The Impact of Information Technology on Photojournalism - Essay Example

? The Impact of Information Technology on Photojournalism Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 30 March 2012 Information Technology influences the results of photojournalism’s outputs. The research focuses on the essence of information technology on photojournalism. The research includes the importance of photo journalism on both the makers and the viewers of the journalism photos. Ethical values must be incorporated to information technology to make the photos more realistic. Identification of ethical issues of Impact of Information Technology on Photojournalism. Kenny Irby stated that photo journalism is the craft of employing photographic storytelling to document life (Quinn 2005). Jeremy Iggers states “Journalism's conversation about ethics has not changed all that much since the 1920s, but in the past decade, journalism itself has changed dramatically. The Cultural Revolution currently underway in America's newsrooms is making journalism's ethical conversation increasingly irrelevant (p. 75)”. A visiting French journalist toured the United States in the 1980s and commented that the wide variance between ethics talk and the practice of journalism led him to suspect that "ethics was implemented partly as a remedial procedure, partly as a public relations act, and partly as a way of escape goating the journalists, transferring onto the journalists’ all the blame for the media's negative actions. Generally, during the current century, the formal requirements for a meaningful discussion about the delicate topic of ethics have been set into motion. In theory, the journalists were professionals with a high degree of self- autonomy, and the newspaper had been formally pledged implement a job of public service. What may be ethically influential about the most recent changes in the print industry is that these entities of autonomy and accountability are systematically being disbanded. The changes incorporate the introduction of new technology that lessens the level of skill needed of the company press workers. Nicholas Burbules (2000) theorized “From recent popular films such as ‘The Net’ or ‘Enemy of the State,’ to countless news features in the media, there is a growing sense of awareness of the vast implications of digital technologies for traditional assumptions about privacy. The volume of information that is instantly recorded whenever one uses a credit card, travels the Internet, visits a hospital or pharmacy, files a tax return, rents a film on video tape, and so on—information that can be accessed by authorized and unauthorized persons alike—has changed the speed and ease with which much of one's personal life and activities (including the circumstances of one's very body) can be recorded and observed by others (p. 121)”. The photo journalist has the ethical responsibility to deliver the facts, not the lies. Philip Seib (Seib, 1994) observes “Political journalism matters. That's not just a reporter's ego speaking. It's a hard fact about how the political system works. Politicians' words and deeds earn few votes unless the public knows about them. Issues may seem obscure and unimportant unless news stories explain their significance. And, from another perspective, candidates can learn much about the electorate by monitoring what news organizations report, especially local media (p. 1)”. Normally, during the election season, many candidates are bound to depend on news coverage to win the discriminating residents’ votes. More than 100 million Americans visit the polls during the seasonal presidential election. In addition, many bus tours and whistle-stop train trips have their quaint appeal, and, as was the case for Bill Clinton in 1992, this kind of campaigning can enter into a mutually beneficial bond with voters and set the tone for a new government candidate. However, in-person campaigning will not get a candidate in touch with the massive number of voters the political figure wants in order win the elusive senate, or other elective posts. With the advent of advertising, a presidential candidate can try to circumvent news coverage, but only the rare, free-spending billionaire--Ross Perots will not crop up often--can afford to buy advertising or exposure time that can be compared with what the news agencies can offer. Even when a candidate can afford to have an unlimited election fund, the discriminating voters will look to news reports to provide many of the pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of politics. Government has the ethical responsibility to inform its citizens of new government policies. William Dutton (1996) reiterates “ICTs could have profound implications for politics and governance. The technologies offer opportunities for realizing visions of a new electronic democracy' in which government and citizens are brought into closer dialogue, as well as for enhancing opportunities for political organization and debate (p. 283)”. For example, the political figures can implement the forging of new 'virtual' groups that surpass traditional social and political limits, such as the city and nation. The political stalwarts also offer individuals the right to retrieve relevant information on a scale that enhances the current substance to freedom of information' legislation. On the other hand, the same technologies can reinforce control and surveillance powers of authorities that can indicate threats or violations of individual privacy as well as the citizens’ democratic rights. Identification of social issues of Information Technology on Photojournalism. Jeremy Iggers (Iggers, 1998) observes “Another obstacle to more constructive and responsible journalism, closely related to the myth of objectivity, is the myth of neutrality. The journalists' claim that "we don't make the news, we only report it" functions implicitly--and frequently explicitly--as a denial of