Digital photography has changed the nature of photojournalism inspiring new creative practices that challenge conventional standards of storytelling and image truth. At the same time, the ease with which images can be digitally altered and shared across social media platforms, often stripped of context and attribution, has led to a crisis of credibility and confusion over standards.
Add to the equation, an energized, seeing public, not to mention corporate and political actors, unrestrained by ethical conventions, now flooding global image streams with millions of news like images, unverified, but in effective competition with professional photojournalists and documentarians for attention in the media space.
What role does the professional photojournalist play in this new media landscape? What are the ethical standards of commissioning, producing and disseminating photojournalistic images across global platforms? In the age of social media and democratization of production how should subjects play a role in framing and directing their own stories?
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and photographers Nina Berman and Gary Knight will host a one day conference Image Truth/StoryTruth on Friday, October 16th, bringing together industry professionals, academics, cultural theorists and historians to discuss the changing nature of photojournalism and documentary photography in the digital age.