A Graduate “Glimpse”

Glimpse Website

Glimpse Correspondents Program is a project that is now running in its third year of providing journalism graduates with 365 days of some of the best travel journalism mentorships in the world. As soon as I found out about the project through Twitter, I had to find out more how to be one of the lucky chosen members who will intern with the program run by Matador. Each successful graduate enrolled on the program will receive a year of study within several aspects of travel journalism – this is only the core of the program’s listing benefits. Students can expect free tuition on MatadorU’s Travel Writing, Photography and Film Production courses, one on one editorial mentorship as well as the possibility for paid opportunities within the company’s network. Unsurprisingly the program which presents some of the world’s remarkable photojournalism is part supported by the National Geographic Society – another aspect that instantly intrigued me. With the work of the Glimpse correspondents being published on Matador monthly, students have an incredible audience readership of their travel writing, photo essays and films, forming solid foundations and work portfolios for when they complete the program.

Applications for the program are open in less than a week’s time on May 2nd so if you’re feeling inspired by this, head on over to their website and check out their requirements and application process –  I for one definitely will. This looks to be the perfect graduate opportunity for any aspiring journalist coming out of university this year. From what I’ve seen applications are open throughout the summer so you have time to plot your way into one of the best mentorship programs on the globe.

Here is a video timelapse of the project’s 2012 photography:

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/56962909″>The Year in Re-Lapse</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/matadornetwork”>Matador Network</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

More “Emphas.is” on Crowdfunding

Emphasis Crowdfunding Projects

Today I came across the crowdfunding visual journalism community Emphas.is and I took a little trip inside the new world of crowdfunding within the photojournalism community. Those unaware of the new form won’t be for very long as the concept which involves the collective effort of individuals donating money in support for various organisations looks to be an exciting new platform for documentary photographers with a story to tell.

Emphas.is and its online community is for photojournalists to pitch their projects directly to the public. Prospective contributors can read various pitches and back stories and agree to part-funding issues that they care about most and want something made out of. Participants can back as little or as much as they like and the agreement entitiles sponsors direct contact with the photographers leading their sponsored project as well as insights into their experiences throughout the assignment. Although I may not be a sponsor yet, the online community has opened my eyes to a range of global projects stories waiting to be told to people. A refreshing way to make the public aware of particular cultural and social issues and a brilliant platform for photographers to make that difficult step in getting their work out their and recognised. Others of its kind include Kickstarter and Indigogo who also carries a similar format to Emphas.is by letting the audience decide on the cases. Photographer and journalist Miranda Gavin says “Although Crowdfunding is still coming of age, it is already proving to be a successful formula for financing projects.

The most recent featured project on Emphas.is is by French Swiss photographer Michael Zumstein whose past projects have been a mixture of both press and personal. His current “Bon Amis” is a cross-enquiry into the difficult reconciliation process in Ivory Coast. Zumstein outlines his views and reasonings into the project that he started last year through his ‘pitch’ profile on the Emphas.is site. Already after reading through some of the photographer’s files I have learnt about a new culture and a political divide and this is why I think a public interest platform is a hugely beneficial form for this kind of journalism.There is a student based project as well by German photographer Anthony Sojka whose photo essay is about people living in Halligen, a unique set of 10 small islands islands situated in the German North Sea.

Check out Antony’s profile video which tells you a little bit more about the Halligen islands and how his photo essay works

To view more projects supported by Emphas.is click here

Lewis Whyld: The New Face of Photojournalism

Photographer Lewis Whyld’s panoramic images from recent news events in London have sparked an interesting debate about the future of photojournalism and how technology aims to alter the ways in which we’ve previously viewed images of incidents in the media.

After 6 months of working as a barrister, Lewis Whyld gave up his trained profession to pursue his hobby as a photographer and has since been working at the Press Association, covering significant news events in dangerous environments all over the world from Croydon’s riots to Afghanistan’s war zones . His recent photography has taken on new levels of photojournalistic expertise after building his own 360 degree camera system. Technically that’s as far as I understand of his invention but discussions on his website have shown how his ingenuity has captured multiple angles of a single moment. One of the many recent 360 creations on Lewis’ website includes one of the Margaret Thatcher Protests. He first presents the still photograph (shown above) of the moment he captured before asking us as the viewer “What does it not show you?”

Lewis outlines that traditionally “photographers try to avoid showing elements such as other press or distracting backgrounds” and through this new form of 360 photography aims to bring a refreshing perspective (perhaps controversial too) of elements previously under represented during national events like these. I completely agree with Whyld’s view that this concept will enable readers to learn more, give websites a higher value than their print equivalents – quite significant really seeing as some websites of newspapers are merely digital mirrors of their articles – and give historians richer detailing of significant news events, enforcing greater analysis of them.

