aarezes: Photojournalism

What's the role of photojournalism?

Photojournalism is documenting history in photographic form. Photojournalists communicate a real story through photos taken in moment. Photojournalism involves portraying accurate news through photos, by collecting many images, and broadcasting them in the media, including newspapers, magazines, books, or television. This is a visually effective way to portray a meaningful story behind the image. Photojournalism replaces words, instead of describing a scene in detail a photo can be taken and the viewer can see what was happening at the exact time of the event. When most people read the newspaper, they look for photos, if the photo looks interesting they will than go onto reading the body copy. Photojournalists essentially show you what's happening in the world with their photographs. Photojournalism is to try to tell the story without changing the reality and preserve its images as a matter of historical record.

Are there rules that photojournalists should follow? Why? Why not?

The main rule in photojournalism is, to capture the truth and not to mislead the public. With this being said, as much as I love Photoshop, it should not be used in this case.

Photographs should not be manipulated; editing should not give the wrong impression of the subjects in the photograph. A photo should not be staged, it should be caught in the moment, and the photographer should not interfere with the atmosphere or subjects.

Is the ethics of taking journalistic photos different than the ethics of writing a news story?

I strongly believe photographers and reporters should never manipulate an image or a story to give it a new meaning; wonder should not be twisted and photos should not be staged or manipulated. Photojournalists and news stories help each other make a strong story, photograph can help the readers to understand the articles or stories better and explaining things that are indescribable by the human language. Both photojournalists and news storywriters must follow the same ethical guidelines when publishing a photo or a story to the public. When we open a newspaper we all want to see images and stories that are credible and truthful. Photographers as well as reporters try to paint a truthful picture.

What's the impact of altering press photographs? Should they be edited (at all) in postproduction?

Over time photography editing has grown, it now makes a huge impact in the media. Reporters have the power to manipulate what people think, and even to sway the population’s vote, or believe. Altering press photographs should not be allowed because it can change the viewer’s perception and can impact the society in many ways. However; “the only acceptable changes are those used to improve the quality of the photograph, but without changing the context/facts on the photograph in any sense.” (Icevska). I believe photographs can be altered to a certain extent, and depending on its media, changes should be very limited. Taking someone or something out of the photo, changing the background or structures, altering facial expressions and features, are things that’s should not be allowed within photojournalism. A photograph should not be altered to make a better or more interesting story; the original photograph should be able to speak for itself.

Shot the Truth! Don't make it up!