The crisis of photojournalism: rethinking the profession in a participatory media ecosystem

The economic crisis and the appearance of “citizen photojournalism” are the main challenges the professional practice of photojournalism has faced in recent years. The American Society of News Editors states that photojournalists (and visual journalists) are the professionals most affected by the cuts in the media ecosystem. The digital revolution has converted citizens into potential creators of images of newsworthy events and the media invite audiences to participate by sending in their photographs for publication. Photojournalists no longer have exclusive control of news images. Are they in danger of extinction? Has participatory journalism devalued the job of photojournalist? Are graphic reporters opposed to audience participation? This research tries to discover how Spanish photojournalists are reacting in this participatory media context. To attain this goal, twelve in-depth interviews were held with recognized Spanish photojournalists who develop their activity at the local, regional, national and international levels, featuring, for example, graphic reporters Manu Brabo (Pulitzer Prize, 2013) and Daniel Pozo (National Photojournalism Prize, 2012). All of them argue that quality is expensive and that few citizens can compete with the technical knowledge and work tools of a professional photojournalist. One main conclusion can be drawn from an analysis of their replies: photojournalists do not feel threatened by citizen participation in the media. In fact, they show great generosity by considering that the images contributed by audiences should be economically remunerated. In contrast, they regard media managers as the real enemie

Four Dimensions of Journalistic Convergence: A preliminary approach to current media trends at Spain

Convergence is a very polysemous concept that has been used to describe various trends in journalism that have something in common: the blurring of the limits between different media, professional skills and roles. This paper proposes to analytically structure convergence into four dimensions: integrated production, multiskilled professionals, multiplatform delivery and active audience. This analytical grid can help in exploring convergence avoiding deterministic assumptions and allowing to map its development in different media companies as an open process with diverse outcomes. A sample of 58 Spanish cases is studied using the conceptual framework. Multiplatform delivery is the most popular convergence strategy, and in any given dimension developments tend not to radically change established professional routines and values. Integration and multiskilling dimensions seem to be closely related and mainly developed in local and regional media with small staffs. Delivery and audience strategies are more complex in national media

Spain. Multimedia Richness and Variety of Business Models

'El País', 'El Mundo' and 'La Vanguardia' are three of the most important newspapers in Spain. They are national leaders in the print as well as the online market for general information paid-for newspapers. Judging from the front pages of these newspapers on 8 October 2003, all of them update frequently the news on the Web, and at the same time, keep a close reference between their print and online content. All three online newspapers also paid special attention to hypertextual, interactive and multimedia content in 2003, and increasingly do so since. This might be considered one distinctive feature of the Spanish online press. Another peculiarity of the main Spanish online newspapers has been the coexistence of very different business models, from totally free to full payment models, even though these newspapers have very similar news offers

Spain. Multimedia Richness and Variety of Business Models

'El País', 'El Mundo' and 'La Vanguardia' are three of the most important newspapers in Spain. They are national leaders in the print as well as the online market for general information paid-for newspapers. Judging from the front pages of these newspapers on 8 October 2003, all of them update frequently the news on the Web, and at the same time, keep a close reference between their print and online content. All three online newspapers also paid special attention to hypertextual, interactive and multimedia content in 2003, and increasingly do so since. This might be considered one distinctive feature of the Spanish online press. Another peculiarity of the main Spanish online newspapers has been the coexistence of very different business models, from totally free to full payment models, even though these newspapers have very similar news offers