Ethics Beware, New Learners are Coming

By: Sailor Mayes

First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances” - United States of America Constitution

While I have read the first amendment time and time again, especially since I planned to go into the political field of work, I have not necessarily focused on the aspect of the freedom of the press. I have always brushed off the news and media as a negative aspect of human creation and have not thought about ethics and laws surrounding the capturing of photos in certain situations. Now that I am taking a photojournalism class, it has opened my eyes to the extreme boundaries of which photojournalists are confined to.

"Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects." - National Press Photographers Association (NPPA): Code of Ethics

We had recently had a presentation about ethics within photojournalism in class, when my professor began speaking about one of her former co-workers who was fired due to ethical reasons. I found this crazy, due to the fact that he was fired for clipping a singular string out of a photo. Although this clipping of the string was not the biggest deal in my eyes, low and behold pleasing the audience's eye is a violation of photojournalism ethics.

One of the codes within the Codes of Ethics for National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) states, “Editing should maintain integrity of the photographic images’ content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects”. Unfortunately, my professor’s former colleague did in fact photoshop multiple things out of his images. And although these alterations seemed extremely insignificant to the overall image, it was a violation of NPPA’s Code of Ethics.

Image above is NAPPA's written Code of Ethics by Sailor

I realized the utmost importance of ethics within photography, and I began to understand the issues of those tiny things being taken out, as the boundaries as to what you could crop out are endless. Law and Ethics are attributed to nearly every part within the United States of America. Law and Ethics are included in medical procedures, experiments, workplaces, restaurants, photojournalism, etc.

There will always be rules to anyone’s craft and trade, and if there is a violation there are consequences. Having the freedom of press within the first amendment gives photojournalists access to the public and what they do daily, as long as they are in the confines of the law and code of ethics. I am grateful for this.

https://nppa.org/code-ethics