it's funny how you go to bed buzzed and all pissed off, but youre not sure about what, and then you wake up in the morning and everything just seems out of context.
the blooger in new brunswick who was arrested at a protest last year for no good reason was aquitted today of any charges. good. far be it for me to cast judgement on our police officers, but simply arresting someone because they look "scruffy" should be grounds for dismissal, or if not dismissal then an unpaid leave of absence.
For some reason I feel like going on a semi intelligently based rant. im not providing any supporting documentation though, this is based simply off personal opinion as a Communication student facing the lat week of his undergrad down.
in my opinion digital technologies are blurring the lines of what can be thought of as professionalism in any field dealing with the media. Can you really tell the difference between a professional photographer and someone with a nice nikon who goes and takes pictures on weekends for a hobby? I doubt that 99% of people could. Professional photography is as artful as amateur photography.
This lies along the same vein as journalists. Many classes i've taken point to a larger number of people growing to distrust what they read in the newspaper or see on tv and turning to blogs and the internet for better information. obviously most bloggers arent professional journalists. Charles LeBlanc is not a professional journalist. he is a guy with a camera who takes pictures and writes about what he sees going on, yet the RCMP saw fit to use his blog as a source for information. most certainly blogs are skewing the reality of what it means to be a professional journalist. even major news hubs have turned to blogging to provide content because of the onrush of people trusting blog content more than television content.
Albeit, the majority of blogs and digital technology provides information for alternative media sources, but who's to say that these people dont do as good a job or better than those with the professional accreditation? Were i to think of an example it would be a few years ago when the teachers in Alberta went on strike. I went with my mom to one of the rallies at the Legislature and took my camera along. at the time I was using an old Canon AE-1, so it looked like I worked for a newspaper. it was interesting to see the kind of reaction I was given simply by holding a piece of machinery that could capture images. people were ushering me to the front of the crowd to get the best possible shots of the strike leaders speaking. I wonder if they're reactions would have been different if theyd known I was just a student there to take pictures for fun?
After the speaking was over I just sort of wandered around, yet more of the same greeted me. People see a way for them to be recognized and they jump for it. Of course what greeted everyone in the newspaper the next day was pittance compared to what I had taken pictures of. of course at the time I had no idea what blogs were, nor was i aware of any electronice media whereI could put these pictures up for public scrutiny.
fast forward to now. I have a blog. if the same kind of thing happened today, woudl my journalistic entreaties be treated as a worthy source of information? I should think so. I dont say this in any egotistical way, but i sincerely believe that any profession that deals with electronic media is going to suffer an identity crisis in the near future. anyone with a camera can be a photographer now, anyone with a blog a journalist, anyone with a decent set of speakers and garage band can make a professional sounding cd. digital professional is fracturing the current technological atmosphere into millions of little pieces, all comprised of normal people who have taken an interest in something and arent afraid to share it.
there. theres my morning rant.
crayons taste like purple.
the blooger in new brunswick who was arrested at a protest last year for no good reason was aquitted today of any charges. good. far be it for me to cast judgement on our police officers, but simply arresting someone because they look "scruffy" should be grounds for dismissal, or if not dismissal then an unpaid leave of absence.
For some reason I feel like going on a semi intelligently based rant. im not providing any supporting documentation though, this is based simply off personal opinion as a Communication student facing the lat week of his undergrad down.
in my opinion digital technologies are blurring the lines of what can be thought of as professionalism in any field dealing with the media. Can you really tell the difference between a professional photographer and someone with a nice nikon who goes and takes pictures on weekends for a hobby? I doubt that 99% of people could. Professional photography is as artful as amateur photography.
This lies along the same vein as journalists. Many classes i've taken point to a larger number of people growing to distrust what they read in the newspaper or see on tv and turning to blogs and the internet for better information. obviously most bloggers arent professional journalists. Charles LeBlanc is not a professional journalist. he is a guy with a camera who takes pictures and writes about what he sees going on, yet the RCMP saw fit to use his blog as a source for information. most certainly blogs are skewing the reality of what it means to be a professional journalist. even major news hubs have turned to blogging to provide content because of the onrush of people trusting blog content more than television content.
Albeit, the majority of blogs and digital technology provides information for alternative media sources, but who's to say that these people dont do as good a job or better than those with the professional accreditation? Were i to think of an example it would be a few years ago when the teachers in Alberta went on strike. I went with my mom to one of the rallies at the Legislature and took my camera along. at the time I was using an old Canon AE-1, so it looked like I worked for a newspaper. it was interesting to see the kind of reaction I was given simply by holding a piece of machinery that could capture images. people were ushering me to the front of the crowd to get the best possible shots of the strike leaders speaking. I wonder if they're reactions would have been different if theyd known I was just a student there to take pictures for fun?
After the speaking was over I just sort of wandered around, yet more of the same greeted me. People see a way for them to be recognized and they jump for it. Of course what greeted everyone in the newspaper the next day was pittance compared to what I had taken pictures of. of course at the time I had no idea what blogs were, nor was i aware of any electronice media whereI could put these pictures up for public scrutiny.
fast forward to now. I have a blog. if the same kind of thing happened today, woudl my journalistic entreaties be treated as a worthy source of information? I should think so. I dont say this in any egotistical way, but i sincerely believe that any profession that deals with electronic media is going to suffer an identity crisis in the near future. anyone with a camera can be a photographer now, anyone with a blog a journalist, anyone with a decent set of speakers and garage band can make a professional sounding cd. digital professional is fracturing the current technological atmosphere into millions of little pieces, all comprised of normal people who have taken an interest in something and arent afraid to share it.
there. theres my morning rant.
crayons taste like purple.
its too early to be intelligent
i took over the world at 11:01 AM
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