responsibility: Don't blame us, we're just the messengers, and as messengers, we are only doing our duty. It also functions as an injunction: Journalists must resist the temptation to step outside the role of neutral observer and messenger; even when their motives are altruistic, they risk undermining both their own objectivity (that is, their ability to see things impartially) and their credibility (p. 109)”. Robert Haiman, the prior executive director of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, showed this injunction in a classical journalistic parlance: journalists should remember that their part is in the audience, not on the stage. The messenger concept carries with it realistic ethical implications: the photo journalists are servants, and utmost among their job descriptions are faithfulness and truthfulness. The photo journalists’ work is in the most strong sense, to bring the true and factual messages, and the photo journalists should not change the message to suit their own biased interests, should not delay in delivering the complete and unabridged message, and should not accept other employment that may be in conflict with the photo journalists’ responsibilities to their original or main employer. These responsibilities translate to the ethical principles pertaining to the elusive objectivity, fairness, accuracy, sensationalism, conflict of interest, and other related ethical standards. Jon Beard (1996) emphasized “Information production and distribution is growing at a staggering rate. Few would argue that the average person of today is not literally bombarded by information, or more accurately, by attempts to gain the person's attention so that information may be received by the person (p. 93)”. Any person seen roaming through an airport or a shopping mall, giving an ear to the ratio message, or watching television is constantly a target for attention-grabbing efforts. The efforts can be divided into visual, audible, mobile. Information technology is fast reaching a point where very sophisticated presentation formats can easily embedded in information systems. The user interfaces are increasingly graphics-based. The users are moving away from command driven systems to ones that depend on icon control. The Interfaces are leveling to the animated version, with windows that open and menus that appear and disappear. The photo journalist can incorporate sound effects into the media systems, so that communicate messages incorporate a sound (or an earlier recorded voice) to bring attention to situations requiring user intervention. Even full-motion video is becoming easily incorporated in systems with processors that are widely available today. However, little had been put into place to ascertain whether these system capabilities can be controlled to influence impressions formed by users. Certainly, advertisers and others believe that colors, animation, and images can be adjusted to generate a preferred or different outcome. Researches indicate that the attractiveness of a data source can influence attitude formation among the news readers. Nicholas Burbules (2000) proposes “Yet these sorts of difficulties seem inherent to the online environment, which continually confronts users with material that they might regard as false, dangerous, offensive, or worthless. The same medium that can provide easy instructions on how to repair your own clock radio also provides instruction on how to build bombs using readily available chemicals and supplies. You can buy books or CD's at a discount; and you can buy child pornography (p. 95)”. One can read a morning newspaper editorial columns from some of the popular major U.S. newspaper, and one can discover neo-Nazi hate tracts. One can observe the latest weather information. One can watch people sitting in front of their "web-cam," encoding at the keyboard in their underwear. The amount of press material on the internet extends from the useful, fascinating, and important, to the pointless, bizarre, as well as frightening (p. 95). Richard Susskind (1998) opined “It is hard to know where to begin when thinking ahead about the future of law. What might our legal institutions look like in, say, one hundred years' time? In other aspects of our life, we perhaps feel more comfortable about guessing. Manufacturing will be dominated by advanced robotics. Travel will become quicker, smoother, and sleeker no doubt, relying on less offensive energy sources than are used today (p. 265)”. Both education as well as learning can be transformed by hugely enhanced information flow and distance learning. Such learning is dominated by simulated experiences delivered through virtual reality. Remote diagnosis in medicine seems inevitable as does on-line domestic purchasing without crossing the physical threshold of a shop or store. Above all perhaps, we anticipate that technology will release our descendants from many of the excesses of work to enable fulfillment in a society where leisure activities will play a more prominent role. And so we could go on. Identification of legal issues of Information Technology on Photojournalism. Jeremy Iggers (1998) opines “What philosophical foundations can the ethics of journalism rest on, if not on the doctrines of objectivity, neutrality, and the centrality of information? The answer may lie in the American philosophical tradition of pragmatism and in the work of John Dewey on problems of truth, communications, and society. John Dewey was one of Walter Lippmann's chief intellectual adversaries during the 1920s, when Lippmann was propounding his theory of democracy (p 129)”. Dewey had no intention of disagreeing that each individual citizen was wholly unprepared to play an active role in democratic life. However, he was far more optimistic than Lippmann about the potential of the public. Moreover, the photo journalist can recommend the Lippmann proposal be implemented, with the general public relegated