What is the photojournalism ethics? Isn’t it easy that the photojournalist only need to go to the scene, frame and focus the shot? At least, I saw most of the photojournalist in the beat of entertainment do this in the past year. I know there should be more there. I can never forget the photo I saw when I was an undergraduate student, in which a Vietnam girl was running with her back on fire. Was it right that the photojournalist just shot the picture in calm in this situation?
The Kobre’s book says that photojournalists choose between how they might act as individual citizens and how they feel they should act as visual journalists when they get an assignment. I never had such kind of feeling until a tragedy happened just beside me. A student died last month at Lake Wauberg when he was playing football with his friends. In fact, I was there, in the same activity. I might even talked with him that day before his death. After people realized he was drown, they began to pray for him with tears. Though I knew nothing about this person, I was deeply moved by these people that I cannot help praying for him. Later, I just asked myself, if at that moment, I am a photojournalist, I joined the activity and I knew this would be a good news picture, but as the person’s friend, shall I take the picture? What is the guideline to judge whether a photojournalist should take the picture or not? Though the book gives us ethical framework to guide our decision, it seems still to abstract that may not fit every assignment, especially when the photojournalist is emotionally involved.
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