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10-04-2018, 10:52 AM   #1
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Low-Quality Journalism

This is why "journalists" should not rely on cell phones.

A NYC cable TV/ISP network is reporting on New York Comic Con (a comic, movie, science fiction, etc. convention). The article is New York Comic Con 2018 Begins but there's no need to click; see awful photo below. Blurry, grainy, pixelated. Bad composition, too, featuring an ear and bicep closeup on the right side.



10-04-2018, 11:28 AM   #2
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Some cellphones can actually take decent pictures. This just shows a lack of care. For an ISP, not surprised
10-04-2018, 11:33 AM   #3
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Seems to me the subtext is "Overweight costumed circus freaks, front and centre." Excellence in photography is not a requirement.

Whether this is a consequence of the desire of the reporter to editorialise or of the editor to let it through, the end result is the same and any half-ar$ed picture will do for what seemed to be a very half-ar$ed article. The reader is expected to nod in agreement and move on to the next story. This is what journalism has come to.
10-04-2018, 11:33 AM   #4
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You expect anything more from journalists in the US?

10-04-2018, 11:49 AM - 2 Likes   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by KiloHotelphoto Quote
You expect anything more from journalists in the US?
They should be held to a much higher standard than this. If they are incapable of meeting it then they should be broken as a profession, their credentials withdrawn, their practitioners shunned, and the professors who train them sacked, over and over again, until they have once more attained a standard of impartiality and professionalism and restored their public trust.

Right now the profession as a whole is three or four rungs below used car salesmen in my eyes, with only a very few shining lights.
10-04-2018, 12:30 PM   #6
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It's just economics, I'm afraid. Happening in Australia, too.

Newspaper revenues in both circulation and advertising have fallen off a cliff.

Photographers, journalists and sub-editors have been laid off, and agency articles and pictures are used instead. An event like this will have to be covered by one person if it all.

The organizers of Comicon or any event can help a beleaguered journalist by providing them a press release to write from and better photos they've commissioned or taken themselves.

10-04-2018, 01:11 PM   #7
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QuoteOriginally posted by clackers Quote
The organizers of Comicon or any event can help a beleaguered journalist by providing them a press release to write from and better photos they've commissioned or taken themselves.
I don't know about NY Comic-Con specifically, but the fandom convention I staff at already does all that (though obviously if they want to run an article on Day 0 then the only photos that will be available yet will be from prior years' events) and has a department dedicated to press relations, and we're nowhere near the size of NYCC. I'm pretty sure it's standard practice.


But as far as I've seen, it doesn't stop the various press outlets in attendance from writing their own takes with their own photos.

10-04-2018, 01:18 PM   #8
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A: Its all Entertainment.
B: They deliberately chose to post that photo. Its not hard to get shots of hot cosplayers at those events, if thats what you want to do. Equally easy are shots of overweight nerds who look like they've been up for 24hrs.
C: I'm procrastinating and should get back to work.
10-04-2018, 01:18 PM - 1 Like   #9
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Having grown up watching The Adventures of Superman (TV series) with Perry White (Editor) scrutinizing every word published, I am constantly disappointed
with current journalism where 'editors' seem to be accountants who don't even read their own publications.
10-04-2018, 01:47 PM   #10
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QuoteOriginally posted by Scintilla Quote
But as far as I've seen, it doesn't stop the various press outlets in attendance from writing their own takes with their own photos.
I think the 'journalists' covering the events would be relatively junior and need all the help they can get.

A press kit with an accreditation lanyard and a USB containing a pre-written sample article and attention getting photos will help them get the story past their editor.



10-05-2018, 04:22 AM - 2 Likes   #11
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QuoteOriginally posted by alfa75ts Quote
I am constantly disappointed
with current journalism where 'editors' seem to be accountants who don't even read their own publications.
I read a dreadful account in which a columnist inserted a paragraph halfway through an unrelated article in which he abused his senior editor, including use of the F word and the phrase "she'll never read this anyway".