to ratifying expert opinions, cannot "be anything but an oligarchy managed in the interests of the few." What the public good is and that can only be discovered through public participation in an ongoing conversation. Because communication was vital to Dewey's theory of democracy, he was very interested in the role of the photo journalist on the lives of the nation’s residents. Jerry Slavggio (1989) reiterated “Human societies have seen four distinct revolutions in the character of social interchange: speech, writing, printing and, now, telecommunication. Each revolution is associated with a distinctive, technologically-based, way of life. Speech was central to the hunting-and-gathering bands -- the signals that allowed men to act together in common pursuits. Writing was the foundation of the first urban settlements in agricultural society – the basis of record keeping and the codified transmission of knowledge and skills (p. 89)”. Printing was the thread of the global economy’s industrial society -- the foundation of widespread literacy and the basis of mass education. Telecommunications (from the Greek tele, "over a distance") includes the ties of cable, radio, telegraph, telephone, television, and newer technologies. Telecommunication is the foundation of an information society. Human communities exist because each officer of the group can intentionally coordinate the activities of their group’s members. Information includes everything from news of events to price signals in a market. The success of any group, entity, or community depends in part on the rapid transfer of fairly accurate data. Richard Rudin reiterated that distributing false photos that tend to destroy the reputation of a person or organization may end in the photo journalists being charged for libel or invasion of privacy. Different perspectives given and references made to different arguments by different stakeholders/authors. Jeremy Iggers (1998) observes “Putting forth a new theory of journalism ethics is easy, but probably not very useful. Others more diligent have put forward elaborate and closely reasoned theories that sometimes read as though they were written for a world slightly different from the one we live in, a world in which all agree to set aside their positions and their vested interests and let the best argument carry the day. In the world we live in, what matters more than the ethical theory itself is how the theory is translated into practice, and as we have seen, that translation is likely to be shaped by relations of power and institutional interests (p. 141)”. When the balance of power transfers away from photo journalists working out of a professional ethos toward the owners and managers who see the news gathering as a business venture, the probability of a meaningful institutional communication about journalism ethics becomes increasingly far-fetched. It is neither realistic nor desirable. It has been lowered to merely call for the restoration of the crumbling wall that had theoretically once separated the newsroom from the business office. In a market- influenced environment, persuasions to the sense of public responsibility of the news entities’ owners or managers are likely to have reduced impact. And restoring that wall would, of itself, do little to repair a more serious rupture: the loss of connection between journalists and the public. The most fruitful work in the world of the photo journalists show that ethics is probably not within the area called abstract moral theory, but in the area of politics. The work includes having a strong alliance between journalists and the readers or viewers of the photo journalists’ works. Journalism cannot survive without a public, the public cannot learn its current status or defend its interests without journalists, and no productive communication concerning journalism ethics can crop up unless both the journalists and citizens have a significant place at the table. But one of the biggest hindrances to such an alliance is journalists' traditional stance of detachment. Philip Anton (2001) insists “A number of significant technology-related trends appear poised to have major global effects by 2015. These trends are being influenced by advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, materials technology, and information technology. This report presents a concise foresight of these global trends and potential implications for 2015 within and among the first three technological areas as well as their intersection and cross-fertilization with information technology (p. 1)”. The above organization procedure is considered potential scientific and technical advances, enabled applications, potential barriers, and global implications. These implications are diverse and can encompass social, political, economic, environmental, or other important factors. In several instances, the significance of these photo journalism technologies seems to depend on the synergies created by their combined advances as well as on their communication with the current information revolution. Assessment and evaluation of issues based on consideration of evidence. Peter Manning (Manning, 2008) observes “Having defined police and reviewed the features of police organizations, and some bases for conflict and power imbalance within them, I can now place technology as an idea and a functioning apparatus within the context of the music. This might be called setting technology to music. The idea of technology is more important than the materiality of technology because it is ideas that drive its installation, social shape, aesthetics, and uses. Technologies are complex, semi-magical means to accomplish ends, with both symbolic (they stand for something else) and instrumental (they do things) consequences (p 63)”. Information technology in the narrow sense is not the fundamental technology, or means of accomplishing work, of policing. The primary technology of policing