the difference is the quality and the fact that from my understanding Citizen has an agreement that any news station can us it free of charge with credit to citizen. The people sending in videos most times think they will get paid out of it and never will.
Crime App 'Citizen' Lays Off Dozens of Employees
- Thread starter blantonl
- Start date
AB5ID
Member
Just uninstalled Citizen, it's dying a slow death around here.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 5,638
Times have changed with smartphones and videos on public platforms. When I first started driving in the late sixties I had been listening to police calls on tunable monitors for a number of years since I was a young kid, I'm retired now from a large daily where I was an editor.
I had my own dark room at age 16 and could make up black and white 8x10s that could be used by the local newspapers as soon as I got the print to them.
They weren't looking just for the picture, pix worth a lot more if you have the story too and I always did, had all the details of what happened, talked to witnesses, talked to the cops who were more cooperative with someone who actually was affiliated as a stringer with a paper, with credentials, if I had a cop in the picture which of course, I always did, I spelled their name right in the paper. I would get the phone number of the cop or fire chief who was handling the report.
There were rules to follow, protocols, and yes, I got paid.
Bottom line, you deal right with the newspaper or the the TV station directly, only sell them first rights for their affiliates use only
Just to add to follow up on some of the comments here, real professional news photographers video or still get the photos or video long before anyone knows they're there. I always did that.
I would stick my credentials in my top pocket stand with a crowd with a long lens and get everything I need photo-wise, when I was sure I had it then I showed up and was seen.. then I talked to the cops and witnesses.
You never knew when there was going to be some yahoo wannabe stomping all over shell casings and arguing with the cops about their first amendment rights LOL.
I had my own dark room at age 16 and could make up black and white 8x10s that could be used by the local newspapers as soon as I got the print to them.
They weren't looking just for the picture, pix worth a lot more if you have the story too and I always did, had all the details of what happened, talked to witnesses, talked to the cops who were more cooperative with someone who actually was affiliated as a stringer with a paper, with credentials, if I had a cop in the picture which of course, I always did, I spelled their name right in the paper. I would get the phone number of the cop or fire chief who was handling the report.
There were rules to follow, protocols, and yes, I got paid.
Bottom line, you deal right with the newspaper or the the TV station directly, only sell them first rights for their affiliates use only
Just to add to follow up on some of the comments here, real professional news photographers video or still get the photos or video long before anyone knows they're there. I always did that.
I would stick my credentials in my top pocket stand with a crowd with a long lens and get everything I need photo-wise, when I was sure I had it then I showed up and was seen.. then I talked to the cops and witnesses.
You never knew when there was going to be some yahoo wannabe stomping all over shell casings and arguing with the cops about their first amendment rights LOL.
Last edited:
Ya got to love the part where a $30,000 bounty is placed on someone's head and then people are told to hunt them down? This is why I hate this new technology. Were talking possibly harming someone or sending them to jail and destroying their life. In this day and age of media being the judge, jury, and executioner before the person even steps foot into a court room, peoples lives can be destroyed very badly and the ones who take part in it don't even care, they just move on to the next person. Things need to be kept simple. If you have an emergency, call 911. If you have to alert the public? There are more than enough Facebook community groups in every town across the country. There is even one in the little one horse town I live in. And above all, people need to go back to the days of innocent until proven guilty, IN A COURT!!
So funny that you cite Facebook as a solution to anything. Are you not paying attention?
I just gave an example. Quite honestly, I'm not a snitch not do I care to alert my neighbors everytime a cop turns his lights on. I just happen to know how everyone alerts each other. I figure they can find some other way. Personally I can't stand Facebook. I use it only on my computer only for radio related stuff because unfortunately that's where everyone is.
No, that is not where "everyone" is. Following the crowd rarely gets you to a good place. Dare to march to your own drum.
When it comes to radio, it is unfortunate, that is where up to date information gets posted for GMRS and the VHF/UHF Ham bands. IF that was where everyone wasn't, I would not have even created a Facebook page. Like I said, I do not like Facebook. I use it for certain purposes only related to radio. I am on many sites and very few of them have anyone sharing good information, unless of course you think I should get on the Citizen App and hang out with people? I do march to my own drum for the most part, but when I need info on things, I am not going to sit on a dead website and complain I cant find what I am looking for. Either way, I get what I need without following the crowd. There is following the crowd and then there is using the crowd. Besides, If I followed the crowd, I would have an extra class Ham license, own 10 HF radios with a tower and 50 antennas spread out all over the place and I would be king of the radio doing contesting with all the other Hams. If I followed the crowd, I would have a college degree. Instead, I am a regular old joe with a technician class Ham license and a GMRS license that just likes talking on the radio and listening to my scanner.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2007
- Messages
- 5,638
So at one time, a long time ago, TV stations and newspapers did not report news unless it was confirmed three different ways, remember the Washington compost. They wouldn't print the story on Nixon until it was confirmed by three different sources, although they lied...
That was on the sources, not the Washington Post. They did what they were supposed to do, now their confirming source is the guy in the next desk sitting next to them in The Newsroom after the reporter made up the information. Another reporter confirmed it. A lot has changed...
A good example is this afternoon we were given reports that clear skies and the heat wave would let up. Clear sailing for the weekend LOL.
NOAA weather alert just went off for heavy thunderstorms and flooding. So much for the news this afternoon. Get it?🙃
That was on the sources, not the Washington Post. They did what they were supposed to do, now their confirming source is the guy in the next desk sitting next to them in The Newsroom after the reporter made up the information. Another reporter confirmed it. A lot has changed...
A good example is this afternoon we were given reports that clear skies and the heat wave would let up. Clear sailing for the weekend LOL.
NOAA weather alert just went off for heavy thunderstorms and flooding. So much for the news this afternoon. Get it?🙃