Elly Merrit
em489621@ohio.edu
There is a tendency in the media today for news reporters to forget the core value of ethically truthful information. As news organizations struggle to increase their ratings and revenue, many values of truth are being ignored. Facts, sources, objectivity, and partial truths violate the belief in the truth. Graphic videos and photo manipulation are two of the problems plaguing truth and ethics in visual news reporting.
Just this week on May 24, 2022, there was a terrible school shooting in Uvalde, Texas at the Robb elementary school. As the news was unfolding there were many questions about missing children and how many dead or injured victims were in the school. News stations were scrambling to one-up each other with the latest horrific story. The details of what had really happened were not clear so the news was repeating the same story over and over. Then they started to play this video clip over and over. The shooter is entering the school holding a weapon.
The tragedy was still unfolding and this graphic video was being aired. Someone either filmed this or it was on a security camera. Either way, if this video is true, why wasn't the gunman stopped? This was infuriating and the more this clip was shown the more questions about the negligence of someone not stopping the gunman began to surface. Families were receiving the news that their child, wife, or daughter was dead and the shooter is on video entering the building. This was a perfect example of a graphic video that should not have aired over and over on the news. It was being played every thirty seconds.
The war in Ukraine was another hot topic in the news. every night there would be very graphic pictures of the destruction Russia caused to the beautiful homes and businesses of innocent people. One night CNN headlines told of a maternity and children's hospital that was bombed. The video takes viewers on a virtual tour of the destruction. As the viewer travels from room to room in the hospital the news reporter talks about women and children that were killed in this attack. It is almost as if the video was not horrific enough and ratings needed a boast.
People need to question what is the purpose of such graphic videos. Is it for rating and advertisers? Is it politically motivated to turn everyone against Russia? Or is it so that Americans will happily finance the war? No one needs to see that carnage.
In the media today there are tools to create or edit all types of photos for publication. It is common for news media to make minor changes like cropping or lighting adjustments. This has been going on for years and is often referred to as a touch-up. Photo editing becomes unethical for journalists if the photo is being altered so it changes the meaning or misleads viewers. "While this practice does not happen often in legitimate news media, there are plenty of less reputable news sources that are happy to edit photos to get your attention. "(GCF Global) However, for photos that are meant to show reality, manipulating the picture can be misleading and create problems. Here is a manipulated photo of rally for Hilary Clinton.
This is a picture of American soldiers with an Iraqi soldier in 2003.
It is the responsibility of very journalist to ensure that the news they report is ethically truthful information. People turn on the news to hear the truth and facts. They do not want opinions and fake news. There is enough sadness and mayhem in the world today. People do not need to see more tragedy than already exists. Journalists need to be sure that they are not reporting for ratings and advertisers.
References and Credits
https://goodfullness.com/12-examples-media-manipulates-photos/
https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/the-problem-with-photo-manipulation/1/
No comments:
Post a Comment