This last Friday AnnArbor.com started, marking the end of the Ann Arbor News after its 174 year print run. I was alerted to the list of the new staff at AnnArbor.com by a blog that focuses heavily on the media industry in Michigan. Interested in looking to see how the staff looked at the much smaller news room I checked it out.
It lists 31 people in the editorial department of which maybe around half are in reporting positions while the others are editors and administrative personnel. What I was shocked to see was not a single photographer on that list.
I was expecting that there would be a reduction in the staff from the News but to remove the department entirely is alarming.
After looking over the site some more there is also a noticeable lack of credits on most photos. The few images that I found that were credited were in a photo gallery of a swim meet by apparent freelancer Mark Bialek.
Many of the stories posted so far are simply text as well. With few photos appearing in most stories, to be expected with no photo staff. This development is troubling. Like journalists, photojournalists have an important role to play in the news and society.
Losing photographers from a paper can be seen as an analogue to the loss of a metro paper itself. With out a metro paper the citizens have no credible news source to go to for local news, they'll only be able to find say state or regional. And while some may point to blogs as a replacement there is no institutional reliability for individual sites.
So with the loss of photographers come a loss of connection in the community. All you will see will be AP and freelance photo's of big news stories, no more captures of the little things that illustrate life in that community.
Who among the staff of a newspaper is most visible if not the photographer, who can be noticed anywhere by the bulk of equipment they carry with them, while a writer can pass unseen if they wish to or only be known by the main players on the local media scene.
This kind of trend, if it becomes one, could also see a rise in the use of so called citizen journalist, such as using user submitted content. This is a dangerous path to tread at the local level. Do you see news organizations ask for Joe On the Street to write their articles for them? NO because a journalist's job is to research, fact check, and write a story that is attempting to illuminate a truth.
You would never see a credible news outlet publish user submitted writing for the A1 story, this applies to photographs as well. A photojournalist enters a situation to create an image that illuminates a truth, they try to avoid posed or trite shots and try to create a visually arresting picture.
A photojournalist has to be able to empathize with their subject and not exploit people or situations for sensational images. Again a Joe on the Street has none of these pressures or codes to try and follow.
Removing these ideals from the news room is a dangerous step and one that will likely alienate a news organization from their community.
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