I have been reading with interest the various posts on this topic. I have
leaned one way then the other as both sides have presented reasonable
arguments. Now I am square in the middle. If it wasn't for the graphic
and unsettling photographs of Vietnam for instance, the public would
probably have allowed things to continue status quo. It is only as an
image gets through the viewers callous that we evoke the strong emotion we,
as photographers, want the viewer to have. That is what photojournalism is
about.
Yet, I do not for one minute believe the media has the right to poke a lens
or microphone in the face of a grieving or hurting individual to ask how
they feel. That reporter deserves to be rebuffed in the strongest way. I
believe it is a mixture of insensitivity and laziness that causes this to
happen. Insensitivity because all that matters is the rating the piece
earns. Lazyness because most of today's media are too much in a hurry to
do the job right.
But this thread has covered government style cover-ups too. I believe many
citizens are mature enough to hear the facts and make the right
decision. That may be the problem! I, for one, am not sure the government
- no matter which country - is really concerned with what is right. If
they are to get us to follow along with what they decree, they need us to
believe that what they are doing is the right thing to do. Facts and truth
have little place in their world. Power corrupts, and absolute power
corrupts absolutely.
Gregg
Jay wrote:
The answer is responsibility...which the media seem to have forgotten even
exists as a concept. We, as photographers, have a duty to not only our
viewers, but our subjects as well. What is gained by showing the face of an
injured accident victim, or a crying mother looking at her baby on an
ambulance stretcher? This is the photographic equivalent of asking that same
mother "How do you feel right now?" DAMMIT, HOW IS SHE SUPPOSED TO FEEL??!!
As you might guess, I feel pretty strongly over this issue. I'm not going to
apologize for it, either; I spent too many years of my life working to help
people in those situations, as a volunteer, to accept that the media has a
larger duty to hurt them worse in the name of "freedom of the press".
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