ETHICAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Newsdesigner,com points to an interesting article in The Australian about ethics and photojournalism, something I've been thinking about lately.

According to the report in The Australian, American photojournalists are far stricter about digital manipulation of photographs than photojournalists in England, France and Australia.

Writer Kerri Elgar has facts and figures, but I find this just as interesting:

There is great confusion over what is or is not acceptable photo retouching. Many newsrooms have produced rather vague codified principles or staff memos stressing the need to abide by previous "darkroom standards."

We need to take a new look at the ethics of photojournalism, because photography going digital has changed more than just capture, storage and processing methods. We are moving closer to being able to define visual journalism in terms of reality, instead of remaining captive to definitions based on the technological limitations of the box.

I'm still working this through. Watch for a longer piece a little later.

8:44:58 PM    

HAPLESS HEADLINES

Nicole at A Capital Idea is worth keeping an eye, because she comes across (and shares) a lot of stuff with high entertainment value. Consider her latest find, a column on headlines from the Dallas News. Some of the examples of inadvertent attention-getting include:

Wal-Mart CEO: Consumers Affected by Gas

China Sensors 'Cold Mountain' Love Scenes

All Hospitals Aren't Created Equally

Florida May Need Disabled Voting Machines

Crowds Rushing To See Pope Trample Man To Death

Of course, if we all pay attention to our headlines, read them for double meanings (and entendre), and do all the things we're supposed to, they'll be no more headlines for us to laugh.

8:09:48 PM