professional studies: April 2014

Final report

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 19^th 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

professional studies

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Professional studies- Additional photojournalism research links

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Professional studies - final report

Final report