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01 Dec 2011

CNN: We don't need photojournalists!

Last month, CNN quietly announced it was laying off "a dozen" photojournalists across its US bureaus as, it says, the network can now rely on user-generated content thanks to new consumer technologies

Author:

Olivier Laurent

Tags:

Media, Photojournalism

Jack Womack, CNN's senior vice president of domestic news operations, wrote to his staff last month to announce the cuts. In his email, shared by Associated Press and Reuters, he says:

For the past three years, we have been analyzing our work process across Image + Sound, both in the field and in our editing and production areas.

We also spent a great deal of time analyzing how we utilize and deploy photojournalists across all of our locations in the U.S. We looked at the evolution of daytime and evening line-ups. We analyzed how stories are assigned and more importantly the ratio of stories assigned that actually make it on to our networks or platforms. We know that we have to sharpen our focus on stories assigned to ensure that this great work gets on air. We looked at production demands, down time, and international deployments. We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN iReporters and of course our affiliate contributions in breaking news. Consumer and pro-sumer technologies are simpler and more accessible. Small cameras are now high broadcast quality. More of this technology is in the hands of more people. After completing this analysis, CNN determined that some photojournalists will be departing the company.

While CNN "cannot begin to thank these individuals enough for their service, and that "they leave with our respect," it's hard to discern where this "respect" actually is. Here, we have a network saying that they don't need professional photographers because citizen journalists can do a good-enough job thanks to new technologies.

Reuters reports that "nearly a dozen photojournalists were given pink slips -- four in New York, five in Washington, one in Miami, and one in Los Angeles."

But, I guess, we shouldn't be surprised. In the hours following the Haiti earthquake, CNN took to Twitter to use, without permission, Daniel Morel's images of the devastation. The same images that later won a World Press Photo prize, and landed CNN, as well as Agence France-Presse, Getty Images, CBS and ABC, into legal trouble.

Enough said.

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Comments

Quick question

You've quoted them to say "We don't need photojournalists!" - just looking for where they actually say that?

Posted by: T.T Derby on 01 Dec 2011 at 14:17

eyes wide shut

if its quantity instead of quality of submitted material, that they are chasing. for no doubt less money paid to contributors and less overheads, then they are on the right track. If they think they can maintain CNN's high visual content standards doing this, then IMO they are mistaken.

Posted by: G.R. Lumley on 02 Dec 2011 at 05:14

Differentiation

If they rely on submissions/images from consumers through social media, how will they differentiate their news coverage from the "on the ground" accounts people can get from the same social media sites?

Surely, the strength of old media titles now is that they can offer high quality analysis and comment. Just as journalists offer the writing for this, photojournalists offer the imagery.

If you look at publications such as The Guardian and The Times, they place a special emphasis on professional photography, particularly photojournalism. And they've done well with Eye Witness and Spectrum respectively.

Why is CNN's approach to stop playing to their strengths and start featuring content that you can get anywhere else on the internet?

Also, will CNN observe proper licensing procedures when using content found on social media? Experience with a number of news outlets shows probably not.

So, CNN makes a move towards run-of-the-mill content that's likely to be in breach of copyright...

Posted by: Mark on 02 Dec 2011 at 13:18

German TV station wants to cut videojournalists

I just read on newsroom.de that a german tv station wants to follow cnn and cut jobs in the editorial department, because the youtube and twitter pics get directly into the system. The article can be found here (in german): http://www.newsroom.de/news/detail/$GUKWFPEMJPJN/weil_brgerreporter_immer_besser_werden_cnn_entlsst_mitarbeiter_-_deutscher_sender_will_beispiel_folgen , it is full of interesting facts about cnn. The author even talked with Andre Zalbertus. He is already a legend and introduced videojournalism to germany. Newsroom.de is a reliable source, as it is the number one place for media news in germany, austria and switzerland.

Posted by: Friedrich on 22 Dec 2011 at 11:47

IReport

I'm curious about what kind of agreement CNN has with the people who upload content in CNN IReport. They are pushing hard this kind of citizen journalism, just take a look http://ireport.cnn.com/

Posted by: Gianmarco on 05 Jan 2012 at 14:29

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