Summary
Contents
Subject index
A fresh approach to building integrity in all media Media Ethics at Work: True Stories from Young Professionals transforms students into confident, self-reliant, and ethical decision makers, prepared to resolve moral dilemmas from day one of their first media job or internship. The highly anticipated Second Edition of this text continues to engage students with true stories of young professionals working in today’s multimedia news and strategic communications organizations, helping readers create meaningful connections to real-world applications. Each story is presented as a narrative, so students can work through the ethical dilemmas as they unfold, encouraging readers to think about and ask the question: “What would I do if this happened to me?” By creating a more personalized experience for students beginning their first entry-level media jobs or internship, this book helps readers develop their own ethical standards and apply in the workplace what they have learned.
Confronting Others’ Violations : The Case of the Manipulated Photo
Confronting Others’ Violations : The Case of the Manipulated Photo
Being mindful of your own ethical behavior is generally a full-time job. But what do you do when you encounter what appears to be unethical behavior by others? What responsibility do you have to confront or report other people’s unethical actions?
A recent photojournalism graduate had to reason his way through these questions when he saw a professional freelance photographer manipulate photos of a major sporting event and then upload those photos for publication by a wire service. The young photojournalist had to decide whether he had a responsibility to report the violation of professional standards and, if so, when and how.
Moral Development in Theory
At age 25, David Calvert had been shooting photos for national wire services, newspapers and other clients for several years. An inspiring high school journalism teacher had turned him on to photojournalism, and it had become his passion. After college, he opened a freelance photography business, shooting everything from major news stories and national sporting events to marketing campaigns and weddings. He made a decent living and enjoyed the creative challenge and variety of assignments.
Through his school and work experiences, Calvert had been developing his own set of standards for doing his job ethically and professionally. He believed that any manipulation of news photos beyond cropping and making small lighting corrections was deceptive and wrong; numerous professional workshops, classes and mentors had reinforced that standard. Thus, what he witnessed one weekend in the press tent at a major sporting event took him by surprise.
Sitting behind an experienced freelance wire service photographer who was working on his computer, Calvert watched the photographer use Photoshop to manipulate an image of the event they were both covering.
“This was on Friday,” Calvert said. “On Saturday, I saw that the image had been posted on the wire. Sunday, I sat behind him and saw him do it again. I couldn’t believe he was doing it again. So I took out my phone and recorded him as he manipulated the image.
“I recorded it for a close friend. I didn’t think about doing anything else with the video, just wanted to show her: ‘Look what this guy did!’” However, Calvert was upset enough to check the wire the next day. He saw that the manipulated photo, in which a person had been removed from the background behind a player, had been posted. But that’s not all he found.
While scanning his daily news links, Calvert noticed a link to a blog post by the photo editor of a major metropolitan newspaper. The photo editor had discovered the manipulated image by the freelance wire service photographer and had written about it on the newspaper’s photography blog. The editor wrote that he’d been looking for an image of the sporting event for the next day’s paper when he noticed two photos—one a medium-distance shot of a major sports figure, the other a much tighter shot that seemed to have been taken at the same moment.
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