Feral Beast: Alexandra Boulat of VII is hospitalized

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Alexandra Boulat of VII is hospitalized

The world-class conflict photographer Alexandra Boulat, shown above on assignment in Iraq, suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm on 21 June. She had been covering the situation in Gaza. The dynamic French woman, 45, co-founded the photo agency VII and has inspired a generation of photojournalists with her intimate portraits of war's impact on daily life. By lifting the veil on Islamic women under duress, Alex's work evokes extraordinary empathy and has won prizes around the globe.
An outpouring of support from hundreds of colleagues and fans has reached Alex, who remains comatose and on life support in Israel's Hadassah hospital, under the care of some of the world's most advanced neurosurgeons. Courage, Alex.

one of Alex's favorite images, a Pakistani shell collection. ©Alexandra Boulat/VII

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Feral Beast? Try Lemming

If the press were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? I’ve got my answer. A legion of lemmings, furry and well-intentioned, but ultimately condemned by their nature to follow each other mindlessly off a tall cliff, over the Paris Hilton peak or into the Invade Iraq crevasse. The words “feral beast” certainly wouldn’t come to mind. It’s not particularly accurate or particularly evocative. But that is how the departing British prime minister, Tony Blair, sees journalists: as malicious tormentors who have tried to tear him limb from limb.

--Gal Beckerman of the Columbia Journalism Review

“Journalism is a form of cartography,” write Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach of Pew. “It creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.”

"Journalism is good at solving small problems or taking small bites of a big problem. It’s not good at solving big problems." Adapted from David Simon, creator of The Wire.

Retrospective : five decades of journalism as reported by CJR

Fake AP Stylebook reminds us: Unless you're doing a story on the Muppets, you are not a gonzo journalist.

"The once idealized information superhighway has become a parking lot of error, misinformation, rumor and junk." Poynter Institute, advocating a broader definition of who is a journalist.