Welcome to the March, 2004 issue of The Digital Journalist, the monthly online magazine for visual journalism.

In our Dispatches section this month, reports from the field, we have two reports from Haiti, which is a country in chaos, following the overthrow of President Aristede. Photographers Bill Plowman and Michael Kamber have been covering this dangerous story and tell us what it is like. There was major fall out over the Internet publication of two photographs that showed Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry at an event in the 1970s with anti-war activist and actress Jane Fonda. One photograph was true, but totally taken out of context, and the other was totally a manipulation of two different images. The photographers who took the pictures, Leif Skoogfors and Ken Light, give us first-person reactions. Our columnist, Jim Colburn then talks about what these bogus photographs reveal about the digital age.

Bob Lerner was my hero. When I was first working as a photojournalist in my teens, Bob and his colleagues at Look Magazine, Stanley Kubrick and Douglas Kirkland were big stars. This month we look at the incredible body of work Bob Lerner produced for that magazine in our cover feature.

Tom Haley has been devoting the past year to chronicling the effect that Israel's building of a wall to isolate Palestinian towns has had on its citizens. He has given us a powerful set of photographs and a heart-felt and reasoned story.

Last month we visited the Photo Marketing Association show in Las Vegas. This was the year that digital surged past film, and manufacturers have introduced major new lines of cameras. We give you a detailed overview of what was new and different at the show with cameras. Evan Nisselson reports on the phenomenon of the show, the new camera cell phones, and why these products may revolutionize the camera industry.

Trying to fly out of Las Vegas I became an unwitting victim of the changes at airports caused by security, in my column The Realities of Flying in the post 9/11 world.

Mark Loundy calls on the NPPA to get real about the crises facing the profession. Ron Steinman has read three new novels about journalists at war, and offers his opinion from the perspective of someone who has "been there and done that."

In our video journalism section, Kim Fatica reports on what happened at a former NPPA Station of The Year due to new management policies that have totally disrupted their news room in his story, What Happened at KTSP. Terry Heaton continues his provocative series on TV in the postmodern world.

This month's ASSIGNMENT SHEET features a sea story by TechTV's intrepid Mark Neuling. He tells how it is trying to hold a heavy video camera on a heaving deck (no pun intended) and at the same time, keep the contents of his stomach in place.

Dick Kraus, the retired Newsday Photographer offers up two of his "Through A Lens Dimly" remembrances. The first, Willie Brown's Party recalls covering the events of the 1983 National Democratic Convention in San Francisco without credentials. The second, Making Lemonade is a sequel to the first and deals with the old adage, "If life deals you lemons, make lemonade."

This month we announce our 2^nd Advanced Platypus Workshop that will take place between June 27^th and July 2^nd at Brooks Institute in Ventura, Ca. The difference between the Platypus Workshop, which takes place between April 24^th and May 2nd, is that the former is all about teaching the language of television news to still photojournalists, and the latter is about how new technologies allow the graduates of the Platypus to get up to speed in long-form story telling and filmmaking.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE PLATYPUS WORKSHOP FOR THIS SPRING'S CLASS. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT THIS WORKSHOP IS TO YOUR FUTURE, JUST ASK ANY OF THE HUNDREDS OF PHOTOJOURNALISTS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS CLASS.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and urge you to join our letters to the editor area to discuss any of these subjects.

Dirck Halstead
Editor and Publisher
dhalstead@dvnetwork.net

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