Just a few days before the first bomb blasts jolted London and camera phone images of the crisis began to splash across the Internet and the news, Kyle MacRae launched Scoopt.
Scoopt is an online photo service for citizen journalist shutterbugs looking to have their images noticed by picture editors and possibly picked up by mainstream media. Scoopt is clearly picking up on a trend in society. It is trying to establish itself as the beginnings of a new cottage industry in society—one that caters to the average citizen’s need to share their news with the world.
As Joe Light of the Boston Globe notes, “Citizen journalism has quickly infiltrated an industry sometimes sluggish to make big changes, and the phenomenon demonstrates that a mainstream industry has learned its lesson from the revolutionary impact of the Internet.”
The Washington Post's Ariana Eunjung Cha reports that citizen journalists are “creating what some believe to be a more democratic press, but throwing into question what it means to be a journalist and adding a new dimension to debates over fairness, libel, protection of confidential sources and trust in the media.”
Here's were the Scoopt idea comes in.
Scoopt’s promotional pitch poses a provocative question, “Who will take tomorrow's front page photograph - a professional press photographer or a passer-by armed with a cameraphone?”
If you photograph a newsworthy event, you could have a valuable scoop on your hands. Scoopt represents you, making sure the right people see your photo and ensuring that you get a good deal. Scoopt is simple. Scoopt works. Above all, Scoopt works for you. Join Scoopt today. Snap... Send... Sell...
MacRae’s project is ambitious and only time will tell if the idea of an amateur stock picture agency will take hold. Right now, however, we are caught up in the novelty of the moment and I think it is a little early to answer the question of “who will take tomorrow’s front page photos.”
There is always a period of sociological adjustment when any major technological change, such as camera phones and the Internet, becomes a pervasive force in our lives.
Citizen shutterbugs armed with camera phones images are part of a larger societal trend in the information arts. Conventional forms of media are struggling to make sense of these changes across multiple platforms, still, video, print and audio.
Citizen shutterbugs are average people with little or no training in photography or photojournalism. For one reason or another these individuals find themselves in a news situation, feel compelled to capture the situation digitally and then transmit the images through the Internet.
The images that citizen shutterbugs produce are for the most part inferior to the pictures professionals make. What makes these images special, however, is the context and moment in which they record an event of significance to the general public. Often citizen shutterbugs, out of circumstance, capture moments that circumvent the established institutions of news gathering and dissemination.
However, the mainstream media plays a huge role in the publication and
promotion
of these images once they have been made known. So it seems that
citizen journalism is in large part dependent on channels provided by
mainstream media outlets.
Will sites such as Scoopt contribute to an alternative view of what photojournalism is?
Public interest as well as the mainstream media’s acceptance of what they may consider pseudo-journalistic enterprises like Scoopt will ultimately be the deciding factors.
Our definition of photojournalism may be changing in these times of instant everything. From the traditional perspective, photojournalism applies both to a style of photography as well as an occupational group.
Camera phones are revolutionizing photojournalism because they represent another important source of visual reportage that can help to inform and edify the public's understanding of the world.
Ultimately, photojournalism is about visually reporting and witnessing events that are of import and relevance to others in society. Does it matter significantly if the source of these images is a professional or an amateur? I think it does if you consider how important credibility is to maintaining public confidence in sources of information.
Thinking about the ethical and moral consequences that may arise from citizen journalism is still a gray area. Most people do not understand how abstract concepts such as objectivity, balance, fairness, and accountability. It is a matter of professional journalists helping citizens to understand what news credible in the eyes of the public.
We are entering a new era of information arts that make audio, video and still photography accessible to many people that only a few years ago would be impossible. It is critical that as educators and journalists we acknowledge and accept these changes.
One of the biggest challenges for sites such as Scoopt will be to verify the authenticity of images. Since citizen journalists are not necessarily trained to considered the ethical issues involved in making pictures will the public perceive the source as credible?
Scoopt’s MacRae is taking this issue seriously and has attempted to build in some credibly safeguard.
According to MacRae, “First off, we only accept submissions from members, so we already have the sender's personal details on file….Registration means accepting our strict terms and conditions. This is legally binding.”
In addition, “When a member uploads a photo directly to our server, he has to complete a disclosure form. This is the who-what-where info that any buyer needs to know. We also make them reconfirm yet again that the photo complies with our general terms and our keeping it legal conditions.”
