Friday, December 28, 2012

Buy an iPhone, voila, you are a photojournalist!


"A billion roaming photojournalists" How do I compete against that? Who needs a four-year photojournalism degree? Buy an iPhone, voila, you are a photojournalist!

Here is the latest iPhone 5 commercial from Sprint.


This post is not a commentary on photojournalists using iphones as a tool.

It is meant to highlight the Sprint video and comment on the language used in an advertisement to achieve a desired effect on people. It implies that a consumer is a photojournalist just because they are using an iPhone 5 to take photos and post photos on social media.

I am sorry but if I buy a hammer does that make me a carpenter?
If I buy a thermometer, voila, I am one of a billion roaming doctors?

Consumers have been using cameras for over a century. I don't recall anyone ever calling these consumers, who share their photos, as photojournalists.

Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (e.g., documentary photography,social documentary photographystreet photography or celebrity photography) by complying with a rigid ethical framework which demands that the work is both honest and impartial whilst telling the story in strictly journalistic terms. Photojournalists create pictures that contribute to the news media.  
Source: Wikipedia