DB 9 - Presentation Week 9: Shooting the truth: Photojournalism

Photojournalism’s role is to provide images that capture events linked with reporting of news in media such as print newspapers, magazines, television news and internet reporting. The influence of photography used in news reports has become an integral part of reporting to the public that a story without photographs to a contemporary audience feels incomplete, as though they were only getting half the story. Consumers depend on photojournalists to connect them to far-away realities by provided images based on timeliness, accuracy, fair representation of the context of events and facts reported, and accountability to the public. 

Photojournalists have to adhere to a set of code of ethics s intended to promote the highest quality in all forms of visual journalism and to strengthen public confidence in the profession. It is also meant to serve as an educational tool both for those who practice and for those who appreciate photojournalism. If photojournalists do not follow these set of ethics, the practice itself of representing the truth of different realities could have no material significance at all. In other words, all photographs that are contributed to news reporting without any code of ethics deface the insurance of transparent information.

Since both photojournalism and writing a news story are associated with journalism, there should not be much difference between the ethics of taking journalistic photos and the ethics of writing a news story. A significant ethical standard that both methods should follow would be the accuracy and comprehensive representation of subjects. It is because of the practice of ethics consumers feel confident in what they are exposed that represent worldwide events.

There are severe impacts of altering press photographs if the intentions are to manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects. Editing in post production should only account towards image clarify and/or definition rather than to ‘photoshop’ items in or out to promote biases and alter the true reality of the matter at hand.