‘Suicide Photographers’

Alan Reiter in his weblog today critiques Sean Savage‘s 5 reasons why camera phones are a supremely significant media technology. Reiter makes an interesting point about photo phones and journalism, suggesting that they can be useful in getting images out of extremely dangerous situations.

Reiter writes: “In dangerous situations, the ability to immediately post a photo — whether you are in danger from the weather, a war, the police, etc. — can be critical to getting out the news. Take a photo of secret police brutality, send the photo to the web … and then you get killed. Suicide photographers. Sure I’m being melodramatic. But war photographers risk their lives every day. Ordinary citizens with camera phones will risk their lives to document brutality, criminal activity, etc. Indeed, I am waiting (though not eagerly) to read the first report of a citizen killed because he/she was taking an important photo — whether it would be of a bank robber, a political protest, a police action, etc.” He’s so right.