Injournalism, astringeris afreelancejournalistorphotographerwho contributes reports or photos to anews organizationon an ongoing basis but is paid individuallyfor each piece of published or broadcast work.[2]As freelancers, stringers do not receive a regular salary and the amount and type of work is typically voluntary. However, stringers often have an ongoing relationship with one or more news organizations, towhich they provide content on particular topics or locations when the opportunities arise.[3]The term is typically confined to news industryjargon, and in print or in broadcast terms, stringers are sometimes referred to ascorrespondentsor contributors. At other times,they may not receive any public recognition for the work they have contributed.Areporteror photographer can string for anews organizationin a number of different capacities and withvarying degrees of regularity, so that the relationship between the organization and the stringer is typically very loose. When it is difficult fora staff reporter or photographer to reach a location quickly for breakingnews stories, larger news organizations often rely on local stringers to provide rapid scene descriptions, quotations or photos.[2]Inthis capacity, stringers are used heavily by most television news organizations and some print publications for video footage, photos, and interviews.A superstringer is a long-term freelance journalist. He or she is usually a contract worker forone or more news organizations. Traditionally, stringers freelance for a period of time and then become employed full-time by a news organization, but with the collapse of the traditional newspaper advertising model and the emergence of theInternet, many stringers are becoming superstringers.EtymologyThe etymology of the word is uncertain. Newspapers once paid stringers per inchof printed text they generated, and one theory says the length of this text was measured against a string. The theory given in theOxford English Dictionaryis that a stringer is a person who strings words together, while othersuse the term because the reporter is strung along by a news organization, or keptin a constant state of uncertainty. Another possibility is that using a sports analogy, the freelance journalist is seen as a second string whereas the staff journalist positions are more of thefirst string. This in turn comes from music, where the first string is the premiere violin in the orchestra, the second stringis the next most talented player and so on
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 03:53:31 +0000
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