Seeing these images for me really made me think about these significant events in a different light. As an audience of any kind of media; film, tv, theatre or whatever, we are seldom presented with the ‘backstage’ or behind camera environment and I think this is one of the few instances where audiences will actually benefit from having the privilege to do so.

To view Lewis’ 360 shots and to read an interesting discussion about the photos he captures click here

Defemation and David Puttnam

Lord David Puttnam

As a student writer and prospective graduate of 2013, it is crucial to be aware of various precautions and guidelines concerning defamation when producing any kind of media material. This comes particularly apparent after the recent proposed transitions of media laws and the Defamation Bill.

When first exploring the issues involved with the defamation bill and it’s dealings with freedom of expression, it was interesting to note how defamation is not necessarily committed by written words and text alone but with photographs and images used alongside harmless print (Quinn 2009 p216). This includes the notion of ‘juxtaposition’ where a seemingly innocent statement itself is presented next to visual material that is deemed inappropriate and liable for law suits.

Another factor that came to my attention is the use of the word ‘allegedly’ in print. As stated by Quinn’s (2009) misconceptions, it was noted that the use of the word as a security shield to defamation is a law myth, giving very little protection and still leaving journalists open to accusation. “Allegedly” has ‘no special protective effect – if the words are defamatory, it is only safe to use them if you are covered by a specific defense’ (Quinn 2009 p221). With just the minor slip up coming under close scrutiny, it is the range in ways in which an author can be challenged and sued for defamation that most intrigued me. Like Quinn mentions, this is in no way to instill fear in journalists or to prevent them from producing work – and so far it hasn’t for me, but it still made me question what is is to be a journalist in today’s legal climate, especially with such a recent uproar after the Leveson enquiry.

In saying this though, the defamation bill is approaching a revolution. David Puttnam is one of the figures who has contributed to this process, I mention him in particular because of his background in film and advertising and the work that has formed the figure that he is today. Some say that successful work on the Oscar winning ‘The Killing Fields’ contradicts his recent ammendments, with Ian Burrell of the independent comparing him to something of a ‘pariah’ in journalism concerning the freedom of speech in his article a couple of weeks back. However, watching clips from the 1984 movie that Puttnam produced really gave me an insight into the responsibilities and point of view of a photojournalist and war photographer. The film follows photographer Al Rockoff during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. Puttnam’s recent talks at conferences at Cardiff University were also quite inspiring and influenced my thoughts on how society view incidents in the world.

Here is a trailer to the 1984 film, I recommend you give it a watch

Boscombe Re-create

Good news this week for Boscombe as Bournemouth Council are granted a further £207,000 towards their ‘Recreate’ Project under the ‘Backing Boscombe’ campaign, enabling work to begin later this month. This figure takes the funding to a total of £415,000 after the Council’s previous successful bid as part of a European partnership.

The project will run continually until June 2015 and aims to achieve several new additions to the Boscombe community which include providing a pop-up studio and exhibition and selling opportunities in empty town centre spaces. The project also aims to deliver creative industries with business startup and support services. The area has already begun promoting the campaign through various events and last week saw Boscombe’s bistro Café Boscanova host an evening of live music where Tim Burgess played an intimate gig to audiences.

Councilor Jane Kelly, Cabinet Member for Partnerships and Regenerations said, “The funding will be fantastic news for helping creative industries to thrive in the town. Work is already well underway through the Boscombe Regeneration Partnership’s Backing Boscombe Campaign and the Recreate project will deliver in one of the campaign’s key priority areas – employment and enterprise.”

The campaign has recently come under some scrutiny though as a business owners in the area question the council’s plans. Vicki Mixer who owns This Is Vintage in Boscombe said ”Boscombe’s got such a huge drug problem and such a huge problem with homelessness and domestic violence it seems to me like the money might be better spent on curing those problems. Throwing money at the arts isn’t going to clean up Boscombe.”

The £208,000 already gained through the European Union partnership that runs Recreate which aims to promote social regeneration and prosperity in declining city and urban centres. But Miss Mixer still doubts the success of the project saying: “I think it’s good that they’re spending money on the arts, Boscombe artists shouldn’t be neglected. But I do wonder whether maybe they’re trying to do too much. Until issues like housing are addressed I don’t think you’re going to get to the bottom of the problem,” she adds.

Speaking to another employee in the area, Anna Chan, 20 is a student who works at Boscombe’s live music venue o2 Academy and thinks the project is worthwhile. “When I tell people that I live and work in Boscombe, every comment I receive is negative. I think this will be good for Boscombe seeing as it has such a bad reputation and hopefully change people’s perceptions.

