There is a solution to many of the above problems. It is a complex, vital, sweeping solution, that will require much more sophistication than “f-8 and be there” or “I use my camera like a toothbrush. It does the job,” to name but two of the rather macho aphorisms that emanate from the “shooters’ camp.” (The term “shooter,” prevalent among press photographers in the US, is one of the least fortunate self-descriptions of which I am aware.)

The solution I have in mind involves a simultaneous elevation of the photographer to author and his or her downgrading from authority to discussant; an overt embrace of certain aspects of media malleability, including its potentials for synergy; an active solicitation of divergent points of view as well as layers of context; and the empowerment of reader and, whenever possible, the subject. The victimized subject, long a popular icon, would be able to participate more actively in their own rendering, while the powerful ones should lose their edge. For all its flaws, the World Wide Web can provide the platform through which much of this can be done.

First there must be an awareness of the various problems leading to photojournalism’s demise. One cannot simply “repurpose” what has been previously accomplished onto the Web, as so many publications are doing, particularly the “brand-name” ones. There has to be an awareness that the old conventional strategies are not always applicable anymore, and that a new medium requires new thinking. This is the opportunity the Web presents, just as television required that producers not simply position men in white shirts behind microphones to read the news as they did initially - a “seeable radio” - but reconceptualize the use of sound and imagery for the new medium.