Pros/Cons of “Paparazzi” Photojournalism

The idea of paparazzi began in the 1930’s-1940’s. The first known member of the paparazzi according to Nerve was “Wegee,” a photojournalist nicknamed for his “psychic” ability to find well known members of society doing bad/ embarrassing things.  The article also noted that the name was popularized then due to the name of an insane celebrity photographer in the movie “La Vida Loca.” Since then, paparazzi have become a staple in Hollywood tarnishing the name of “photojournalists” in cases such as Jackie O was sued when she had the Secret Service smash a paparazzi camera (she won!) and the tragic story of Princess Diana’s paparazzi related car crash. Paparazzi have gotten a very bad reputation in the past decades since these incidents.

Is paparazzi even journalism? Technically they are taking pictures, creating digital content and telling stories people want to hear. However, they are not following many ethical guidelines like respecting the privacy of their subjects (aka balancing the public’s ‘right to know’ with the subject’s privacy.)

However, in a opinion piece for Time.com, Andrew Mendelson, department chair in the Journalism department at Temple University, noted the benefits of unflattering images of celebrities in paparazzi photos as a “watchdog” journalist type idea of policing those who may be role models for younger viewers. He notes that unflattering pictures can challenge celebrities’ images, and provide context to their usual portrayal of wealth and power, praising the benefits of showing the “true motives of those wielding outsized cultural influence and force us to examine the standards we ask our role models to meet.”

On the other side of the coin, some celebrities use paparazzi to improve their public image. Some celebrities themselves have, in recent years, noted the benefits of paparazzi. Any photos, flattering or not will boost the brand and awareness of a celebrity to the public. Some celebrities according to the Huffington Post even welcome them by letting them know where they will be in order to build publicity for a brand that they are publicizing or an upcoming movie.

The ethics behind the work of paparazzi are still more of a grey area, so I’m not sure if I would call them “journalists.” However, this is still information that the public wants to know about. Perhaps a more set code of ethical guidelines, similar to the SPJ but more watered down could be helpful in making tabloid/celebrity gossip more reputable for viewers. Until then, maybe stay skeptical, but be a little more understanding of our paparazzi friends.

Snapchat for journalists

For journalists who want to integrate younger people into their audience, snapchat is a very important way to do that. What made me so fascinated with this was the interview with Meredith Artley  that we read for class. She noted how Snapchat connected CNN to younger viewers, and the cool challenge that was for journalists. She noted that that required a completely different writing style that would appeal to the teen/tween crowd.

What she was referring to was CNN creating 5-6 short news stories a day to appear in people’s snapchat feeds in the “discovery” section. This is often condensed for the format and benefits from a focus on interactivity: quizzes, photos, videos, etc.

And from my personal experience reading Snapchat news, I think they’ve done a great job at that. What I really enjoyed was reading how CNN gave more context/ explanation for concepts that would be difficult for them to typically understand without better clarification.  This was great because it can help the reader understand the story properly and see it in a visually appealing way as well.

News organizations often post on their “Snapchat stories” as well. Stories are a combination of short 10 second clips and pictures that can pertain to local, national and international news.  Ijnet.com noted some news corporations who do this really well.

This includes AlJezera English. They are skilled in both covering “underreported stories” and doing so in a “visually interesting way”, including a lot of coverage that being filmed live.

BBC has an active snapchat story as well, but takes more of a traditional approach- just putting their content out the way they usually would on TV but through Snapchat instead.

The New Yorker has a fun behind the scenes snapchat that shows their cartoons and how they choose their covers.

Many journalists have their own snapchat accounts, where they can individually post their own images and videos of things happening around them. Ijnet noted some great examples of this as well. Jabin Botsford did a lot of cool work showing behind the scenes covering the presidential race: political rallies etc. It definitely is cool seeing behind the scenes what it is like to be in the situation of a journalist.

It can also be a great way to stay in touch with international news by following international journalists.  This is including Yusef Omar, who captures lots of live news in India, and Oz Katerji who shows a lot of footage of the Turkey/ Syrian refugee conflict.

They also noted that there are many local organizations that do this as well including oregonlive.com, nola.com, and pennlive.com.

Do you follow any journalists on Snapchat?

 

 

 

 

 

Livestreaming: Yay or Nay?

Live-streaming is a vital tool for journalists. It’s easy, flexible, and gets context to those who need it as quickly and easy as possible.  Possible ways to live-stream taken from this website include:

Periscope- It is the first of this genre! It’s not a super popular network on its own compared to Facebook and Youtube. However, benefits include ease in connecting with twitter profile to gain followers to your livestream!

Facebook- Benefits include that it is easy to connect to your Facebook fans! This is also one of the most popular forms of livestreaming. Journalists can also be easily found by those who don’t even follow them through a well-designed Discover page.

YouTube- YouTube lets its creators live stream video, but their app, YouTube Connect technically has not launched yet. HOWEVER it could be a great addition for journalists/ news networks with a strong public following. I personally follow WSB on YouTube and through their app and I could see certain content they create doing very well here.

However this same article noted some problems as wellL. Cons include a lack of ability to fact check, a lack of privacy for victims’ families, and the fact that it only works if the journalist has good data/ Wi-Fi connection!

