media

UK speed camera

Yes, the UK Speed Camera Icon Really Is a 19th-Century Camera

Last week, a Twitter user took to the social media platform to share something they learned about the speed camera sign, saying that it isn't a bellows camera, as they had thought "for years," but rather that the symbol depicts a "boring CCTV camera pointing towards the viewer."

Photojournalism: A Complete Guide

Photojournalism tells a story not in thousands of words but in a series of photos. Just as a written news story presents a complete picture by providing an overview, a thesis, subjects, and various points of view, photojournalism achieves this same objective pictographically.

The Business of Deepfakes, Cheapfakes, and Misleading Manipulated Media

Some speculate that overall fake news could cost the economy $39 billion a year. Quite a market to grab for a savvy tech startup, even at 1%! But while fake news and in particular deep fakes have been accused of wreaking havoc on minds and economy, there is surprisingly only a minimal amount of companies offering tools to combat them.

How the National Media Turned Me Into a Trump Supporter

This is a clickbait headline that is totally “true.” Quotation marks intentional. I readily admit to being an old white guy, but I do object to becoming a poster boy for the old lonely white guy Trump supporter without friends.

Should the Media Use Official Portraits When Reporting Misconduct?

Two police officers in Georgia were fired after videos showing them brutally beating a motorist spread like wildfire on social media. A criminal investigation has been initiated over their conduct, and photos of the two officers have emerged in the media.

The Ethics of Photojournalism

From time to time when I read about Street Photography, I hear the opinion that street photographers exploit people on the street by taking their picture without asking. This opinion raises some valid questions about the ethics of Street Photography, but also shows the double standards we follow in the media.

A Convicted Felon and His Portrayal in the Media

In March, ex-Stanford student athlete Brock Allen Turner was convicted of three felony counts: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Last week he was sentenced to six months in jail.

Photos Do Lie: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Daily Mail

In 1958, Disney released the documentary White Wilderness. You’ve probably never heard of it, but you likely have heard the myth that lemmings commit mass suicide. The truth is more complex: the narrator didn’t actually say the lemmings were committing suicide, and in 1982, a CBC TV show revealed that the scenes weren’t shot where the film said they were and the lemmings were pushed over the edge by the crew. What you saw on-screen was fiction, but, if it weren’t for this film, would you have heard of a lemming?

Review: The Carl Zeiss VR ONE is a Headset Best Left on The Shelf

The promise of truly immersive, virtual reality headsets for the masses is just around the corner with Oculus Rift launching its consumer version in 2016. In the meantime, a number of alternative solutions have been introduced including Google’s Cardboard, Samsung’s GearVR, and Carl Zeiss’ VR ONE headset. We’ll be taking a look at the latter to see if one of the world’s greatest optics manufacturers has what it takes to jump into the virtual reality space.

Palace Writes Open Letter to Media About Paparazzi Harassment of Prince George

A new letter published by Kensington Palace in the United Kingdom sheds light at the extreme measures paparazzi are taking in order to capture valuable photos of Prince George, the son of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Prince George was born in 2013 and has endured the prying lenses of paparazzi photographers since day one.

The letter was addressed to “leaders of media industry bodies and standards organizations" around the world. It argues that tactics being used to photograph Prince George are becoming “increasingly dangerous” and have become distressing.

How To Protect Your Rights As a Photographer in the Modern World

In today’s society, it seems that no knowledge is more prudent for photographers to learn than the rights of themselves and their photographs. Here at PetaPixel, we wanted to create a comprehensive one-stop guide to your constitutional rights to capture the world around you and what you are permitted to do with those photos.

Embarrassed to Photograph Ferguson

I’ve spent the past week down in Ferguson, MO covering the protests and police response. What I never expect was to find myself embarrassed to photograph but it happened on Tuesday 8/19/14.

Photog Awarded $200K for Unlawful Arrest, Prompts the Creation of an Officer Training Program

Three years ago, in late July of 2011, freelance news photographer Philip Datz was arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department in New York for “obstruction of governmental administration” because he was recording the conclusion of a police chase from a safe distance away.

Last we told you about the case, the police were dropping the charges and officers were going to have to go through "media relations training," but the case has gone much further than that in the intervening three years.

Memory Cards vs Kalashnikovs: On Trying to Cover the News in Crimea Right Now

As Jim Morrison once said, "Whoever controls the media, controls the mind." There is power in an image, and the press often become persona non grata in a conflict that is socially and politically charged. This is what is happening in Crimea right now, as photojournalists Kilian Fichou and Laetitia Peron revealed in a recent article on the AFP Correspondent blog.

Viral Photos from the Navy Yard Tragedy Don’t Show a Shooting Victim

Update: The Associated Press has re-released the photos, and is now confirming that they DO show scenes related to the Navy Yard shooting.

A widely distributed image used to illustrate stories about Monday's horrific shooting at the Washington Navy Yard likely had nothing to do with the tragedy, offering a cautious tale of modern media overreach.

The Asiana Airlines Flight 214 Crash Site, As Photographed by the NTSB

The media has been dominated by coverage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214's crash landing in San Francisco this past weekend. What's interesting is that some of the most powerful photographs showing the aftermath were not captured by professional photojournalists, but rather those with the most access to the site: US government employees.

Photos Showing News Makers Thrusting Individuals Into the National Spotlight

In the early 2000s, NYC-based photographer Christopher Dawson noticed that even though major events were going on around the world, major news organizations in the US often remained fixed on stories involving the rich and famous. Due to the fact that stories involving celebrities often result in more eyeballs and advertising dollars, things like Britney Spears' custody hearing or Michael Jackson's molestation trial would attract a disproportionate amount of attention.

Starting 2004, Dawson began to create a series of photos with the camera pointed at the newsmakers rather than the stories. The ongoing project is titled "Coverage."

Media Publishes Wrong Facebook Photo in Wake of Tragic Shooting

Earlier today, unimaginable tragedy struck the town of Newtown, Connecticut as 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School were gunned down by a man we now know to be 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

As details poured in over the course of the day, Lanza -- who took his own life at the scene -- was mistakenly identified by police as Ryan, his older brother. Because of this mistake, news organizations nationwide began searching for pictures of a Ryan Lanza matching the description of the gunman, subsequently stumbling upon and disseminating the wrong picture for several hours.

Photos of Children Reenacting the Things They See in the News

Children often incorporate things they see in the news and in movies into their playtimes, whether it's soldiers engaged in battle or a superhero saving innocent people. Canadian photographer Jonathan Hobin has a project titled In The Playroom that offers a darker and more troubling look at this truth. The photographs show children at play, except instead of more traditional imaginary ideas, they're reenacting the horrors of things seen in the news -- things like 9/11, Jonestown, and the death of Princess Diana.