Digital Image Alteration and Photojournalist Ethics in China and USA

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Digital Image Alteration and Photojournalist Ethics in China and USA

Introduction

Photography is a process where lights are recorded through chemical means(by film) or by an electronic device such as digital sensor. The resulting photograph represents a optically realistic portrait of a specific event at a specific location and time. This connection to reality allows people place a significant amount of trust on photographs and coined the phrase "the camera does not lie." Thus, photographs are used heavily in news reporting as a proof that a certain event has occurred. Recently, news agencies have begin to digitize their photographic process. Using digital photography allows journalists to send their pictures to the editor with faster speed and better reliability than using film. However, digital images are easily modifiable. People or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene. Colors and brightness may be adjusted. Pictures can be sharpened or blurred. Yet, when a picture is altered, its link to reality, to that particular event, may be weakened or completely severed. To many people, this is a form of deception by the news agency to the public because people assume that photograph is a faithful representation of an event. In addition, these changes are difficult to detect since there is no physical negatives to inspect. The public can only rely on the news editorial board to perform as they promised-- to uphold journalist integrity and to report facts as accurately as they can While news editors have a duty to report news truthfully ,they also have to deal with publishing constraints. Editors are constantly tempted to alter the picture to fit the layout, deliver pictures with stronger ...

... middle of paper ...

...oynter Online. 2 Apr. 2003.http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=28082

New York Times, Guideline on Our Integrity, December 2000, http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=408

Tung-chiang Ch'iu, Literary Inquisition, Banned Books and "The Series of Si Ku Banned and Burned Books". http://www.lib.nccu.edu.tw/mag/admin/26/p28.html

Guideline for Chinese News workers. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2003-10-14/19271921005.shtml

Identifying fake photographs. http://www.dpnet.com.cn/school/school_show_new.asp?id=1491

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Virtue Ethics. 18, July 2003.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/

Kieran, Mathew. Media Ethics New York, NY: Routledge, 1998.

Olen, Jeffrey. Ethics in Journalism Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Kieran, Mathew. Media Ethics: A Philosophical Approach Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.

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