To Release or Not Release

Meghan Machenheimer | mm745416@ohio.edu

http://mindthechasm.com/tbontb/

There is a constant ethical battle on whether or not distressing and disturbing photos should be captured by photographers and/or released out into the public by reporters or news stations. This battle dances along the lines of whether or not the photo will be harmful or beneficial for the public to  see. If the picture is beneficial to see, will it make an impact on society and bring awareness of what is happening in today's world. There are a lot of factors and legal issues that will come up when it comes to capturing and releasing these distressing photos out to the public. But if journalists feel the picture is ethically acceptable to be released, then it may be beneficial to release it and follow the correct legal measures to make sure to handle the situation.

When researching more about this topic, an article brought a big discussion into perspective. The article discussed how capturing a photo and releasing a photo are two different decisions journalist need to make when it comes to reporting. The article also talked about how, as a journalist, it is their job to record things that they witnessed and experienced, but some of the things they saw don't need to be published out into the public. Although this is a strong point, the follow-up question would be: are journalists not publishing distressing photos because they are attempting to protect the public from the reality of what is happening in the world?

One of our societies most significant flaws is that they continuously turn a blind eye to issues that they either don't agree with or don't believe are happening in the world. They act oblivious to prominent problems that should be talked about and fixed. If more distressing photos were captured and released out into the public, it would bring more awareness and attention to these issues and could potentially help the situation. Sometimes a picture can have a more significant impact than any written story can because of the emotion and realness the image captures. If some of these photos were to be released to the public, it might bring the realness of the situation into the light and action could potentially be put in place.

A perfect example of photos that had an impact on society once they were released were photos from the Syrian Refugee Crisis in 2015. These photos drew awareness and attention to the situation and allowed the public to gain a better knowledge of what truly was going on. The images that were released capture real and raw emotion that society wouldn't have been able to understand if they hadn't seen the pictures. These pictures capture the story entirely, and without them, the story wouldn't have as much of an impact.

Overall, although distressing and disturbing pictures can be difficult to stomach, journalists should be more open to the idea of releasing the ones that will make a substantial impact on the stories. Journalists are supposed to be transparent and honest with the public and better educate them on what is going on in today's world. By not releasing some of the photos with their stories, they are not educating the public properly.