IIRC it appeared in the paper as submitted, and the editor suffered for it. The columnist had proven beyond a doubt that she hadn't been doing her job.
10-05-2018, 05:30 AM   #12
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This looks like a video capture. Wich is as bad as a bad cellphone pictures...

I've also have seen a trend nowadays with some news sites doing this with all those 4k videos of news covering.

Another big problem are photo selection. Even if there is good photo coverage, either by newspaper's staff photographers or agency freelancers (my case), those news outlets doesn't seen to been able to pick the good pictures.

Brazil's photojournalism has been criticized latelly because of the poor photo selection of major protests. Either photographers and photo editors are doing a bad job of selecting relevant pictures from those assignments. It's really sad, because you do your best to get a great picture and they buy and publish the boring ones. Or hunts for the 'big crowd picture' as they say.

Last edited by sungibr; 10-05-2018 at 05:38 AM.
10-05-2018, 07:20 AM - 3 Likes   #13
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QuoteOriginally posted by pathdoc Quote
They should be held to a much higher standard than this. If they are incapable of meeting it then they should be broken as a profession, their credentials withdrawn, their practitioners shunned, and the professors who train them sacked, over and over again, until they have once more attained a standard of impartiality and professionalism and restored their public trust.

Right now the profession as a whole is three or four rungs below used car salesmen in my eyes, with only a very few shining lights.
The problem is that journalism is now at the same level as professional photography or home renovation contractor. Sure, you can go to school and learn your craft, but there is no requirement. Give anyone a tool belt and a battery operated drill and they can call themselves a contractor. Give anyone a camera and they can call themselves a pro photographer. Give anyone a cell phone and they can call themselves a reporter.

The profession isn't helped by dumb azzes who feel it is OK to denigrate the professional media simply because they report what they see, and a bunch of dumber azzes who go along with it because it fits a narrative that they want to believe.
The situation hasn't been helped by news organizations becoming nakedly political, quite often passing off dishonest editorializing in "commentary" programming with virtually no warning to consumers that they are giving airtime to what are often little more than hit pieces.
Twenty Four hour news channels need to have time fillers. Combine this with networks becoming the official outlets of political parties and politicians calling news outlets that don't toe their party's line fake news and the like, and no controls on who can call themselves a news outlet and it's not surprising that the media is now viewed with the type of suspicion that you have.
People have become intellectually lazy, and will believe what they are being fed if it fit's what they want to believe. Case in point, the idiot that shot up the pizza place in Washington DC. Apparently he still believes that there was a child sex ring being operated out of the place, his only admission is that he could have handled things better. With this sort of mental midget becoming the norm, and troll websites passing themselves off as news being willing to feed into their fears, it's not surprising we are where we are.
People need to learn how to think for themselves again. People need to stop believing what is not believable, and start believing verified facts that are put before them. People need to call out those who lie and call their lies "alternative facts" for what they are, which is liars supporting liars, and shun media outlets who support these liars.
We need to become our own fact checkers because as you say, there aren't a lot of shining stars out there who report honestly.
10-05-2018, 07:44 AM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by DeadJohn Quote
This is why "journalists" should not rely on cell phones.

A NYC cable TV/ISP network is reporting on New York Comic Con (a comic, movie, science fiction, etc. convention). The article is New York Comic Con 2018 Begins but there's no need to click; see awful photo below. Blurry, grainy, pixelated. Bad composition, too, featuring an ear and bicep closeup on the right side.
Are you sure this isn't a video grab? that would explain the mushiness
10-05-2018, 08:34 AM   #15
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QuoteOriginally posted by Dericali Quote
Are you sure this isn't a video grab? that would explain the mushiness
If it's a video grab that makes the photography even worse. They had many more moments to select a frame, surely something without someone in the foreground cut off at the edge of the frame. And it still looks like cellphone video, not a frame from video taken on a camera.
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