Photojournalism Final

The final consists of the following questions:

1. Should newspapers show us violent images from Iraq?
2. Should the photographer and editor be two separate people?
3. Given the power and contrast of black and white images, what argument is made that readers prefer color?
4. Discuss the photojournalistic ethics of honesty, decency and relevance.

1. I say news is news. If violence is happening in Iraq, then yes, I say images representing it should be portrayed. Now, before I establish myself too starkly as a left-wing extremist, let me disclaim for a moment; I do believe that in everything there should be some element of moderation. If it were all up to me, images that show what is happening without exploiting every gory detail would be perfectly enough to tell the story, and perhaps the more terrible ones should be withheld, if for no other reason than respect for the victims.
Otherwise, I feel it is the responsibility of photojournalists to portray it like it is, and that newspapers should honor that. And as citizens, if we have a problem viewing that sort of thing in the news, well, maybe we should be out there doing something about what IS news in our world.

2. Yes. Checks and balances need to be present in every system to prevent extremes. But let it be a two-way process - each editing the other. In other words - photographer snaps a set, gives it to the editor, editor chooses what he likes, submits it to photographer for approval. Both agree on what will be submitted and give it to the next in line. If they can't agree, bring someone else into it, but never do I think it should just be one person in charge of the editing process.

3. Color vs. B&W, the classic and epic battle. The main argument for color is simply that we do not see in black and white. Our eyes, well, most of our eyes, :D see in color and that is how the world is arrayed. Therefore, from an objective photojournalistic aspect, it stands to reason that color photos tell a truer story. Now, I don't necessarily buy into that argument, but that's what the word is on the street.

4. Honesty deals with the portrayal we give our subjects as photographers. It's easy to manipulate aspects of framing, exposure, and color to tell a different story than what is really there. It's incumbent on us, therefore, to be true to what is happening and not make inappropriate distortions, such as in the cropped photograph of "insurgents" throwing rocks at the military vehicle, when in the uncropped version, it is plain that it was solicited by the military personnel.
Decency deals with what I have already touched on in #1. Learn to tell a story and affect change without scarring readers with indecent images.
Relevance is all to do with the question of whether or not what we are portraying even matters to our audience. One of the responsibilities of photojournalists is to understand politics, cultures, and other temporal and social aspects of the contexts in which they shoot. Relevance is determined by all of these factors.