The Ethics of Imagery and how visual media can alter our behavior

Julia Greenwood

jg797419@ohio.edu

When you look at a front-page spread of a magazine, what do you see first? If you said you saw the title first, you're a liar. Science tells us that we see faces first, specifically the eyes, and those eyes determine where our vision goes next. Images have power in a way that words can't because you could read about a tragedy, but when you see a picture of it, then it becomes real. 

New Yorker Cover

We are the same

When it comes to journalists, photographers, videographers, and illustrators, we all have common goals for displaying and creating content. If you work in the news community specifically, the goal is to create content to convey a journalistic message to the audience. 

As a visual journalist, my goal is to create content that evokes pathos and draws the viewer. This goal is common amongst photographers, journalists, and videographers alike. 

Ethics of Visual Journalists

In the same way that journalists can get in trouble for violating ethical guidelines while writing and publishing stories, visual journalists have similar ethics to follow. The ones more exclusive to visual journalists have to do with not misleadingly creating images, altering images, and treating all content subjects with respect and dignity. But, again, these standards come from the NPPA code of ethics.

An example of these ethical guidelines that journalists should follow is to take pictures of the homeless who have constructed shelters in public areas. Even though the homeless are in public view and it is legally "okay," it should still be viewed as a breach of their privacy because that shelter is their home. 

Images make you feel something.

The image I chose for this blog is from the New Yorker. The first person we see, George Floyd, who is murdered by police. His death led to a social movement that rocked the United States and the whole world. Under him falls many other black men and women who were murdered and abused by a corrupt system that never put them first. 

While you may not know all their names, their collective story is understood by those who care to listen. This image, which is an illustration, creates so many emotions, even with the few words "A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY" and "I AM A MAN." Viewers see the hundreds of years worth of mistreatment, and that is just the iceberg. 

This illustration disgusts me but in all the right ways. This image is meant to invoke emotion and make me feel angry and upset, which is the artist's intent. 

Seeing the things that scare us

No one ever said the internet and the media were lovely places. The images you can see are upsetting and disturbing sometimes. But let me stress this: they NEED to be seen. 

One photographer with a portfolio of these stark and shocking images is Ohio University, VisCom Alumni, Marcus Yam. He is a highly respected photojournalist and foreign correspondent for the L.A. Times. I highly suggest anyone who reads this check out his portfolio, and it is heartbreaking and wonderful. He documented images from life under the new Taliban regime, the mass exodus from Venezuela, the California wildfires, along so much more. 

His images are beautiful, but not all of them are pretty. Some of the images are sickening and make you feel scared for the people involved. However, those images have the power to change behaviors and emotions and create social change. 

Social change the way the video of George Floyd's murder changed America.

Social change the way the images of the insurrection on January 6th changed America.

Social change the way the images and videos of the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed the world.

These terrible things have already happened and could not be undone. But these images are forever and will continue to tell the stories that words alone cannot.