Is photojournalism always truthful?
Sian
Kirby
Professional
studies
Photography
23
April 2014
Abstract
This report investigates the ethical values
of photojournalism, and whether or not photojournalism images always portray
the truth to it’s viewer. A brief history of photojournalism will be outlined
first. The discussion will then move onto ethical values of the job and
discussion about questionable situations that photographs are taken in and finally
then followed by feedback from a survey taken by the public about their
personal opinions on photojournalism.
Contents
Abstract
1.
Introduction
2.
The intent of a photojournalist
· Ethics of a photojournalist
· NPPA Code of Ethics
3.
Documenting tragedy
·
Coping
methods
4.
Manipulating photographs
5.
Social Media
·
Social
media websites
6.
Survey
7.
Final Discussion
8.
Conclusion
9.
References/Bibliography
1.Introduction
The purpose of this report it so discuss
the ethical values of photojournalists and whether all photojournalists stick
to the ethical codes all must follow and whether the images they take are
always truthful.
This will be discussed using a wide variety
of sources. These are, online websites, Internet articles, photojournalist’s
own opinions, documentaries and a survey taken by the public. All of which bring across opinions and facts
on photojournalism.
The intent of a
photojournalist
Photojournalists are very often
under-appreciated. Just like columnists and news reporters, a photojournalist’s
intent more so in the last 100 years is to report the news as truthfully as
possible to the viewer. A photojournalist’s job is to document real life events.
Therefore editing, cropping and staging images is strictly forbidden. It is a common opinion that most
photojournalist photo’s need none or little words to accompany the image as it
tells a story of it’s own never the less the majority of photojournalists take
images to accompany other peoples articles, the content of the images vary
depending on the content of the articles, resulting in a range of stories from
an up beat story to a more morbid hard hitting story.
Ethics
of a photojournalist
The ethics of a photojournalist evolve
around what is and what is not acceptable for them to do in a professional
environment, and this is important to not only photojournalists but also the
public who view photographs that are meant to be delivering the truth to them.
Photographs have been known to reveal great
truths, show wrong doings/neglect in the world, give hope and also can bring
people for all corners of the globe together through a understanding of visual
imagery. Therefore when photojournalists chose to manipulate and change images
it takes into question their ethical values as a photojournalist. This is
neither professional nor acceptable.
NPPA
Code of Ethics
The NPPA (the voice of visual journalism)
released a list on the 19th of April 2012, which they call the “NPPA
Code of Ethics”.
Along with this list a statement was made, “Visual
Journalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for
upholding the following standards in their daily work:”
“Code of Ethics:
1.
Be accurate and
comprehensive in the representation of subjects.
2.
Resist being manipulated by
staged photo opportunities.
3.
Be complete and provide
context when photographing on recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping
individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid representing one’s own
biases in the work.
4.
Treat all subjects with
respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and
compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief
only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.
5.
While photographing
subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter of
influence events.
6.
Editing should maintain the
integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate
images or add or alter sound in any was that can mislead viewers or
misrepresents subjects.
7.
Do not pay sources or
subjects or reward them materially for information of participation.
8.
Do not accept gifts,
favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.
9.
Do not intentionally
sabotage the efforts of other journalists.
Those are the rules that photojournalists
need to consider in their professional work. The overall intent of all
photojournalists is to report news to the world truthfully, professionally and
correctly without exploiting, upsetting or sabotaging others.
Documenting
tragedy
One of the main situations questionable
photographs generate from is war. The general public, in countries that are not
directly affected by war do not like seeing images that are full of destruction
and tragedy.
War photographers/photojournalists
experience first hand the devastation war can bring to people, families and
communities due to the fact they are in the middle of what is going on. This
brings up a topic of individual ethical values. Different people have different
ethical values and along with that people can handle different amounts of
tragedy and some have better methods of coping with it also. The majority of
people would shut down, console the grieving family or try to help in some way.
Photojournalists however, without intruding and upsetting people further take
photo’s to report what is going, to capture the realness of a situation.
Coping methods
Coping with tragedy can be difficult to
endure especially when you are an on looker. However everyone has his or her
own coping methods. James Nachtwey is a very influential war photographer and
has won numerous awards. James made a documentary about his job and his life as
a war photographer, the documentary is called “James Nachtewy war photographer”. Within the documentary James narrates
footage and images of him in action. A topic he covers in that documentary is
coping methods and his ethical views.
He
brings to light situations where his professionalism and own personal ethical
values came into question. He stated that he doesn’t usually intervene in
situations if others are there to help, however when there is an individual in
danger he will try to intervene and stop what is happening. Choosing to put
down the camera and put aside his job to help another is a prime example of
people’s personal ethical views over rule the job in hand. He also further
explains this in an online article on the Harvard website.
