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The Nine-Minute Argument For Staff Photographers
3 February 2015
Following the firing of what was left of the Sport Illustrated photography staff, the National Press Photographers Association has released a nine-minute video attesting to the value of professional photojournalism.
The Value of Professional Photojournalism is the second in a four-part weekly series by NPPA. It follows and refers to the findings of the first part, which discussed new research that uses eye-tracking studies to explore what makes photographs worth publishing.
Appearing in the video are:
- J. Keith Moyer, former publisher, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and now a media consultant
- John Rumback, publisher of the Dubois County Herald
- Marty Petty, former publisher of the Tampa Bay Times
- Sara Quin, affiliate faculty member of the Poynter Institute
The video was coordinated by Alex Garcia, shot by videographer Mark Anderson and produced by Gail Brown Hudson.
Running length is nine minutes but the three word summation, expressed in the video by Petty, is simply, "Readers aren't stupid."
They know and appreciate quality. Quality begets credibility. And yet photojournalists are losing staff positions at an alarming rate.
But as executive producer Alex Garcia explained in a blog entry about the project:
When compared to user-generated content, readers showed an overwhelming preference for the sense of the story in the images made by professionals. Moreover, readers coud easily tell the difference between the work of professionals and those of amateurs, 90 percent of the time.
No, readers aren't stupid.