Photojournalism Ethics

Staging scenes is not acceptable while capturing a photo of an important event. You may move an object to get a better view of the main focus as long as that object is not an important part of the scene. Adding or removing objects is not right since that is not what the original scene was and  changing it could change the whole message too. Altering the scene should be unacceptable in most situations, like the “It All Began With a Mouse” scenario, numerous photographers staged scenes to have the same message as the original photo. 

Manipulation of Digital Images can be put to good use, but not when you are dealing with a real event that is shown the the public as the "truth". The "Sharks invade New Jersey" example shows that if your audience is gullible enough, you can get away with anything. Someone with basic Photoshop skills could easily turn something like a city flood into a shark-infested flood in just a view clicks on the computer.

Intrusion into privacy is a sensitive subject most people tend to have varying opinions on. People either try their best to respects other people's privacy, or they just are nosy and disrespecting the boundaries set by that other person. Public figures deserve to have a private life a part from their well known career, but some say it is good to know what kind of person they are in the real world. I think they have a right to be able to spend time with their family without being bothered by paparazzi, journalists, etc. Photojournalists' job is to take photos of current events and bring them back for journalists to write the story so the public is aware of what is going on. If families in grief want privacy, they could let the photojournalist know that they're aren't comfortable with being photographed. The photographers don't want to take photos for negative reasons, they do it to make others aware of the situation with a visual aspect to it. Awareness is a big deal lately and photojournalism is a perfect way to catch people's attention. 

Jennifer Garner yells "My three children are private citizens" at paparazzi.