Photojournalism Today

In today’s world where we can share photos of what is going on in our lives with anyone at a moment’s notice through the use of our smartphones and social media accounts, what role does photojournalism really play in our society? Is it becoming obsolete as a career?

With the release of social media websites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, along with the invention of smartphones with fairly featured cameras in their own rights, many people feel that the role of typical photojournalists in spreading news has virtually vanished.

Now any witness to an event can simply snap a photo with their smartphone and post it to social media almost instantly, thus making it much easier to share news with the world, while most photojournalists use DSLR cameras, which do not allow instant sharing of the photos, thus forcing the photographer to wait until he or she has access to a computer to share their photos with the world.

And possibly even more important is the nature of the photos being shared on social media-the people taking these photos and sharing them online don’t have to wait to write an article about the photo or let their publisher see them first-they can simply post them instantly and say whatever they want about the event depicted in their photo.

Technology like this that allows anyone to become a type of journalist is the reason why many people believe that the roles of traditional journalists will soon vanish and be replaced by normal, everyday people.

Meetings Scheduled To Decide on Future of District

Over the last several years, Greater Johnstown Middle School building has suffered from large amounts of damage and wear and tear from its many years of use.

Now, GJSD has scheduled three meetings with community stakeholders in the school district in order to decide whether the middle school will stay open following the 2016-2017 school year, or if it will be closed down.

The meetings concerning the future of the middle school will be held on the following dates-April 25th at 6 pm in the West Side Elementary cafeteria, April 26th at East Side Elementary from 5:30 to 6:30 in the auditorium, and April 26th at Johnstown High School from 6:30 to 7:30 in the auditorium.

Johnstown: Third Fastest Shrinking City In The US

According to a list recently released by 24/7 Wall Street, Johnstown and its surrounding area is officially the third fastest shrinking city in the United States, with the only ones listed above it being Pine Bluff, Arizona and Farmington, New Mexico.

When describing Johnstown, 24/7 Wall Street said “Most metro areas with declining populations also have declining economies. Few had as rapidly shrinking GDPs as Johnstown, however. The metro area’s economic output contracted by an average of 2.4% annually between 2011 and 2015. As is common in areas with significant population declines, property values are low in Johnstown. The typical area home is worth only $89,100, one of the lowest median home values of all U.S. metro areas.”

From 2011 to 2016, the population of Johnstown decreased by 5.50 percent, the average household income was a mere $38,512 (compared to the nationwide average of over $50,000), and the unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, versus the nationwide average unemployment rate of 4.7 percent.

Johnstown is shrinking fast, and many are now wondering whether the city will be able to recover, or if it is destined to go the way of so many other small cities-slowly fading into the background over time.