Ethics

We talked about ethics in my photojournalism class this week.
The NPPA Code of Ethics provides photojournalists with basic decision-making principles.
There are pros and cons to these principles. Ethical decision-making might be hard for some photographers, particularly when they are tempted to set up photos at an event or manipulate photos to make them look better. A pro of ethical standards is to keep photos truthful. These decision-making standards help photojournalists to get the facts out, even though some photos might offend a viewer.
It is a never-ending battle to try to do the right thing.

About Me

   Hi. My name is Tabitha Adams.

   I am a full-time mother and a full-time student at Owens, where I study photography.

   To me, being a mother and photographer is the easy part of my life. I do, however, dread being a student, which is what I am working to overcome.

   School has always been difficult for me. I started giving up on myself when I was not being understood by most of my high school teachers. When I was a junior I began attending Penta’s OWE work study, which is the only reason I have made it this far. I finally had a teacher who saw past my learning difficulties, and instead saw my strength and determination to go after my  passions. That support gave me the confidence to go to college. Now that I am here, I have to put everything I have into making sure I don’t  give in to the learning difficulties. I hope to work on my studies while I explore what I want to do with my photography.

   My definition of the news is where we should go for the truth, but I’m just not sure that’s what we really get.  I really don’t know much about the news business. I don’t really like to watch or read about it because most of the time It’s just the media covering up the truth.

   I also don’t think it’s okay to manipulate photos because a photo is the one thing that should always be true.  We may not always get the true facts because we may not be getting it straight from the source, and the facts we have been given could come from someone that wasn’t there to know the truth. It’s like the telephone game we played as kids. One person starts with saying one thing and as it goes down the line of people it gets misunderstood or someone decides to change it.  With a photo, we have the chance to understand the truth.

   We may have some control of the news business as a citizen journalist, but really, once the media gets involved we lose all control.  

The First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.