Editing Taken Too Far

Aesia Toliver
Professor Rogus
11/20/2014
Make Up Blog for 9/17

Journalism and photography run hand in hand. After all a picture is worth a thousand words right?  A picture can take the reader to the scene and can fill in blanks that words cannot describe. But what happens when a photo is edited “too much”? Is the photo at that point even credible? Let’s dive deeper…

The readings all remind me of one thing—tell the truth. A journalist tells the truth in the lines they write and in the pictures they publish. Some think that any editing of photos my journalists should be banned. I personally think that editing should be allowed, but there has to be a line drawn.

When editing is used to better the picture’s quality it should be allowed. If the editing is used for accuracy, and to make the picture more clear and understandable, I believe its okay.

When editing is used to falsify information and reel in views—it should not be allowed. There are people out there that falsely edit photos—those people are not journalists.

As a journalist your audience is depending on you for honesty and accurate reporting. If you put deceptive photos alongside an accurate article and the public finds out—you could lose your credibility.  Telling the truth as a journalist stands within the photo itself and the context around the photo as well.

Setting is important for example, Al Thompkins of the Poynter Organization wrote anarticle in 2012 stressing the difference that setting can make. The examples used were when Barrack Obama and Mitt Romney addressed the Benghazi Crisis in September 2012. At the last minute Romney was relocated to a more presidential backdrop with lots of dark blue and American flags present.

Obama, however, chose to address the nation in the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden was a relaxing location and therefore context. That setting decision unconsciously lessened the anxiety of the American people.

"Consider for a moment how the President’s remarks would be different if he was sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office," Thompkins writes. "Think of the stark seriousness of the setting he chose the night that he announced that Osama bin Laden was dead."

Another important aspect to consider as journalists comes with the decision of what to expose the public too. Should the photos or videos of the be headings by ISIS have been made public? Something as horrific as watching someone get beheaded could put reality on the incident, or could scar a viewer for life.

Visual elements in journalism are becoming a must now days. Especially, with the heavy online medium most viewers read articles on. So to deny photos in general would be impossible. A journalist should enhance articles with photographs but one phrase needs to be remembered—a journalist tells the truth.