Page 119 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

Conflicting Ethical Standards among Media Outlets

make the final cut because it is redundant or there is another lesser
picture that makes the whole stronger.

Conflicting Ethical Standards among Media Outlets

One thing to bear in mind is the standard of ethical behavior for a
particular medium. Just because the storyboard calls for a particular
picture does not mean that the journalist should go out and create that
image. Photojournalists should tell a story that reflects what actually
happened.
Print photojournalists usually adhere to a standard of minimal inter-
ference. Historians of journalism ethics will tell you that this is a
position that has evolved over time. The grandfather of the picture
story, W. Eugene Smith, maintained that he adhered to the truth in
his pictures, but truth is a flexible concept. Smith was known to com-
bine images from different negatives to add “truthful” symbolism to a
picture. Smith once said: “I am constantly torn between the attitude
of the conscientious journalist who is a recorder and interpreter of 109
the facts and of the creative artist who often is necessarily at poetic
odds with the literal facts.” One example is a famous photograph of
Dr. Albert Schweitzer in which Smith inserted the images from differ-
ent negatives of a saw and a reaching hand to add to what he saw as
the “truth” of the statement of the picture. Such manipulation of still
pictures today is usually grounds for dismissal from a news publica-
tion. Most news publications expect pictures they publish to represent
what the photographer saw through the viewfinder when the picture
was made. Fact and fair representation are the goals of most mainstream
print journalists today.
This same “hands-off ” standard does not always hold in video news
packages. Frequently, when television news interviews are being shot
with one camera, the shots of the interviewer are made after the inter-
view has been completed. Video needs those cutaway shots to maintain
continuity in its linear format. The interviewer usually sits and nods or
looks thoughtful and those pictures are intercut with answers from the
interview. Occasionally, the interviewer is photographed asking ques-
tions at a time different from the actual questioning of the subject. The
questions are the same, with the only difference being the timing and
the direction of the camera.