James stated in his documentary that the
way he copes with the horrific situations he is put in. The way he copes is by
simply doing his job. He focuses on the job in hand, and uses the lens as a
screen that blocks out reality. Never the less every man and women has
different coping methods.
Manipulating
photographs
Photojournalism is a form of photography
that has the intent to inform others in the most truthful way possible.
Manipulating photo’s is seen as diminishing the truth and can be seen as lying
and deceiving others. Photojournalist competitions go as far as disqualifying
photographers for manipulating their images in any way, shape or form.
As the viewers of photojournalists work
want to see the truth, manipulating and changing images brakes the truth and
also in some cases can blur the line between photojournalism and fine art
photography due to the fact editing software can be over used creating images
that look more vibrant which ultimately alters peoples perception of a
photograph.
Manipulating a photo can be anything from
editing, cropping, and staging a photograph.
An example of a situation where a
contestant was disqualified from a competition for manipulating photographs is
shown below.
The top photograph was the original
photograph taken by Klavs Bo Christensen, a Danish Photojournalist and the
photograph below that is the finalized manipulated version, the reason he was
disqualified from this competition was because of the over use of color
saturation.
Another example of manipulation in
photojournalism is shown below.
Brian Wlaski who works for the LA Times
took the photographs above, he combined the two bottom images to create the top
image supposedly to create a more aggressive and confrontational representation
of the situation in hand.
Both of the examples above are examples of
when trust is broken between the photojournalist themselves and the viewer of
the story in the image. This is something that goes against the ethical values
of photojournalism and although it does happen as I have proven with the
evidence above this is a very rare situation that happens.
Social media
One of the main reasons photojournalism
photos are so well known and viewed is down to social media. With the Internet
literally being at everyone’s fingertips, either on their phone or computer
people can see things immediately whenever they want. Which means news gets
round very quickly. A lot of images of war in the recent years have being
shared around and then gone “Viral” as
the expression goes.
Social media websites
Social media websites such as Facebook and
twitter are great platforms to share photos and videos with friends. With the
availability to see things that are going on in the world. It is fairly easy to
know if something is true or not true, although you may not notice if a photo
has been manipulated right away you certainly could read about it later on and
then share that through social media websites to other people.
The use of social media has helped not only
photojournalism but also all types of photography; it makes peoples work more
known to a wider audience with much less work.
Survey
For this report a survey was conducted on
the general public. The intent of this survey was to collect data on overall
opinions on photojournalism. Overall 21 people took part in the survey and gave
their opinions. The survey included 6 questions the majority of which had straightforward
yes or no answers. The results for each question are shown bellow with a pie
chart to put the results in perspective.
Question one
Question and result.
Question two
Question
and result.
Question three
Question and result
Question four
Question and results
Question five
Question and result
Due to the fact the question asked for the
participant taking part in the survey to include their own beliefs on the
question in a answer box provided, the results are not suitable to be converted
into a pie chart as they were however, the results will be put into three
categories ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘depends on the situation’, overall making it easier
to put it in perspective.
Question six
Question and result
The overall result for all of the 6
questions are very mixed the most crucial question of all 6 was the opinions on
photojournalists going out to take photographs in sometimes-questionable
situations, and as it shows it is apparent that the results are split, a lot
said yes and a lot said no also. The majority of the answers from the people
who said no took into account the fact it could be an invasion of privacy and
can be seen as insensitive, both of which are addressed in the “NPPA Code of Ethics”. On the other hand
the people that said yes to the question took into account the fact they felt sometimes-questionable
situations should be documented and shown to the world this includes the images
that are hard to look at but all of that would strictly be okay if the
photographer respected the situation in hand. Again this goes back to the “NPPA Code of Ethics”.
Final
Discussion
Taking into account all that has been
discussed throughout this report photojournalism is very important in today’s
day and age. It’s a media platform for the public to see exactly what is going
on in the world and in many cases can encourage change in certain situations in
which the photographs expose. After all the expression “Shocked into action” isn’t around for no reason. Even the most
hard-hitting images can instill the most change in how our world views certain
situations and also how to fix them. However photojournalism is and has always
been about reporting the truth and nothing else. Therefor an image needs to be
kept exactly the same leaving editing out, this makes capturing the right
photographs crucial so that nothing needs to be added or taken away to portray
a story.
Conclusion
Altogether we have established that
photojournalists for the most part tell the complete truth to the people who
view their work. The ethical values they stick by ensure that they are always
respectful to the subject(s) they are taking photographs of, other things they
ensure are that they do not sabotage, manipulate or stage photographs in order
to gain success in either the photojournalism world or through competitions.
However the public is very split on their opinions of photojournalists as they
feel sometimes situations they take photographs of are questionable although
they do want to know what is going on in the world.
References/bibliography