While livestreaming is definitely a cool addition to what journalists can use to create current news, I can definitely see the importance of enforcing journalistic ethics on it. Fact checking situations and providing context is so vital to getting these stories told “the right way.”  Privacy is important as well- you can’t control what happens on a livestream but the idea of a family watching one of its members die live is so heartbreaking. I believe violence needs to be censored as much as possible on these streams.

The new stories in the news of violence on livestream services including the boy who accidentally shot himself on Instagram Live as well as the now infamous Facebook Live Killer shows the importance in journalists enforcing the same ethics they would usually in these situations.  These situations could not have been controlled by journalists, but preventing future violence definitely can.

What do you think? Do you stream?

 

Chapter 5 reaction

 

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This chapter showed the importance of a director towards a finished work in television or film. While everyone involved in the project is important (the camera man, editor, on screen talent etc.), they are all ultimately doing their work in a way that carries out the director’s vision of the script. The director carries out his/her vision not only through picking camera shots and angles, but through casting actors and supervising the production staff with the producer as well.

First the director must look at the script and determine what camera angles will best execute the feeling and words of the script. The text brought up the idea of “classical continuity” which is the continuity of time/space that was used in Hollywood movies in the 1920s-60s. This makes the film feel smooth and flows quickly/ easily so the audience is drawn into the world the film creates.  It also mentioned that often the camera will zoom in as the action gets more intense. A close up shot can make the audience realize that they need to focus on this particular event.

A smooth moving camera makes the audience feel relaxed while still showing new information, while flipping to a camera in a different perspective can make the audience feel uneasy. Asymmetrical shots make the audience feel more uneasy than symmetrical shots. The shots used in a particular movie can greatly alter the way an audience feels when watching a movie. A good example is the recently released movie ““Get out.” “Get out” was a recently released scary movie, and unlike some scary movies, nothing that could be seen as blatantly scary happens until at least halfway through the movie. However, the quick moving shots in an environment that would otherwise seem “safe” make the audience realize that they are in an environment that is scarier than it seems. The close up shot of the main character’s girlfriend when she is eating cheerios shows that there is something more sinister about her than she seems.

Another way to alter the audience’s perception is through sound. This can either be done in a way that cements the audience’s perception of the world they are in, or makes them feel disoriented and uncomfortable. The former would be seen in a movie like Star Wars, especially the newer ones where sound technology has improved. The sounds used are realistic for the world the story takes place in (gunshots, lightsabers, spaceships, little amounts of music) and make the audience feel that they are in this world without being distracting. The latter would be seen in a movie like Nightcrawler. In a movie with this kind of feeling, the sounds may not match up with what is being seen on the screen (voiceovers out of sync, speed of sounds and sounds heard do not match up with images etc.) However, music can be used in an otherwise realistic looking film for a variety of reasons. It can make the action on the screen feel more intense (Indiana Jones music during action scenes), establish time period (Hairspray and the Help have music from the time period of the 1960s playing), or it can set the mood (Little Miss Sunshine has hopeful music at the end).  Through these many different mediums, the director can show their artistic vision in the movie.

Producer reaction

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Producers are extremely important, as they are what is needed to get things done!  Producers come up with the idea and originally gets the project created. They are in charge of making sure the project gets financed, figuring out what to do if the project goes over budget/ time, and making sure everyone on the project gets along. A producer needs both phenomenal logistical skills, and phenomenal people skills.

There are four major categories of producers. Staff producers are hired to produce many small projects (for example major television networks have many staff producers).  The opposite of this would be an independent producer. This type of producer works freelance to pitch projects to networks and film companies. This makes up the majority of producers.

Executive producers are usually working for a specific news network like Staff producers. They hold a very high position of power, and will usually make all the big decisions, and will work on other projects as well.  Finally, a producer hyphenate will do other related jobs related to the project as well as producing such as writing, directing, etc.

In order for a producer to create a project, there are four steps they must complete. First, they must create an idea that could be turned into a workable project. Then they must determine the goals of the project as well as decide what kind of audience the project would appeal to.

They also need an idea of a budget in place in order to successfully pitch the project. Once the big picture is completed, the producer needs to focus on making sure the day to day problems in the project are under control. They need to keep in mind legal issues, such as copyright laws that may apply to their project, because any possible legal related problems would be the responsibility of the producer to avoid or fix.

It is also the responsibility of the producer to make sure that the set is up to the standards of unions or guilds if their crew members are a part of one.

Figuring out the shooting schedule early is another essential part of setting up a successful project. This accomplishes two things: first, it makes sure the talent you want to use can complete the project with no problems.

Second, it helps keep the budget under control by not paying everyone for too many days.  Also important is making sure locations to shoot are available when you have the personnel available to shoot there. A good producer separates out when the crew will shoot each scene on Script Breakdown sheets.

Scenes should be shot in a way that is the most cost effective and time effective for everyone involved. Once the shooting schedule is determined, the budget should be determined. A good balanced budget should have approximately equal above the line (creative talent) and below the line (technical talent) costs.

It is the job of the producer to make sure all of this is taken into account, which shows the importance of the producer when shooting a picture.