Communities in the area continue to hold events for locals of the area with more live performances in Cafe Boscanova later this month.

Here are some more views expressed by the people of Boscombe and how they think the project will stand in their community

Big Brand Bully: Reporting

Patch Reporting: Wallisdown

After completing the ‘on campus’ reporting task, it was time to delve our of my comfort zone of fellow university students and staff and into an environment that I hadn’t been before, gathering information and interviews for the next news report. Initially, I saw difficulty in the idea of reporting from a small area, but this enforced me and my partner to welcome a challenge and find a relevant newsworthy story. Before this occasion, I had felt more comfortable approaching strangers on campus but I enjoyed the practice it gave me to approach people appropriately and as a reporter and explain my intentions. Establishing rapport with an interviewee was easy – a simple smile and a polite hello goes a long way! And flowed well throughout the course of all the interviews I undertook where generally, people were very willing and concordant with providing information. In one instance though, a local resident would not provide he first name or age and insisted we referred to her as “Mrs Fox”. For similar reasons to what we found during campus reporting, people were afraid to be attributed to their own quotes. It was interesting to note that members of the public are very aware about how views are portrayed in the media and how people take various meanings from the information they take in. As audiences themselves, the interviewees saw danger in their own negative comments as they have perhaps been easily influenced in the past. It was important for myself and my partner to encourage the interviewee to speak their mind but at the same time, to respect their wishes. In mentioning that though, admittedly I did break a code of conduct when interviewing the owner of Wallisdown News & Wine. Although kindly agreeing to being interviewed and to answer pretty much any of our questionss, I did not confirm whether a recording of the interview could be made on my iPhone. For me, recording the interview was a crucial part to the recording process as maintaining eye contact and rapport whilst writing down information efficiently saw the risk of me missing vital quotes or unnecessarily having to ask the interviewee to repeat their answer. In hindsight, I can aim to work on my ability to communicate my ideas and intentions to an interviewee more successfully.

Overall though, the report was a success and I feel a local and informative news story was produced, giving us a generally positive preliminary experience of local patch reporting.

Big Brand Bully

Tesco Express Wallisdown Road

Small businesses in Wallisdown are still suffering from the opening of a Tesco Express store less than a year ago.  Eight months after opening on Wallisdown Road, the Tesco Express store continues to draw customer footfall away from smaller shops leaving the area’s two main off-licenses struggling to keep their businesses going, as well as the store’s positioning providing disrupt to some local residents. Wallisdown News and Wine owner Abee says “Every day we are £350 down on sales, we put our prices down as well but people are still going for the name over us”. Tesco is not the only big ‘name’ in the area though. Aldi is situated just metres away on the same road, but this store seems to present a much smaller threat to other local businesses and does not see his store going completely out of business.“Aldi sell different brands to us so they have not really affected our sales and my store is still good for some local people though”. When the store first opened in May last year, Georgina Allen of Goadsby Estate Agents who commissioned the Wallisdown store said the Tesco store will have a ‘strong trading location’. Kirsty Linanne, 21 is a Bournemouth University student living in Wallisdown and has definitely noticed a change in her shopping habits since the opening. “We definitely go to the off licenses a lot less now. The majority of our shops are all done in Tesco”. But another resident of the area, OAP Mrs Fox says that she still prefers to walk to her local conveniences over visiting the express store. “If I want to go to Tescos, I’d rather go to the bigger store in Poole. Smaller stores will always be useful to have”. In that lies hope for independent store owners like Abee, however if eight months saw little change, it looks as though this competition is here to stay.

On Campus Reporting

Sir Michael Cobham Library, Bournemouth University

This was my first real experience of going out on the beat. With a reporting partner, our task was to ask people on campus; staff, students – particularly in their second, third or fourth year of study to collect views and opinions about the recent building additions to the campus grounds. One addition we chose to cover more closely was the shelters outside the Michael Cobham library – state of the art designed, it is a tall, glass and chrome metal structure.

Approaching people on campus was a lot easier than I first imagined and I put that down to the fact I was working in an environment that I’m very comfortable in. Everyone who myself and my partner spoke to were more than happy to answer our questions, giving their honest opinion on the subject. I understand that this perhaps was a lucky occasion  where other instances may bring more challenges with social interaction. It was relatively easy to gain the information we needed for our story and it  was great to see that there were mixed views forming and interesting debate. One issue was negative responses from interviewees were often met with difficulty in gaining their name as they felt it was safer for them to remain anonymous. I often found it challenging to ask the interviewee’s age as well as I felt I was prying too much into personal information. However this is a matter of confidence and ability to formulate a polite, approachable but film attitude that encourages the interviewee to feel comfort in answering my questions and with that, I aim to improve through practice.

