Flickr Project

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23825962@N08/sets/72157603900636390/

I found the Flickr assignment very interesting. My group decided to take different pictures down Kirkwood Av. in the Bloomington town. Instead of making a huge story line, we did a slideshow of comparisons between the old and new Kirkwood. This meant that we had some preparation to do before we went out and took the pictures. We searched online for old Kirkwood, while it was under construction and found great pictures. These pictures showed Kirkwood in the last few years while it was under full construction and then renovated. I don't think Flickr was difficult to use at all. I thought it was very basic, easy to use to upload photos. I am glad we got to do this project because it was a great hands on experience to understanding the media.

I think that Flickr is a great way to be an effective tool in creating user generated content and sharing it with others. Flickr can determine the photos that people look at then act accordingly. The article Flickr Changes Lives, Launches Photog Careers, by Jen Maderazo shows how Flickr is being used so widely based. Maderazo said, "Thousands of images are uploaded from around the world every minute, and refreshing the homepage gives you access to random photos you might never have found through a search." This lets people share as much content of anything by using Flickr while sending messages out to different people. I do belieive this is a great way to create content and share it among millions of people. After personally taking a tour on Flickr, I noticed that this can have a large impact on people. You can search anything you want and thousands of peoples slideshows and photos come up. Flickr can be looked at as a personal news source as well as a huge art museum online.

In the article, How Flickr single-handedly invented collaborative photojournalism describes the impact of Flickr. I believe that this can be used as a citizen photojournalism tool for a plethora of reasons. It has been described that photojournalism is basically another example of news reporting but with the internet. It isn't in an organized manner or collecting certain people. Its very diverse and catch the attention of people that have particular interests. This tool is great to use because it is not focusing on one event rather, millions of events while people get to have input with their own personal opinion. For example, People even rate the importance of the photos making Flickr a news forum where everyone has a say in what they think is important news to look at. According to the article Flickr is thriving with news and getting peoples attention. The fact that it's free even makes it a more useful tool to attend to. Flickr is a source of photojournalism, it is free and anyone can post or view stories. Flickr is a tool that has recently become extremely popular and each day thriving to a higher level. Soon enough, Flickr is going to be used in combination to the media as well as politically. I look at Flickr as a reliable news source. For example, Fox and CNN news can be biased at times therefore, so can Flickr. Yet, in the end it is all news to you. Flickr can have a larger impact because you can search what you are interested in and find out about it. It was stated that, "The slideshows that people make in Flickr can be shared with anyone to send any messages or points In the article, then rates each photo according to "interestingness", a quality that is based on the ways in which other users interact with that photo." This lets the users actively engage in photography community.