Photojournalism – Good Practice Guidelines
Author: Morten Svenningsen | 
Photojournalists operate as trustees of the public. Their photos are used as accurate and trustworthy accounts of significant events. Their primary goal is the faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. As photojournalists, they have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its history through their photos.
Photojournalism is facing some new challenges. Everyone is a photographer these days, it would seem. The rise of citizen photojournalism, encouraged by newspapers asking their readers to send in their newsworthy pictures for publication puts the trustworthiness of published photos into question. Recently, the New York Times photo editor, Michele McNally, commented on amateur news photos coming out of Iran, stating that:
“I am indeed troubled by not knowing the sources of these pictures and their agendas […] and the validity of the captions.”
At the same time, citizen photojournalists allowing free use of their photos is making it tempting for news organizations to save money by cutting down their staff of professional photojournalists. But even some of the professional photojournalists have contributed to the demise of the profession. We continue to see examples of esteemed photojournalists falling to the temptation of digitally manipulating their photos. They might be few, but they discredit the entire profession. It is now easier than ever to add or remove objects from a photo, using image editing software such as Photoshop, but long careers have gone down the drain this way.
Photojournalism is facing some new challenges. Everyone is a photographer these days, it would seem. The rise of citizen photojournalism, encouraged by newspapers asking their readers to send in their newsworthy pictures for publication puts the trustworthiness of published photos into question. Recently, the New York Times photo editor, Michele McNally, commented on amateur news photos coming out of Iran, stating that:
“I am indeed troubled by not knowing the sources of these pictures and their agendas […] and the validity of the captions.”
At the same time, citizen photojournalists allowing free use of their photos is making it tempting for news organizations to save money by cutting down their staff of professional photojournalists. But even some of the professional photojournalists have contributed to the demise of the profession. We continue to see examples of esteemed photojournalists falling to the temptation of digitally manipulating their photos. They might be few, but they discredit the entire profession. It is now easier than ever to add or remove objects from a photo, using image editing software such as Photoshop, but long careers have gone down the drain this way.
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