is talk, or interpersonal skills. Considerable research shows that policing works best when deciding is combined with restrained, respectful listening and talk. The legality of street policing seems depended on the prevalence of fairness and procedural adherence. Policing is about setting up and retaining trust, and assessing trustworthiness. In turn, this is grounded on the basic interpersonal realities of the current generation’s differentiated and mediated life. The technological infrastructure of policing and the speed and efficiency of information technologies are tertiary questions with respect to the quality of police work because it does not foreordain what is done but crafts several channels for rationalizing it. The speed and efficiency of policing in the community are in every way vague areas of the community’s peace and order practices. The practices that both shape and are shaped by Information Technology are of interest in that they may change the intricacies of the job, and add to the presentation of modern management techniques. Fusco Johnson (1999) insists “It is precisely because life so often fails our expectations that we need one another. It is precisely because moral demands to give of self can be so outrageous, so utterly devastating, that we need to know others are prepared to do the same for us. . . . Vulnerability is understood to be part of the human condition, some being visited with greater needs than others, but others being blessed with greater strength . . . (p. 1)”. A very law abiding society is one that looks for the best avenues to match the needs and the strengths, one that cares for not only public injustice visited on minority as well as other weak groups, but also for private injustices that nature and life visit upon individual people (p 1)”. Assessment and evaluation of issues based on different perspectives. John Howie (2002) observed “In common parlance, the term equality is often used interchangeably with equity, fairness, and justice. One thinks, for example, of the child who objects to unequal portions of dessert declaring, ‘That's not fair, ‘or of discussions by adults of ‘equal pay for equal work’ as a matter of economic equity. A just society is commonly construed as one in which all persons are treated equally, that is, without valuing some more than others on irrelevant grounds such as race, class, gender, ability, or sexual orientation (p. 51)”. The philosophers have been highly respected. Equity, for example, can be used to pertain to the unequal distribution of goods, based on an uneven need or right to them. Justice has been identified as the priority ethical principle that needs fair procedures or equitable distribution. Justice as fairness, whether in John Rawls's or others' accounts, is described as necessitating inequality to promote equity. Assessment and evaluation of issues based on sound reasoning. John Howie (2002) mentions “In common parlance, the term equality is often used interchangeably with justice, equity, or fairness. The photo journalist may think, for example, of the child who objects to unequal portions of dessert declaring, ‘That's not fair,’ or of discussions by adults of ‘equal pay for equal work’ as a matter of economic equity. A just society is commonly construed as one in which all persons are treated equally, that is, without valuing some more than others on irrelevant grounds such as race, class, gender, ability, or sexual orientation. Philosophers have distinguished among these terms (p. 45)”. For example, equity can be used to mean the unequal distribution of goods, in accordance with an unequal need or right to them. Justice can also be pinpointed as the overarching ethical principle that needs fair procedures or equitable distribution. Justice as fairness can be defined as necessitating inequality to promote equity. The photo journalist should increase one’s sensitivity to the probable ethical aspects lurking in the use of one’s pictures as a window to the real world. One must not use journalism pictures to intentionally injure another person, just like gladiators eager to kill one another to survive. Vernon Jensen (1997) insists “We employ a host of mediums to accomplish the act of communicating. We utilize a systematic series of sounds -- languages -- as a primary means of oral communicating. With our bodies we transmit nonverbal messages, and virtually all objects we encounter in our daily lives say something nonverbally if we but attune ourselves to them (p. 118)”. The news is flooded with print media and inundated with still and moving pictures in printed materials and on television and movie screens. The average person’s ears take in sounds through radio, television, and other sources. The eyes take in similar information from pictures. Application of professional codes of conduct and ethical principles to Information technology on photo journalism. Davis Merritt (Merritt, 1998) confirms “journalists are almost congenitally uncomfortable talking about values. The idea that dealing in values (other than the First Amendment, of course) and journalistic objectivity are professionally incompatible is an artifact of the canon of objectivity. They are not incompatible, but our traditional aversion to dealing in values blinds us to the central fact that everyone else does. It is another of those trained incapacities created by the traditional journalistic culture (p. 95)”. The people, whose trusts are being asked, if sometimes unconsciously, filter every concept they see or hear through their own culture or value systems, forming an immediate bias as to the imparted idea's validity: Is the idea in harmony with my personal experience and observations? Is it agreeable, or offensive, to my personal beliefs? Does it fit my moral framework? They give the idea credibility or not on the basis of that automatic calculation. Reconciling the opposing core values is the essence of working through to