Ethics in journalism
I’ve become addicted to C-SPAN. The other night, while I was dealing with what seems like a life-long case of night time insomnia (I say this because I sleep fine during the day), I watched a seminar which dealt with ethics in photojournalism. The main focus of the seminar was identifying the processes to ensure a photo and/or video is in fact authentic, and is not being used in a deceptive way. They ended up spending a lot of time showing examples of non-ethical photojournalism in the media.
One such case was the video showing Saddam’s statue falling in Baghdad. Certainly a vivid depiction of the fall of power, however they showed how this video was extremely misleading and shown that way on purpose. They showed several camera angles, which were readily available at the time, that were not used by media outlets simply because it didn’t lend to the excitment of the moment. In fact, in my opinion, that moment wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting for those watching if they had used the other angles at all.
This contriversial topic is nothing new. Ethics in photojournalism has been an issue since the invention of the photo-lens. The speakers at the seminar referenced a photojournalist during the civil war which dragged the bodies a little to capture a better picture. In and of itself, the photo was not changed because whatever person he was taking a picture of was dead no matter the angle. However, the photo was dramatized slightly due to the repositioning of it.
The conclusion that was ultimately reached was that unethical photojournalism is practically impossible to rule out 100% of the time. However, intentionally using these photos could be worked on greatly. I think this argument stems from the filming of Nature. Many people have said that its impossible to not effect your environment when studying animals. Which is very true, and I feel this also explains why photojournalism in a way has the same effect on news stories.
Whatever the case, it can be said that anyone out there reporting news specifically for the purpose of properly informing the public should always strive to not only check the validity of facts, but also look at the bigger picture to see if the facts could be misleading.
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