Working with a partner was helpful for confidence though and our differing ideas to approaching reporting and interviewing was useful for practicing various techniques. Having a second person meant that when I had missed something from a quote, my partner had managed collect it and vice versa. We both seemed to assume a role within our team where one of us would naturally ask questions whilst the other recorded the answers in writing or on voice memo recording on an iPhone. When interviewing I found it hard to maintain a good level of eye contact with my interviewee whilst I asked questions and noted them down at the same time. I now appreciate the skill of writing in short hand a lot more.

Overall it was a successful (and enjoyable!) first experience at reporting and I look forward to tackling new challenges when gathering information in different or unknown environments. I aim to improve my interviewing technique as well as my confidence in asking the necessary questions.

Anyone and Everyone is a Journalist

Photojournalism: A tradition in revolution

Before reading about Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives by Stuart Allan and Einar Thorsen, I had never truly appreciated how the form differs so much in terms of emotional attachment to the documented work and how the words technology and disaster are more becoming the ingredients of the Citizen Journalism practice. Interestingly Allan notes in the 2009 book that ‘competing conceptions of citizen journalism revolve around crisis reporting’. This is what makes citizen journalism so distinctive that often reportage is more specific and honed by significant global incidents. The chapter made me question ourselves as humans and what is instilled in our psyche that enforces us to become more than an eyewitness, but to become and author of documented footage at a time of national or global crisis.

Allan (2009) proposes that it was the immediate aftermath of the South Asian tsunami in 2004 that was the defining moment when citizen journalism became a real feature in the journalistic landscape. Technology has been a catalyst in this reactor process of this journalistic form becoming more apparent in documenting significant events. “The remarkable range of first person accounts, camcorder footage mobile and digital camera snapshots – were all posted through personal online pages and in many instances, by holiday makers or ordinary citizens” (Allan 2009). This statement really took my attention in realising the emotion as well as the truth in the accounts that come from citizen journalism footage. However, I would go as far as disagreeing with Allan’s notion that this practice hit its prominence in society in 2004 where it could be argued that it began three years earlier on September 11th 2001. Much of the video footage, especially that of the very first moments of the the first plane flying into the North tower was filmed by two brothers  who were French filmakers making a documentary about New York’s fire service at the time. It is the spontaneity and hugely personal footage that defines the citizen journalism practice and what fascinates me, especially how it has the potential to continue expanding in this digital age.

Closer to home though and less significant on a global scale, it seems as though the powers of a smartphone and social media will continue to drive and expand this form of journalism and authorship. Earlier in the year, Jessica Wilkens, a TV Production graduate from Bournemouth University had her personal Instagram images used on ITV Meridian‘s website to document the news of the Sunseeker fire at their depot in Poole. Being at the right place at the time meant that Jessica suddenly became a photojournalist documenting the event. Within minutes of her posting the images on her Facebook profile they were placed on the website with information about the incident. It leaves me to reflect on ‘we’ as journalists and despite the lack of professional trade, there is great importance in how members of the public these days can positively contribute to how audiences read global and national incidents. Here are Jessica’s photos below featured on the ITV news website:

Sunseeker Fire – Jessica Wilkens

Journalism: An Introduction

It’s a very confusing time for journalism at the moment. The traditional system has never seen such an upheaval in change and one of the many departments vulnerable in this revolution is photojournalism. As a great admirer of photography, with years spent looking at various forms of the practice as well as trying at being an amateur photographer myself, the way in which we capture our surroundings is regularly at the forefront of my mind and photojournalism continues to be one of the aspects of the journalism trade that most interests me today. My own photography rarely reflects the content of documentary and news events but it is something that I’d like to pursue – producing photographs that can go alongside an article I’ve written. In many ways, someone in my position could potentially benefit from the digital age we currently reside in. With user generated content and blogging facilities at the fingertips of mine and many student journalist and photographers alike, it would seem that it  is possible to be a hard hitting journalist with only the tools of a smartphone and a twitter account – where did my pen and paper go? It’s not a question that hasn’t been proposed before and despite the current climate of citizen journalism, there still is a need for the craft. As long as newspapers, magazines and websites continue to produce content, then finding someone whose can produce a photo accompaniment will still be needed. The latter of those mediums though does introduce the notion that aims to defeat photojournalism as traditionalists know it and I’m currently wavering on the decision as to whether I think it’s a detrimental effect or a good one. I do think photojournalists are losing a sense of authorship though but hopefully the readjustment of the practice and its values will not completely destroy the practice.