Photojournalism and Citizen Journalism

If everyone with a smartphone can be a citizen photojournalist, who needs professional photojournalism? This rather flippant question cuts to the heart of a set of pressing issues, where an array of impassioned voices may be heard in vigorous debate. While some of these voices are confidently predicting photojournalism's impending demise as the latest casualty of internet-driven convergence, others are heralding its dramatic rebirth, pointing to the democratisation of what was once the exclusive domain of the professional. Regardless of where one is situated in relation to these stark polarities, however, it is readily apparent that photojournalism is being decisively transformed across shifting, uneven conditions for civic participation in ways that raise important questions for journalism's forms and practices in a digital era. This book's contributors identify and critique a range of factors currently recasting photojournalism's professional ethos, devoting particular attention to the challenges posed by the rise of citizen journalism. This book was originally published as two special issues, in Digital Journalism and Journalism Practice.

Stuart Allan is Professor and Head of the School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, UK. He is the author of Citizen Witnessing: Revisioning Journalism in Times of Crisis (2013), editor of The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism (2009, revised 2011), and co-editor of Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives (volumes 1 and 2, 2009 and 2014). He is currently co-writing with Tom Allbeson, Conflicting Images: Histories of War Photojournalism.

Introduction: Photojournalism and Citizen Journalism Part I 1. Gatecheckers at the Visual News Stream: A new model for classic gatekeeping theory 2. Not Good Enough? Amateur images in the regular news flow of print and online newspapers 3. The Tyranny of the Empty Frame: Reluctance to use citizen-produced photographs in online journalism 4. Taking Our Pictures: Citizen photojournalism in traditional US news media 5. Conflictual Media Events, Eyewitness Images, and the Boston Marathon Bombing (2013) 6. Evaluating News Photographs: Trust, impact and consumer culture in the digital age 7. Citizen Photojournalism: How photographic practices of amateur photographers affect narrative functions of editorial photographs 8. Amateur Photographs as Visual Quotes: Does the rise of amateur photography lead to fundamental changes in the news media? 9. The Favelas through the Lenses of Photographers: Photojournalism from community and mainstream media organisations Part II 10. The ''Public Eye'' or ''Disaster Tourists'': Investigating public perceptions of citizen smartphone imagery 11. The Fragility of Photo-truth: Verification of amateur images in Finnish newsrooms 12. Toward a New Visual Culture of the News: Professional photojournalism, digital post-production, and the symbolic struggle for distinction 13. Innovation(s) in Photojournalism: Assessing visual content and the place of citizen photojournalism in Time's Lightbox photoblog 14. Citizen Photojournalists and their Professionalizing Logics: The case of contributors to the Citizenside agency 15. News Images on Instagram: The paradox of authenticity in hyperreal photo reportage 16. When News Media Turn to Citizen-generated Images of War: Transparency and graphicness in the visual coverage of the Syrian conflict 17. Locating the Journalism in Citizen Photojournalism: The use and content of citizen-generated imagery 18. Mini Cameras and Maxi Minds: Citizen photojournalism and the public sphere