Rough Draft - Portrait Assignment

I've decided to profile a Marine Corps Pfc. DJeela Anderson.

Photojournalism Ethics Assignment

1.      Choose 3 images shown in the Ethics Chapter of the. Describe if you would have shot the image and/or printed the image in the newspaper. Support your decision with a proper ethics argument. As the photographer, why would you have, or have not, shot the moment? As the newspaper photographer editor, why or why not run the image? If you do run it, where and how big, in color or b&w, etc.  How would you balance privacy and informing the public?

The image on page 370, of an American soldier being drug through the streets of Somalia during African food relief efforts is a picture that I would have not run as an editor, but would have shot as a photographer. In the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics, journalists should try to minimize harm for other soldiers stationed in Africa as well as his family members. I believe that it would have no effect on the morale of the troops, however, it affords the soldier and his family no dignity. In the picture, a woman gives the dead soldier the middle finger insinuating that they have no respect for this man. I don’t understand if he had incited the violence towards him or whether general attitudes to white people in Africa were volatile.

Image on page 371, of a incinerated American solider from the 1991 Iraqi war – is a photograph that I wouldn’t have shot or printed in a newspaper. The description notes that Americans believed that the war was fought in surgical precision – however the first Iraqi war is just as violent as the one currently being fought. I wouldn’t have featured it again to not appeal to lurid curiosity. Descriptions of the event or other soldier’s accounts of the grotesque nature of war would have been enough.

The image of R. Budd Dwyer committing suicide on page 369 is another photograph that I would not have printed. The treasurer wanted attention from the media but it in the same note told people to turn away if this was the kind of stuff that grossed them out. I believe that this played into  lurid curiosity and also plays into the breakfast test  - I gagged upon seeing this picture and im sure others would regardless of what meal they were digesting.  

2.      Answer this hypothetical situation: You are a journalist for a local media outlet doing a story on summertime fun … When, you come across a swimmer in the water who appears lifeless. There are other people around, but they haven’t noticed the swimmer. It’s been 20-30 seconds, and still no movement. You have a camera around over your shoulder. What are the steps you take next?

If I were a journalist for a local media outlet covering a summertime story and I see someone that appears to have drowned; I would get help for the individual before shooting the story. Ethically, I’ve read about several photojournalism stories that capitalized off of taking a heart wrenching picture instead of helping the individual who is the subject of the photograph. I would rather save a life than win a Pulitzer. Especially, if the drowned individual is a child, it is a disgrace to the family to have their child photographed and featured in the newspaper when the child was just enjoying their summer.

After calling out for help, I would snap photographs of the response. See if the proper medical personnel are on staff. See if fellow swimmers attempt to resuscitate the swimmer. However, if the aftermath is that the swimmer is beyond being saved. I would snap pictures to help bolster coverage that public facilities need to medical personnel on staff to help those who could lose their lives.

3.      Assume your story assignment is summertime safety and swimming in a potentially toxic lake. All of the other factors are the same. What are your next steps?

I would take pictures that help evidence that the lake is especially toxic and that individuals should avoid swimming all together in that body of water. If individuals are immediately affected from swimming in the toxic lake I would take pictures if only given permission. I believe also, that arriving at the scene of a potentially toxic lake to take photographs insinuates that I am waiting for a tragic event to happen and I am looking for a potentially tragic shot.

I believe that I would shoot the lake and how the management is preparing to make the potentially toxic lake safe. As the story is about summertime safety.