Furthermore, beyond disclosure, MacRae calls the member to “discuss the circumstances surrounding a photo if we have any doubts about its veracity of legality.”
MacRae uses his journalistic instincts along with an established code of ethics to deal with possible hoaxes.
“As for the ethics... that's our call,” he said.
“So will we get hoaxed? I'm absolutely certain that people will try to hoax us (and by extension newspapers and other media outlets) but I'm reasonably confident that we won't get hoodwinked.”
At present, Scoopt is just beginning to catch on.
According to MacRae membership stands at, “Only a couple of hundred but that's from a standing start and with virtually no effort.” However, it may takes months or even years for the project to really take off in terms of a business.
When asked if the average person really understands the concept of using a media agency to disseminate work, MacRae responds:
I'm not sure they'll see it this way. Our target audience is not the pro photographer or the wannabe pro, or even the enthusiastic amateur. We're dealing with people who have camera phones and just happen to stumble upon a newsworthy event. I think it is already well-established that it's possible to publish amateur photos online in blogs and sharing sites like Flickr; and it is now evident to everybody that media outlets will publish such pics. What is not obvious (yet) is that amateur pics can and should attract a fair fee. Scoopt offers a fast, simple route to the paying market so it should be something of a no-brainer to send a hot photo to Scoopt.
Citizen journalism is not a substitute for the values, competencies and skills professional reporters and photojournalists bring to providing insight and depth in the coverage of complex events.
It is unrealistic to expect that citizen shutterbugs with digital cameras and camera phones could serve the same function as trained professionals.
However, with some basic training in area of news judgment, news values, ethics, and truth-telling, citizen journalism can and is making a difference in our world.
Photojournalism has never been the exclusive domain of paid professionals
who are specialists in visual reportage. There are many important historic images
which images were not made by trained photojournalists. Today we have an
occupational group called photojournalism, but twenty years prior this
profession was called news photography and before that just photography. It
should come as no real surprise that the way in which images capture reality
can change with technological innovation and access.
At the same time, there are certainly codes of conduct, values, skills and
conventions that apply to photojournalism that are very different from
conceptual art photography or even commercial photography. Ultimately,
photojournalism gets its power from the context and truth in which the
images are made, regardless of who actually snaps the shutter.
Camera phones, as a device, alter how journalists can now interact with each
other in gathering information. For example, a reporter with a camera phone
can relay images of a news situation back to the newsroom to help clarify
information in a story. These images would most likely never be used for
publication but they would serve an important function in the news cycle.
Reporters can also provide instant images for artists in the newsroom to
create information graphics and visuals in far less time than a verbal
description. Photojournalists can use camera phones to communicate with
photo editors prior to making images with higher grade professional
equipment.
Camera phone images can provide immediate visual references for
understanding the context and details of a scene in which editors can be
better informed in making important news decisions.
Society in general must become more visually literate before we will see any real shift away from a mere snapshot of something to the more highly refined ways if seeing and visual storytelling that photojournalism has become. Can a visual literacy happen on a world-wide scale where average people become more visually sophisticated and analytic thinkers. Yes. It is already happening.
Citizen journalism can and will develop around the world to help educate themselves in the production of news images. Will they seriously compete with professional journalists as a primarily source of visual reportage?
Despite changes in how news made be gathered and consumed in the future, the information needs of the public will remain high.
Citizen journalism is a form of social advocacy that challenges how news is constructed. The potential of citizen journalism is that it confronts the capitalistic model of a revenue generating information system that the mainstream press has become.
Now, getting back to Scoopt and Do-It-Yourself news photography. Although it appears Scoopt promotes citizen journalism it is also designed to "feed the beast" of mainstream media.
The criticism that might come down on sites like Scoopt is that they are based on making money off the mainstream media by providing another source of visuals.
Some critics may feel that the motivation for people making pictures with camera phones might put them in harms way just so they can make a few bucks. Will this new cottage industry spawn a generation of snaparazzi willing to risk it all to get a picture at the scene of a disaster or even of some celebrity walking along a beach somewhere?
I am reluctant to pass such a judgment on what Scoopt represents in the emerging world of information arts. I understand the business of our visual culture and Scoopt, along with many other ventures, is all a part of it.