{"id":1466,"date":"2010-03-31T10:08:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T16:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1466"},"modified":"2010-03-31T17:33:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T23:33:41","slug":"photographer-journalist-is-it-a-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1466","title":{"rendered":"Photographer, Journalist: Is it a Career?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York Times<\/em> media-section piece suggests that “professional photographer” is a poor career choice if you are just starting out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since graduation in 2008, Mr. Eich, 23, has gotten magazine assignments here and there, but \u201cindustrywide, the sentiment now, at least among my peers, is that this is not a sustainable thing,\u201d he said. He has been supplementing magazine work with advertising and art projects, in a pastiche of ways to earn a living. \u201cThere was a path, and there isn\u2019t anymore.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Reporter” is not much better, yet, having been both a reporter and a photojournalist (at small papers and magazines where the roles were combined), I don’t necessarily buy all this brave new world talk about bloggers replacing reporters.<\/p>\n

Usually, reporters report while bloggers comment, criticize, amplifly, and fling feces.<\/p>\n

How many bloggers will hang out at the courthouse, cover the interesting trials, get to know assistant district attorneys and local lawyers, and learn which court clerk will drop nuggets of information and which clerk is just a bureaucratic jerk?<\/p>\n

And do that week after week for free or for a few bucks from Google Adsense?<\/p>\n

My department head used to teach a class called “Careers for English Majors,” and once per semester he would ask me to be the guest speaker and talk about being a writer.<\/p>\n

Speaking of my days in journalism, I would always explain that I did not<\/em> go to journalism school but entered through the side door, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Sometimes today journalism school must seem like buggy whip-maker school. An awful lot of J-school grads know (or knew) how to put out the school paper, but knew little about science, economics, history, religion, or whatever, because instead of taking classes in those fields they were taking “News Writing II” and “Principles of Public Relations.”<\/p>\n

Maybe now everyone will come in the side door?<\/p>\n

But people still need images and organized news. Otherwise, the powerful will still try to run us over. But how to organize, locate, and present it all?<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Suzie Bright is thinking about the same things (we all are) but has a lot more to say than I do<\/a>. (Note: her blog is probably NSFW in many environments.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New York Times media-section piece suggests that “professional photographer” is a poor career choice if you are just starting out. Since graduation in 2008, Mr. Eich, 23, has gotten magazine assignments here and there, but \u201cindustrywide, the sentiment now, at least among my peers, is that this is not a sustainable thing,\u201d he said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[95,12],"class_list":["post-1466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-journalism","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-nE","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8830,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8830","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":0},"title":"Mystery Deity in Hitler Hex","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Today the Internet served me \"Putting a Hex on Hitler: LIFE Goes to a 'Black Magic' Party.\" For background, you have to know that the pictorial weekly news magazine Life had a regular feature called \"Life Goes to a Party\" \u2014 and many of these parties featured big-name musicians \u2014\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"England\"","block_context":{"text":"England","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=england"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/incantation-in-progress.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=541","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":1},"title":"The right HalloweenIt's the season\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The right HalloweenIt's the season when people celebrate Halloween for all reasons, even the bloggers of \"The Cotillion,\" a sort of \"Carnival of . . .\" for social conservative female bloggers.They have assembled a tasty selection of vintage artistic and cinematic images and an analysis of the Salem witch trials\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3698,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3698","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":2},"title":"Learning about Pagans for the Purpose of Converting Them","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month, I answered some questions from a reporter for a Christian news site. He had such response that now he is on the Pagan beat. So I give you \"A Peek at Modern Paganism, Part One\" and \"Part Two.\" Soon \u2014 wait for it \u2014 you meet that reliable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=65","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":3},"title":"It Was Fated","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 11, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"After letting my subscription lapse about three years ago, I have re-subscribed to Fate magazine. I have to admit I missed it: the UFO sightings, the \"True Mystic Experiences\" from people who could not possibly be making it all up (this is not the Penthouse Forum, folks). And the wacky\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":245,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=245","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":4},"title":"More on the chaplaincy issue\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"More on the chaplaincy issue Terry Mattingly of the GetReligion blog has two entries (first and second on the issues raised by the Contra Costa Times that I referenced yesterday. So if this is the case, what set of universal standards or laws might U.S. military officials cite in order\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1135,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1135","url_meta":{"origin":1466,"position":5},"title":"Cattle Mutilations: D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu All Over Again","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I almost hate to write this post. It's d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again.Such was my reaction to a recent headline in the Pueblo Chieftain: \"Two More Cows Found Mutilated.\"Eastern Colorado was central to the \"cattle mutilation\" meme of the 1970s. I was younger and wishing that one day I would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1466"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1468,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466\/revisions\/1468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}