I Used to Have a Clever(ish) Title, But I'm So Not In The Mood Right Now

“Canon’s EOS D60 is the equivalent of Nikon’s D100; it costs around $2,200. Both the EOS D60 and the D100 easily produce quality 16 (yen sign?) 20 prints.”
Two questions come to mind when I read this paragraph. First: “Huh?” Second: “Who is the target audience for this piece? Because it’s definitely not me.”
Cheryl Diaz Meyer fills her article with industry talk like this that makes it hard for a novice like me to figure out what in the world she is talking about. But she also includes enough discussion from photo editors to make a cogent point about the future of convergence in digital media, digital photojournalism in particular. I think.
Much like the people who say that the influx of blogs does not signal the death knell for print journalism, Meyer argues that the rise of digital photojournalism does not mean the end of established photojournalism, just the need for the diversification of its practitioners.
She quotes David Leeson, a Dallas Morning News staff photographer as saying that cameras will soon be replaced by digital video cameras that have the versatility of function to capture moving images and provide a “frame grab” of high-enough resolution to be used for still photographs. The photojournalists of the future will have to have an eye for what works well on moving film, as well as framing certain shots so they will make effective still pictures.
But wait, there’s more. Meyer, who worked as a photojournalist in Afghanistan, also provides her first-hand knowledge as to the importance of satellite phones and other tools of transmission. The photojournalist of the future not only has to have the wherewithal to adapt to a changing medium when covering something in a foreign country, but must be on top of all of the technology needed to get his pictures from Tikrit to the Punxsutawney Spirit. Meyer listed 15 things that she absolutely needed to have to do her job in Afghanistan. I’m a guy who’s never used more than a cell phone, laptop, pen, notebook and tape recorder. This is a bit intimidating.
I agree with the point Ken Geiger makes about what the priorities of a photojournalist should be. He worries that the overwhelming amount of responsibility and equipment involved could detract from the quality of the content.
“The level we expect our photographers to perform precludes them from multitasking,” he says.
Meyer provides arguments from both the “full steam ahead” and “hold on just a sec” camps and notes that in a field as young as digital photojournalism, it’s hard to tell what the future will hold.