E-Media Tidbits

"The images out of Abu Ghraib might become the ones we remember from this war, and if that happens it will be the first time in history that iconic images will have been taken by amateurs." So says Peter Howe, a photojournalist and the former picture editor of the New York Times Magazine and Life, in a Salon.com article by Farhad Manjoo. Yesterday's beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg by Al Qaeda terrorists is just the latest example of how digital cameras, photo phones, and the Internet are revolutionizing news photography, Manjoo points out. The video of Berg's beheading is making the rounds on the Internet now. And of course, the Abu Ghraib images were taken by soldiers, and before that the flag-draped coffins photos by a civilian contractor.

Interesting, isn't it, that professional news photographers have been swept aside by amateurs in the last few weeks? It doesn't mean that photojournalists are less important, only that right now they are being stymied in their war coverage by a U.S. administration that's trying harder than most to keep war images away from the electorate. But such government attempts at control are futile against an army (pun intended) of citizen (and even rank-and-file soldier) news photographers who have the ability with a single e-mail to set off an international media firestorm.