THE STORY BEHIND FIRST SAMUI CRASH PIC
One week ago a Bangkok Airways aircraft crashed whilst landing on the island of Koh Samui.
Just 20 minutes after the incident the first picture and eyewitness account was posted on the popular expat forum Thai Visa by 'Carlos Primeros'. His story was soon being broadcast on Twitter.
By email 'Carlos' told me he was aware of the potential value of his image, but that he wanted to "inform" the public about what was happening.
The Swiss man watched the events unfold from his terrace overlooking Samui airport. He posted the first picture on the forum just 17 minutes after the crash and also sent an image to the Zurich-based newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. He said: "The report I sent was online within minutes and they called to ask for more images, and one of myself. They attributed the story and pictures to me."
Moments after posting the image to Thai Visa copies began to appear elsewhere online. He was contacted by the BBC who asked for permission to use the image. "I was also emailed by two British journalists who wanted to market the picture," he added "but I had quite a busy afternoon and, by then, the picture was everywhere. I did not contact them."
'Carlos' confirmed he did not make any money from the picture, despite his image being the first to appear anywhere. "The only thing I did get were emails from friends in Switzerland who saw my report and pictures," he said.
By posting his image on a public forum 'Carlos' did not relinquish his copyright, however with no watermarking or copyright notice there was no way his image could be attributed. A spokesman for Thai Visa told me: "We recommend that any members watermark any photos they wish to post on the forum and keep as their own. Unfortunately, we have no control over what other people save to their computer and use as their own."
Carlos concluded: "Since I'm not dealing with professional press pictures I do not care much about the outcome, but maybe next time I will put a watermark and copyright note on my pictures."
There is tremendous value in having the first picture from a major news event. What happened here is a great example of citizen journalism and shows exactly why the mainstream media must take this form of reporting seriously.
Earlier this year Janis Krums took the first picture of U.S. Airways flight 1549 that crash landed in New York's Hudson River. He uploaded the image he snapped with his iPhone to Twitter and within seconds it was being used around the world. What happened last week in Thailand is not really that different.
The vast majority of traditional media use tools like Twitter as a distribution channel. It's time they seriously start using it as a news source too.
8 comments:
Good post. Thanks.
-KV
I noticed that Manager took Carlos' picture and then put their own ASTV watermark on it:
http://www.manager.co.th/Home/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9520000088226
That's exactly the reason new broadcasters, like Sky, have designed Twitter reporters. It's just a shame they don't realise that Twitter should be part of every journalist's arsenal - rather than just designating one person.
The situation is beginning to change though, with examples like this, don't you think?
Like the new blog theme btw
Manager was not alone, believe me.
What annoys me about this is 'Carlos' posted the image and account to inform people about what was happening. His image was then stolen, for want of a better word, and used by others for commercial gain.
As you can see from the interview 'Carlos' is not bothered, but if you look at the Janis Krums incident (U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson) at least he was compensated by the media organisations that used his image.
Jon,
Twitter is vital for me, both professionally and as a blogger. It's been the original source of a number of stories I've written and published.
This is a great example of why 'traditional' media needs to use and value Twitter; news of this particular incident appeared on Twitter (and first on Thai Visa) a good 20 minutes ahead of any other English language media.
But as we've seen here, if you're tweeting breaking news you need to somehow copyright your work and include some way for others to contact you.
I'm glad you like the new theme .. no more changes until at least next year, I promise ! :-)
You've raised an interesting problem, one journalists have been grappling with for some time and unfortunately for citizen journalists and mainstream media alike there are not clear answers. We just had a lengthy debate in our office about running Roger Federer's photos of his twins, which he posted on Facebook. And he's not the copyright owner - his father is.
Part of the problem is that copyright legislation, while theoretically protecting owners equally around the world, varies from one country to another - and media use is a very gray area. I am the editor of a relatively small but important online newspaper in Geneva, Switzerland. We see things on Twitter and Facebook regularly that we don't use because the copyright is not clearly stated and I won't touch that. On the other hand, I can't use watermarked photos unless I crop them to cut that out because it's too intrusive. The Tages Anzeiger editors should have embedded his copyright and id in the image code and also should have made sure it didn't run larger than 600pixels online, to at least reduce the value of copied versions of it. And in the end you have to live with some dishonesty and theft - individuals and media alike.
I've picked up news from Twitter and contacted the author, so do make sure you can be contacted easily. But unless you really know a lot about media and copyright laws, you can forget about trying to keep the copyright to most information - photos are another matter.
"The vast majority of traditional media use tools like Twitter as a distribution channel. It's time they seriously start using it as a news source too."
In my view, it depends what you mean by 'news source.' If you are suggesting traditional media print stories based on information solely sourced to Twitter, I think not.
I could masquerade on Twitter as anyone I wanted to and write anything I desired and nobody would be wise to the ruse.
However, using Twitter for 'tip offs' to potential stories is becoming more and more prevalent. For instance, Darren Bent's rave at the Spurs chairman on Twitter was widely picked up by the British dailies as was British Open champion Stewart Cink's twitpic of a condom machine in the locker room at Turnberry.
Obviously any journalist has to be sure the source of his or her news is genuine. I've used Twitter as the initial source for several stories in recent months, but then did follow-up to substantiate and elaborate on what was being said. I know I am not alone, but I also know there are many publishers that have yet to grasp the full news-gathering potential of social media.
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