public judgment. Because it is a compulsory requirement in reaching resolution, it is futile for journalists to ignore it, yet we do ignore it due to the fact that an individual has one’s own set of values. Consequently, the unwanted sensationalism and negative news may occur. Vernon Jensen states “Moral philosophers through the centuries, and contemporary books and articles, have urged a commitment to truth. Intentionality is at the heart of lying (p. 87)”. The large landscape of truth, the preferred realities around and within the photo journalist and his or her pictures’ viewers, is represented by written, oral, or nonverbal symbols when the photo journalist communicates to the audiences. Some photo journalist may intentionally misrepresent realities, sending the wrong messages, and thus we exhibit low ethical quality. A message that is truthful, full of truth – indicates that a communicative act cam either be fully truthful or fully untruthful, where degrees of truthfulness, twilight zones of truth, gray areas may unintentionally appear. Peter Manning (2008) opines “Technology has many ways, it is part of a process of rationalizing with many faces, and the faces are strongly determined by the situations in which technologies are used. What is elevated to the foreground in this discussion may be background to the participants—they may not understand in an abstract sense what they are doing or why (p 22.)”. The author states that information technology must in unquestioned fashion. Consequently, some members of the media should do the work of interpretation. The photo journalist brings into the interpretation mode one’s biased assumptions, attributions, values, beliefs, and shorthand recipes for explaining situations, even as they change and emerge before them. Limits and vulnerabilities of information systems discussed. John Herbert (2000) theorises “there are some limits and vulnerabilities of incorporating information technology to photo journalism. First, the journalists must base the use of information on ethical responsibilities. The journalist must work out of motivation and idealism to prove the public with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The photo Journalists’ ethics is grounded on aspirations and goals instead of preconceived benchmarks (p. 74)”. The decision making process involves one’s moral obligation to create an informed readership with honest as well as ethical information. To achieve this end, the journalist must be moral journalists. To be moral journalists, the photo journalist must adhere to some overriding ethical or moral conduct or belief. To achieve this end, a written ethical code for journalists should be implemented to standardize the photo journalism profession. In terms of the use of information technology in photo journalism, Davis Merritt (1998) thinks “Journalism does have a superficial and beguiling stake in foment and agitation; that is the stuff of ‘great stories’ and is thought by journalists to be of primary interest to the public; it sells newspapers and hypes ratings, the theory contends. Both foment and agitations are also signs and inevitable products of a healthy democracy. When, however, foment and agitations are the end products rather than a means to an end, issues are perpetuated rather than resolved, bogging down democracy and creating hopelessness and cynicism. Journalism has an even larger, if less obvious and entertaining, stake in issues being resolved rather than having them stew in agitation (p. 103)”. When issues are analyzed, when hopelessness and cynicism are covered by hope and optimism, people are persuaded to focus on the next issue. Journalists must understand the process of deliberation and encourage it ton enhance the quality outcomes of the photojournalism’s value-based outcomes. Based on the above discussion, information technology has a significant effect on the results of photojournalism’s pictures. The information technology enhances the field of photo journalism. The photo journalism values are important to both the makers and the viewers of the journalism photos. Indeed, ethical values must form part of information technology to make the photos more realistic and truthful, not objectionable. REFERENCES: Anton, P. 2001. The Global Technology Revolution. London: Rand Press. Beard, J. 1996. Impression Management and Information Technology. London: Quorum Books Press. Burbules, N. 2000. Watch It: The Risks and Promises of Information Technology for Education. London: Westview Press. Dutton, W. 1996. Information and Communication Technologies: Visions and Realities. London: University Press. Herbert, J. 2000. Journalism in teh Digital Age: Theory and Practice for Broadcast, Print, and Online Media. London: Focal Press. Howie, J. 2002. Ethical Issues for a New Millenium. London: University Press. Iggers, J. 1998. Good News. Bad News: Journalism Ethics and the Public Interest. London: Westview Press. Jensen, V. 1997. Ethical Issues in the Communication Process. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Press. Johnson, F. 1999. Handbook: Ethical Issues in Aging. London: Greenwood Press. Manning, P. 2008. The Technology of Policing: Crime Mapping, Information Technology, and the Rationality of Crime Control. London: University Press. Merritt, D. 1998 PUblic Journalism and Public Life: Telling the News is Not Enough. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Press. Quinn, S. 2005. Convergent Journalism: An Introduction. London: Elsevier Press. Seib, P. 1994. Campigns and Conscience: The Ethics of Political Journalism. London: Praeger Press. Slavggio, J. 1989. The Information Society: Economic, Social, and Structural Issues. London: Laurence Erlbaum Press. Susskind, R. 1998. The Future of Law: The Challenges of Information Technology. London: University Press. Rudin, R. 2002. An introduction to Journalisn: Essential Techniques and Background. London: Focal Press. Read More