PPC - Ethics of Photojournalism Lesson

With the development of modern technology, photojournalists now have to decide what to shoot, what to use, and if images should be altered. Photoshop and other types of software now allow photographers to change the size, shape, and color of an image. They can even manipulate the distance between objects.

In 1982, Gordon Gahen took a picture of the Pyramids of Giza that were later featured on the cover of National Geographic. The photo was originally taken as a horizontal picture, but it was edited to fit the magazine's vertical format. In order to accomplish this, editors had to move the pyramids closer together which was seen as a visual manipulation of the image.

Objects can also be removed or inserted into the picture. If you add or remove something from an original photograph, would the image be considered more fictional than factual? The ethical issue that photojournalists often face is whether the alteration of a photo is considered to be misleading to the public. For example, in order to create a more heroic portrait, Benito Mussolini had the horse handler removed from the original photograph below.

Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler

The demand for a photo that grabs the audience's attention can often lead to an intrusion into privacy and another ethical dilemma for photographers. Many believe that politicians, movie stars, and other public figures are aware that part of the tradeoff of success or notoriety is an invasion of their privacy; however, when is an intrusion into their lives unjustified? For example, is it appropriate to take pictures of people in private spaces and at what most would consider private moments?

How graphic should an image be in order to tell the story? Graphic or shocking images are often used to help illustrate the issue of a story. The ethical question is, though, are we exploiting the pain of others by showing graphic images? If you avoid or don't use graphic pictures, such as those from war, are you sterilizing the situation?

It is the photojournalist's responsibility to:

• protect the integrity of the images.
• provide accurate representation of the subject.
• avoid bias.
• consider the purpose of the image.

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