Ethics of photography
Ethics of the paparazzi
Just like my research into the ethics of photojournalism I have looked into how over the years paparazzi and the tabloids paparazzi's make their living from has dramatically changed
as i am thinking about comparing the two as they are similar in the fact that editorial/photojournalism and paparazzi all have their photographs in magazines and newspapers. In the past the media prided themselves on having a high standard for their magazines and news papers, using other peoples misfortunes was not the highlight of their articles and exploiting celebrities for money wasn't really heard of, although celebrities did feature in articles from time to time. Examples of things in today's age that are normal that were not in the past are, naked photographs of celebrities or overall just photographs of questionable behavior.
The article i have inserted a link for above stated that, 'photographs of celebrities children' and photographs of 'celebrities in distress' were 'strictly off limits.'
This leaves the line between celebrities tabloids and the rest of the media very thin, they quite frankly blur into one. The article gives an example of when tabloids exploit others (celebrities).
Example of a tabloid magazine
http://www.usmagazine.com/
Us Weekly is a tabloid, celebrity fueled magazine that is both published online and also as a paper copy that is sold in shops. As soon as you go onto this website there is pictures of all the recent celebrities who are popular, with numerous stories from, babies, to drunken antics it's all there for all to see not only in writing but due to paparazzi it's all there in photo's for you to physically see.
Most if not all celebrities or people who are famous for whatever reason are sick to death of the paparazzi because they as it is widely known to everyone, invade peoples private lives and will stop at pretty much nothing just to get a photo of these celebrities doing something wrong as the paparazzi know if they can capture something like this they can sell it for hundreds if not thousands of pounds, and most tabloid run magazines and newspapers will bid for the picture and usually the person with the highest offer will get the image. But as always everything is two sided and there are some paparazzi that are loyal to one tabloid and will work for them and only them. But the desire for money is still the same.
The general thesis of the paparazzi on a whole is not a good one, to many the paparazzi are known as leaches. Due to them harassing and stalking people in the spot light to use there misfortune or messy situation for their own financial and in some cases tabloids will lie and change the entire truth of a story for more popularity. This puts into question their ethics and what they believe is right, do they think what they are doing is right and completely justified or do they think it is wrong just a quick easy way of making a quick few grand?
I for one do not condone the way the paparazzi go about making money and a living, I think the idea of taking photographs of celebrities for their fans and when is is in a positive light that is great but unfortunately this isn't the case 80% never mind all of the time. The industry has turned into a bunch of people who exploit others for a living.
One thing i did like about this article Is that does show some positive information and will hopefully will mean change for the way tabloids publish certain stories is that 'The Paparazzi Reform Infinitive (who wrote and published this article on their website) have now asked all media outlets to 'voluntarily abide' by some rules that they listed which i will include below:
as i am thinking about comparing the two as they are similar in the fact that editorial/photojournalism and paparazzi all have their photographs in magazines and newspapers. In the past the media prided themselves on having a high standard for their magazines and news papers, using other peoples misfortunes was not the highlight of their articles and exploiting celebrities for money wasn't really heard of, although celebrities did feature in articles from time to time. Examples of things in today's age that are normal that were not in the past are, naked photographs of celebrities or overall just photographs of questionable behavior.
The article i have inserted a link for above stated that, 'photographs of celebrities children' and photographs of 'celebrities in distress' were 'strictly off limits.'
This leaves the line between celebrities tabloids and the rest of the media very thin, they quite frankly blur into one. The article gives an example of when tabloids exploit others (celebrities).
Example of a tabloid magazine
http://www.usmagazine.com/
Us Weekly is a tabloid, celebrity fueled magazine that is both published online and also as a paper copy that is sold in shops. As soon as you go onto this website there is pictures of all the recent celebrities who are popular, with numerous stories from, babies, to drunken antics it's all there for all to see not only in writing but due to paparazzi it's all there in photo's for you to physically see.
Most if not all celebrities or people who are famous for whatever reason are sick to death of the paparazzi because they as it is widely known to everyone, invade peoples private lives and will stop at pretty much nothing just to get a photo of these celebrities doing something wrong as the paparazzi know if they can capture something like this they can sell it for hundreds if not thousands of pounds, and most tabloid run magazines and newspapers will bid for the picture and usually the person with the highest offer will get the image. But as always everything is two sided and there are some paparazzi that are loyal to one tabloid and will work for them and only them. But the desire for money is still the same.
The general thesis of the paparazzi on a whole is not a good one, to many the paparazzi are known as leaches. Due to them harassing and stalking people in the spot light to use there misfortune or messy situation for their own financial and in some cases tabloids will lie and change the entire truth of a story for more popularity. This puts into question their ethics and what they believe is right, do they think what they are doing is right and completely justified or do they think it is wrong just a quick easy way of making a quick few grand?
I for one do not condone the way the paparazzi go about making money and a living, I think the idea of taking photographs of celebrities for their fans and when is is in a positive light that is great but unfortunately this isn't the case 80% never mind all of the time. The industry has turned into a bunch of people who exploit others for a living.
One thing i did like about this article Is that does show some positive information and will hopefully will mean change for the way tabloids publish certain stories is that 'The Paparazzi Reform Infinitive (who wrote and published this article on their website) have now asked all media outlets to 'voluntarily abide' by some rules that they listed which i will include below:
- Unless clearly for a newsworthy event, situation or happening:
- No photos or video of children shall be printed or broadcast or displayed without the written consent of the parent.
- No photos or video of any person clearly in distress or injured shall be printed or broadcast or displayed without the individual's written consent.
- No photos or video of individuals clearly participating in a private matter such as a vacation, exercise, eating, at school, at home, at a funeral, wedding or involved in a family activity shall be printed or broadcast or displayed without the written consent of the individuals involved.
- Whether deemed newsworthy or not, no photos or video shall be printed, broadcast or displayed, that when taken, clearly put the life or well being of the subject (or others in the immediate environment) in danger.
Many of which were the old rules that most if not all tabloids would abide by and i really hope this makes a change to what can be published and shown to the world.
As for the photo aspect of the paparazzi, i personally do not think it takes much skill at all to do this, It is very different to the artistic style of most types of photography. The majority of the time the paparazzi's photo's aren't steady, most don't even look through the camera at what they are taking photo's of. You can see a complete lack of care for the photo itself, they are just looking for a story and don't want to document anything properly.
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