Thesis Title: A Study on the impact of citizen photojournalism on professional photojournalism
By: Kimiya Rashidinik
Supervisor: Farhad Soleimany
Degree: MA
Course of Study: Photography
June 2019
Thesis Title: A Study on the impact of citizen photojournalism on professional photojournalism.(Case study: Newyorktimes.com, huffingtonpost.com, New York Times, Wallstreet Journal)
Abstract
There has been a rise in the user generated photos as a result of advent of mobile phone cameras and access to internet, consequently a shift in the relationships of photojournalism complicated universe has happened. Citizens photographs could enter mainstream outlets which has dominated by photojournalists before due to their new ability of taking pictures of their surrounding and its events. Citizen (photo)journalism is not a new phenomenon but it was only after the tsunami in 2004 when lots of citizen generated photos published in mainstream medias that public and scholars paid attention to this issue and researched about it.
As every picture which is published in media outlets counted as a photojournalistm, citizen photojournalism can be defined as the citizen generated photos published in mainstream medias. This thesis uses both quantitive and qualitative approaches to analyze the way that citizen photojournalism will affect the professions of photojournalism. To achieve this goal, the republishing method of four important news outlets, New York times newspaper, wall street journal newspaper, New York Times and Huffington post will be studied. These four medias will be observed during a week of the year as a sample; in addition, to reach a comprehensive analysis, the way of publishing of citizen photographs will be observed in the 10 most important disasters of the year. Data from the research will prove that citizen photojournalism is not a serious threat for the profession and medias tend to trust professional photographers in normal situations or disasters. In fact, it can be said that medias mostly use citizen generated photos when it is not easy for professionals to enter a place, or there is a danger or censorship in situations.
Key words: Photojournalism, Citizen Photojournalism, Digital photography, Mobile photography, Citizen journalist