Week 9 photojournalism ethics

1. Law and Ethics of Mass
Communications
CHAPTER 14: ETHICS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM

2. Introduction
 Images are powerful in related to our personal feelings
 They cause subjective and different reactions in each
viewer
 Wars are being fought with images
- terrified children after Napalm attack, 1972,Vietnam War
- baby story Gulf War 1990/91
► Government’s control of a nation’s image
- banned photographers at US Air Force Base with coffins
of dead soldiers in Iraq War 2003
- designed TV news

3. Technological developments
 Time between events and the dissemination of a video gets always
shorter
 Change of ethical questions in photography
- Once: Shoot or don’t shoot?
- Today: Post or don’t post?
- Today: Go live or not?
- Today: Do we use this amateur video or not?

4. Problems in the Process
 Our grandparents once believed, that “the camera never lies” and “seeing is believing”
 Is it true?
 By the use of camera angles, light, texture and focus, a picture does an interpretation of
reality, it is not reality itself
 Pictures can be easily manipulated and altered

5. To shoot or not to shoot?
 In some situations, the photographer has to decide, if he should
shoot a picture of someone that cannot deny the photographer
- subject of photography can be in vulnerable state (wounded, in
shock or grief-stricken)
- the subject has lost control of its circles of intimacy
► Each person has the right to a personal space free from intrusion
and the right to preserve one’s “information”
► BUT - photojournalism is intrusive and revealing: winning pictures of
contests are related to violence and tragedy

6. To shoot or not to shoot?
Checklist for photographers at scenes of tragedy
 Should this moment be made public?
 Will being photographed send the subjects to further trauma?
 Am I at the least obtrusive distance possible?
 Am I acting with compassion and sensitivity?

7. To shoot or not to shoot?
Using images of victims, invades their privacy, but can potentially help
others. Does the message needs to be told? Checklist:
 Are the means truly morally evil or merely distasteful or unpopular?
 Is the end real good or something that just appears to be good?
 Is it probable that the means will achieve the end?
 Is the same good possible using other means?
 Is the good end clearly greater than any evil means used to attain it?
 Will the means used to achieve the end withstand the test of publicity?

8. To accept or not to accept
 Today, at least potentially, everyone can act as a journalist
 Rise of open source journalism and citizen journalism
- amateur journalists deliver pictures to open source sites of news
organizations
- they often work without pay even in dangerous situations
(tornadoes)
- their information often goes to different media and users (Internet,
broadcast, print, police authorities)

9. To accept or not to accept
 Influential amateur videos:
- Caucasian police officer beating up Afro-American citizen
Rodney King in Los Angeles 1991, causing racial tensions
- the video aired first on local and then national TV
- amateur videos of natural disasters (tornado) make it into TV

10. To accept or not to accept
Open Source Journalism
 In the past, governments could deny access to information, by
denying journalists access to certain places, now not
 In specific cases, authorities such as the police can use amateur
videos to help with their investigation
 But then, does open source journalism passes the same ethical tests
such as traditional journalism?
- the same standards need to be applied
- accuracy, fairness and originality must be given

11. Staging Photographs and Video
 NBC’s magazine show “Dateline” aired a segment of a faulty GM pickup truck,
exploding
 The editing linked this records to charred bodies being pulled from the scene of
accident
 GM filed a libel suit against the network, because NBC had not informed that
viewers, that sparking devices had been installed
- to fire in the closing video was obviously wanted
► NBC had to retract the story
► Questions
- Is there a place for reenactment in the news?
- Should these images or video be labeled?
► Staged shots: many Dust Bowl-era photographs were often done by photographers,
who let people pose and who used props to achieve the maximum effect

12. Electronic Manipulation
Madrid Train Bombings 2005
 Same photograph appeared on number of newspaper front pages
 A photograph of a bloody, detached limb was on the foreground
 In another paper, the limb was partly cropped
 Then again, one paper printed it in color and another in b/w
 In one paper, the limb had been removed
 Electronic alterations were too obvious to ignore
 Staging news photos is not well perceived, and journalists have
been fired for this
 News should in an ideal present truthful information

13. Electronic Manipulation

14. Electronic Manipulation

15. Electronic Manipulation

16. Electronic Manipulation

17. Selective Editing
 order of information can be changed in the process of video editing
 All editing is selective
 Double standards for words and photos
- while a writer is allowed to rearrange his words, it is seen as
“staging” in the cases of photographs and videos
- we apply the linear and logical standards of prints to photos
► Maintaining the perception of photos is wanted
- Seeing should be understood as believing, even if it is not

18. The Kuleshov Effect is a film
editing effect demonstrated by
Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov
in the 1910s and 1920s.
= hunger
= sadness
= lust

19. Eyewash
 “Eyewash” means, that the photos are serving the purpose of
decorating a story, that has no genuine relationship to the photo
- Example: a woman shown to enjoy herself at the races might
make her appear as a compulsive gambler in the reader’s mind
► Media apply divergent policies to cover the issue
- some TV stations and papers will not use pictures, that are not
directly related to the story
- others limit the use of file or stock footage to that which is clearly
labeled
- again other, use eyewash only, when it occurred in public view
► Good visuals are tempting, as they can bring your story on the
newspaper’s front page or into the 1st slot of TV news

20. Aesthetic and Ethics
 “Post Toasties Test”
- used to determine whether a photo or video can accompany
early morning news
► Questions to ask
- Does this need to be shown at breakfast?
- Should children see this over their morning breakfast?
► Often, so-called ethical questions are issues of aesthetics
- editors are often required to consider the good, the true and the
beautiful at the same time when looking at a photo
- the photo may or may not offend, be “ugly” or altered in any way

21. Conclusion
 Debate over visual ethics is emotionally charged and constantly
changing
 Photojournalistic work poses a number of problems
- it is poor paid
- gripping images need to be sold
► Application of Kant’s Categorical Imperative
- don’t deceive a trusting audience with manipulated reality and
don’t offend an unsuspecting audience with your gritty reality