The Power and Pitfalls of Photojournalism

Photojournalist Mark Hancock once wrote: “ A journalist tells a stories. A photographer takes pictures, a photojournalist takes the best of both and locks it into a powerful medium”. For many years visuals such as photos have been used to add context to an article, photo’s can allow the reader to relate and or understand the story better. Rather than just reading about an event photo’s that accompany a story connect the viewer to the story in ways that words can not. That being said, although photojournalist photos are meant to be transparent and accurate it is becoming more and more apparent that news outlets and freelance photojournalists are manipulating and photoshopping images. Photojournalist are constantly finding themselves having to detach themselves from their subjects and act quickly and often times because they work in such fast paced environments they are on the receiving end of

backlash.
This essay will discus how much manipulation and editing is to much for news photos as well when it’s ethical for photojournalist to put down their cameras and help those in suffering. In order to answer the question stated earlier this essay will cover New York Posts “Doomed” image, CBC Collin Perkel coverage of an Canadian Military chopper crash in Afghanistan. The examples used in this essay are all examples of moral dilemmas faced in recent times. Additionally this essay will analyze these issues using the Rushword Kidder’s ethical decision making paradigms and resolution principles as discussed in class. This essay will focus on the resolution principles when discussing each ethical dilemma in order to find out whether or not the photojournalist and the news organization made the right decision.
Kidder’s ethical decision making paradigms and resolution principles has three main resolution principles as discused in class, they are end based, rule-based and care based. The first resoldution that this essay will cover is End based, as defined in lecture end based is whenn the news outlet and in this case photojournalst share an image that does the greatest good for the most people. It is often hard to detirmine in photojournalism what is best for the general public to view. CBC reporter Collin Perkel is a perfect example of that. Percale was a war reporter and photojournalist in 2011, while reporting in Afghanistan Collin Perkel was involved chopper crash that resulted in the death of four Canadian soldiers. Merkel survived the crash and was able to capture images of the damaged chopper. When covering war journalist and photojournalist are told not to publish any damaged equipment. With that in mind Collin Perkel proceeded to publish the images on CBC’s website. Because Collin Perkel published images of the damaged chopper he was no longer able to travel with the Canadian Military. The ethical dilema that Collin Perkel was faced with here was whether or not he should share the images of the damaged chopper. If Perkel neglected to publish the photos from the damaged chopper he would have maintained a positive relationship with the military. Furthermore had Perkel Merkel and the CBC ultimateely both believed that by publishg the images in the end would benefit more people than not. A part of photojournalism and journalism at large is remaining unbiased. This is something that proves very difficult in photojournalism and contribute to end based resolutions. “Journalist take sides, they take positions, they expose corruption and they work to a social norm of what should be, as wells what is” . In the case of Perkel and his chopper crash pictures it can be argued that he did not take any sides when publishing the photos of the crash. By posting the image the Canadian military proved to the their enemies that although the plan crashed there were still survivors, while at the same time it was beneficial for the enemies because it showcased the damage and power that the poses. In the case of Perkels photos of the crash he decided that ultimately sharing the pictures is beneficial for more people than it is harmful. Decisions like thisse are things that photojournalist are constantly faced with and in the case of Collin Perkel although the journalist themselves think that it is important to share and is informal there will always be opposed to it. Ultimately the end based resolution principle can different in everyones opinion.

