Edited pictures violates photojournalism ethics and principles

In the olden days, pictures are unable to Photoshop and it close to impossible to produce special effects for a picture. But nowadays, it is not surprise to see edited pictures in magazines, banner and etc. When the technology has improved, it is common for journalist to edit pictures to show a better image to the audiences. It is common as even ourselves, we edit our pictures to get rid the ugly blemishes on face, slimmer arms and etc. However, it is claim to be violating the photo journalism ethics if a picture is edited by journalist.

Magazine Editor of the New York Times discuss about the ethical level of editing pictures in the article “Who can improve Nature”. We often see retouch pictures of models in magazines, their body measurement such as bust and hips size is enhanced and face has been touch up to an almost impossible smooth complexion. But sometimes, it is view as unethical to edit images for certain people as they tend to reflect what they see is not the real thing, felt like has been cheated. How readers illustrate is based on beliefs to the author’s intention, knowledge of the topic and representation of the text, stated Shriver (1997). Different background of people has different judgement, it depends whether it is decide to be ethical or unethical. Thus the violation of photo journalism ethics can be diverse too.

According to Walsh (2006, p.6), he stated that “Images have other effects that are different from words, particularly at affective, aesthetic and imaginative levels.” If a picture has been edited to create good purpose and intention, or even trying to create message of awareness, then it is most probably acceptable. For example this pictures below, it carry the massage telling us to conserve electricity. If the light is on, then it kills the fish inside.

In my opinion, if picture is edited for non good purposes, creating fake images and cause unfair to people in some circumstances, then it does violate photo journalism ethics. For example the picture(a) below shows very unethical in the way that it’s been edited too much, you can’t even see the guys face and also, changed too much of the originality skin color that may cause criticize of racism. The picture(b) is acceptable because they made the picture look better than how they look before, teeth is fixed and her hair looks better, hence their appearance won’t look uncomfortable. Overall, it is best to avoid the dark side of photography and use editing technology wisely.

 

Picture (a)

 Picture (b)

Reference:
http://asiasphotojournalismblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/photo-manipulation-and-ethics.html
Haughney, C 2012, ‘Who Can Improve on Nature? Magazine Editors’, The New York Times 20 July, viewed 8 November
Walsh, M 2006, “Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, Vol. 29, no1, p.24-37
Schriver, KA 1997, Dynamics in document design, John Wiley & sons, New York, USA