOTO

Huge controversy in Boston over the Boston Herald's front page picture of the body of Victoria Snelgrove, a broadcast journalism student, who died after being struck by a pepper spray pellet while police were trying to quell a post-game riot Wednesday.

Newsdesigner.com has the most comprehensive overview of the reaction to the picture, as well as a screen shot of the front page.

The Herald has since apologized for upsetting its readers, but there are those who feel they did the right thing in publishing the photo.

This is an old debate: at what point does truth-telling cross the line into sensationalism? How do we present reality while treating our audience with dignity and respect? How far is too far?

UPDATE: Tim Porter at First Draft come down on the side of truth-telling:

Victoria Snelgrove's death is outrageous, as are the killings of all the young men and women who die in the wanton inner city violence, as are the continuing toll of the innocents in Iraq and the unabated genocide in Darfur. Hiding from violence doesn't prevent it. Ignoring it doesn't reverse its impact. Not reporting doesn't help communities confront it.

Porter links the picture to photo by John Filo of Mary Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller at Kent State in 1970 and says that both are photos of deaths of innocents at the hands of authority and that both are news. His argument is compelling.
9:25:34 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

HOW MEDIA WORKS NOW

Anthony Moor of OrlandoSentinel.com has a rather compelling piece of journalism up at the Online Journalism Review describing how the leading edge news site coped with three hurricanes in as many weeks. It's entertaining, but it's also a textbook-worthy case study of what it means to be media today.

A brief excerpt:

So during the height of Frances and Jeanne, while everyone was hunkered down, we blew out our home page to highlight our reporters' Weblog. It drew on short dispatches from staff on- and off-duty and sought to capture not the facts, figures or details of the storm, but the feeling of it. One reader called it a 'tone poem.'

Everyone from music critics to copy editors participated, and instead of home page headlines we pulled out a key quote such as, "12:30 p.m.: It could be said that Orange County emergency officials have been sharing some of our pain. Many workers slept on cots... (Read on)" and "3:28 p.m. Weirdest thing to do in a hurricane: Wash windows! I thought 'what the heck' and stepped out with paper towels and Windex... (Read on)."

Why were these blogs the most-viewed single stories on our home page during the hurricanes? We believe it's because they provided a sense of shared experience. While TV excelled at showing wind-tossed anchors, emergency operations center news conferences and Doppler radar, our Weblog made each reporter's small story universal and reassured our audience as they hunkered down, that their personal experiences were normal too.

Moor's article reinforces something I've believed for a few years now: Media that isn't using all the tools available, and that isn't willing to creatively put them all into play when what's happening in the world requires it, is going to lose relevance and audience. Those that are using the tools and using them creatively are steadily building "brand" and trust. They'll prosper.
1:03:35 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

HOME ON THE RANGE

For years, the prized possession of many photojournalists wasn't the latest whiz-bang Nikon, it was the classy Leica rangefinder. It was small, virtually silent, incredibly well made — and incredibly pricey.

Epson has introduced an equivalent for the 21st century: the RD1. The digital camera (6 megapixels) accepts the same series of lenses that Leicas do, has a shutter lever to reset the mechanical shutter, and other retro touches.

And it carries on the high-end tradition, too: the price tag is a penny under three grand U.S. for the camera body.
10:41:31 AM  LINK TO THIS POST