In additon to to end based resolution principle there is the Care Based resolution principle. Care based resolution principle as defined in lecture is “putting care or for other first. It is most associated with the Golden rule ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’” (lecture). In photojournalism, photographers often find themselves in a position where they are forced to take themselves out of a situation and make themselves a bystander. An example of this would be New York Post freelance photographer R.Umar Abbasi photo from 2012 where he captured a photo of 58 year old Ki-Suck Han moments before he was struck by a New York Subway train (site). This photo is a perfect example of a Photojournalist taking himself out of the situation to do a job, and disregard Kidders Care Based resolution principle. Had the photojournalist been working under the Care Based resolution he would helped the victimm rather than snap away while the subject scrambles to avoid death. Because Abbasi took the photo he yound himself recipeving a lot of balllash for not helping Suck Han, Abbasi however, tried to speak out saying “He never could have reachedd the man, it all went down so so fast.
Another example of a photojournalist finding himself having to disregard Kidders Care based resolution principle is 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Carter. Carter photo of a starving child with a vulture loaming in the background is one of the most talked about images from the past 20 years. Carter ran into a number of backlash from viewers because rather than helping the little girl he took a photo of the situation even after Carter said that he chased the bird away following the picture. In the case of Care Based resolution it is very challenging for journalist to take that into consideration. Photographers are supposed to capture real life events however, when they do so they are often criticized for not stepping in.
” Photojournalists are forced to choose between their duty as “Good Samaritans” who help someone in need and their duty as journalists who reports the news. The competing actions weigh the good that benefits an individual against the good that potentially benefits the larger society.” Photojournalist are forced to think less about Care Based resolutions and focus more so on Kidders ethical paradigm of Justice versus mercy and hope that viewers understand why they took the photo. In the cases of Abbasi and Carter they for the second it takes to click the shutter have to ignore the fact that a human is at risk and take the picture. In the case of Carter’s vulture and baby photo Carter had to take a photo of the starving baby to portrait the famine that was going on at the time. By doing so it appeared as though he lacked mercy towards the little girl when in reality in order to showcase the famine and everything that was going on he had to take the photo. As for Abbasi he had to take the picture to add context to the story because according to Abbasi there was no way he could have helped. As much as journalist wish they could take save or help those in the pictures that are suffering they must first photograph the event, unlike writers they cannot use words to describe what had happened. In order to portray a famine a photojournalist must take photos of people that are starving and in order to accompany a story about a man hit by a subway the journalist must take a photo if possible of the last second before the subway strikes the victim.

The final Kidders resolution principle is the Rule-Based resolution principle as determined in lecture. Rule-based resolution principle as described in lecture slides is “rules exist for a purpose, they promote order and justice and should be followed. Follow the principle that you want others to follow. In photojournalism one ethical rule that photojournalist find themselves struggling with is how much image editing is too much editing. It is ethical to fix minor exposure or contrast issues in a photo however, an issue that is becoming more and more problematic is when photojournalist change the tone entirely of a photo or add subjects to the picture. Brian Coopers “A few photographers stain media image; Photojournalists are to record Events not create them” touches on this issue. "A supposed "victim" of a building collapse conveniently positioned atop the rubble without a speck of dust on his body. (Don't buildings generate lots of dirt and dust when they tumble?) This same "victim" was shown in other images, taken minutes earlier, healthy and busily assisting in rescue operations.” With the advancement in photoshop technology it becomes very challenging to truly rely on timing when they have the ability to recreate the perfect image simply by merging multiple images into one. It can all be traced back to Kidders Truth vs Loyalty, photojournalist can alter the truth using photoshop to portray a scene being more gruesome than it actually is. Or they can remain ethical/loyal to what actually happened and release real time images. It is becoming increasingly apparent that some photojournalist are editing their images to attract a larger audicnce and by doing so they are ignoreing basic ethical rules of the National Press Photographers Association “Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.” By adding to an image it is less accurate to the events that actually happened, it over-exaggerates or under exaggerates the events taking place.

In conclusion photojournalist are consistently faced with ethical dilemmas and are forced to think and act quickly, because of that they consistanly find themselves on the receiving end of backlash.

As a result of their fast paced working environment they sometimes must disregard Rushword Kidder’s ethical decision making paradigms and especially the resolution principles that were discussed in lecture which are end based, rule-based and care based resolution principles. Sometime photojournalist ignoring and disregard the issues it results in a better image however, more often times than not photoournalist are ridiculed and looked down upon for being unethical. Due to the work enviornemnt that they find themselves in and the fact that they can not recreate or are not supposed to recreate events, photojournalist are forced to cut corners to better portray an event that took place. As stated earlier unlike print journalist photojournlasit do not have the luxury of reporting after an event, they must be live and shot exactly what they see not what other tell them they

saw.