Saliency and Social Responsibility

   My Intro to Photojournalism students took their 20-point law and ethics test yesterday. I'm proud to announce that every student got a A!
   Here's one of the questions and a sampling of their answers:
Name two reasons it's important for photojournalists to be accurate and truthful when covering assignments:

• as a social responsibility -  the people want true facts; 
• to show truth so society can make a judgement from our own presumed level of truth; 
• our credibility as journalists is important, so we must keep ourselves at a higher standard.

   To appreciate these answers, know that none of them, at this point, have a desire to be in the news business. The class is a requirement for commercial art majors -  so here they are, learning how to Photoshop out blemishes in one class and being told they absolutely can't do that in mine. 

   Are they being taught to be schizo? Not at all. My goal is to teach them the difference between commercial photography and photojournalism. We, as journalism educators, must understand that our future news makers are products of this social media phenomenon that grows faster than we can keep up with it. 

   So, while journalism majors learn how to write stories that are salient, others, like my commercial photography majors, are learning that journalism is a social responsibility. 

   This point is made by Michael Gartner, Pulitzer laureate, former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and of NBC News, who proposed journalism education not for prospective journalists but for citizens, so they can arm themselves against shoddy work. 

   My point, exactly.