Everyone in the world today is very active with news media and checks their local news stations and news media for the latest updates and stories. But with journalism there are ethical issues which come into play which stand out the most. In journalism today some stories are very gruesome, photos are not the original, and photos are posted without consent during serious matters. There is no issue with sharing the story and informing the world of what is going on but their should be a barrier to what photos, videos and audio get shared to the public.
Analysis:
A case study which I found had some ethical issues involved was The Boston Marathon Bombing. In an article “Media use and exposure to graphic content in the week following the Boston marathon bombing” it described how most news stations and reporters try to re frame from showing such brutal graphic photo’s to the public, but with this specific event photos were shown of people in distress, bloody, missing limbs, and other gruesome settings. The news covered this event and everyone was grieving and disturbed by this tragedy, a some of the journalist papers and media which shared of these photos of the bombing was the Huffington Post, CNN, and ABC News. These sites give you all the photos which were taken that day and the results are very detailed.
Next the next ethical issue on the same case study is privacy or permission to use certain photos which contained some civilians injured. In the event of the bombings these photo are being taken, and capturing every moment from the aftermath. Where is the curtsy for the people who are in the photo who are brutally hurt. A person injured badly and in pain would most likely not want to be show to the public in that shape. On a website promoted by Gramarly has multiple entries of journalistic laws on using photos of people and describes the different ways it would be okay and how others would need permission when taking certain photos.
Finally the last ethical issue journalism deals with not only in this case study but in all cases is that with events they tend to cover they Photoshop photos which is very bad for the media and company they work for. An example with this case study is that, the Daily News used a gruesome photo as their front page of their newspaper covering the story. One things that was revealed about the specific photo they used was that it was photo shopped and altered. The original photo has a lady wounded on the floor with a badly injured leg seeking medical attention, but the Daily News altered the photo covering up the ladies leg making it seem as the leg was just broken and not so gruesome. An article written by Stanley Forman describes his photography of the Boston Marathon Bombing and his experience with the chaos that broke loose on Memorial Drive in Boston that day.
Conclusion:
With these three ethical issues I believe they need to be accounted for when journalist are reporting such big events in the world, because an event such as the Boston Marathon Bombing. Taking photos of gruesome content and just sharing it to the public can really hurt the reputation of the media, because not a lot of people want to be scared with the visual images of the horrible event. Especially the ones who were involved, personally if I was injured in a tragedy I would not want my photo to be published in the media for a story because it would be something that would bring back the memories of the pain and suffering I went through at the time. Lastly altered photos in media only hurt the companies and the journalist who claims for it to be real, it makes the audience feel that they are lying about what they are saying and posting have them unsure if the story is even true. With gruesome photos in journalism I believe that if they are not going to post the real thing then they should not post the photo at all.
References:
Jones, N. M., Garfin, D. R., Holman, E. A. and Silver, R. C. (2016), Media Use and Exposure to Graphic Content in the Week Following the Boston Marathon Bombings. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58: 47–59. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12073
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-journalism-laws-about-using-photos-of-people
Forman, S. (2015). FIRE ON MARLBOROUGH STREET. News Photographer, 70(6), 52-59.