Thinking Ethics

What will the newsroom look like in the future? My assessment: The newsroom will be smaller and less cohesive. Stories will be written from living room Lazy-Z-Boy chairs rather than loud, hectic newsrooms. But journalists should never forget our commitment to truth and verification, meaning we can write at home, but do our interviews and photo assignments at the actual events, using real sources. A staff law/ethical policy keeping ethical behavior in check is more important than ever now. 

It's been two months since I've blogged about anything, but not because I didn't have anything to say. I just didn't have the time to say it right. 

I've spent the past four months in my grad class learning about journalism ethics. It's a topic that is so misunderstood and underrated. I believe being ethical and knowing what that means is vital to the future of journalism. If you don't trust your news source, then who can you trust? 

Lesson # 1: The difference between bloggers and journalists is this...I don't have to blog if I don't feel like it, but a news source doesn't have that option. A reliable news source has to continually collect the facts and get them right. And if they don't get them right, then they need to admit it. That's being ethical.

The battery and the pink purse

This photo of a TV camera battery sitting on a roster next to a woman's pink purse struck me as humorous. It was at a girl's soccer game last night and I couldn't help but document the oddity of it. The owner of the purse was a reporter/photographer for Channel 11.

You see, not long ago, a woman photojournalist working on the sidelines of a sporting event was a rarity. Covering the sporting world has traditionally been a man's job. For most football, basketball, hockey, baseball games, etc., I'm still pretty much the only woman shooter there. 

I love shooting sports, being a former athlete myself, so I am often struck with the feeling that I'm lucky. I wonder if men feel the same way. Do they feel fortunate to be there, or entitled? 

I'm noticing a gradual shift in the ratio of men and women sports shooters, however. At the OSU/UT game, there were actually about 2 or 3 of us - total. Men still dominate, but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. It's going to take women wanting and/or demanding to be there, on the field, with their male peers.

Let me share a true story that happened to me. 

When I was an intern at the Warren Tribune, I worked Sundays. An LPGA was in town one weekend, and my boss actually took me off the schedule and sent the male intern in my place. The pathetic part - he hated sports. The full-time photogs told me to go shoot it anyway, so I did. I took my own film camera with a 300mm lens (which I hand carried because I didn't own a monopod at the time), and shot the entire day. 

Know what happened? I went back to the Tribune, processed my film with the intern, and he admitted I had the better shot of the winner reacting to making her final putt. He graciously suggested I turn it in. So I did, and it ran huge on the front page. 

My pay for that day = $0.00.  My boss realizing women can shoot sports = priceless!

Jeremy the Platypus

(Photo of Jeremy Wadsworth by Dave Zapotosky)

         Blade photogs have finally turned into bonafide platypuses! 

We've been shooting video stories for our website, toledoblade.com, for a year now. All of us are equipped with Canon FS100 camcorders, the camera Jeremy is shooting with in this photo. They do the trick for a website, but I wouldn't use them for making a movie that would be blown up on a large screen. The photo department also has two Sony video cameras. We edit audio and video ourselves, using Final Cut Pro (a mac editing software). 

         The term platypus originated years ago by forward thinking photographers who knew news photogs would be delving into the world of moving images and natural sound. 

Blade photographers eased into the platypus role several years ago by first shooting Soundslides projects. Soundslides is a slideshow software that marries audio with still photos. If an assignment has video/audio potential, we video shoot it for the web. Needless to say, we can be pretty weighed down with camera equipment - doing way more for less. 

         There are times when a photographer just can't do both, though. If we're at an event that happens only once, meaning it can't be repeated, then it's better to have a still shooter as well as someone capturing audio and shooting video. Our ethical code doesn't allow us to re-shoot or set something up. That's what Jeremy's doing here, while Dave is shooting the stills. 

These multimedia skills are essential for photojournalists to find jobs these days. So get on the bandwagon!

         

To run or not to run?

David Poller started a discussion on the Wired Journalists website in regards to the New York Times running a photo of a Marine getting shot and killed in Afghanistan.  

To see the photo in question, my comment and to comment yourself, go to:

http://www.wiredjournalists.com/group/newtophotography/forum/topic/show?id=1976249%3ATopic%3A81800

What are your ethical concerns? I'd really like to know. 

Shooting the game

It's fall, meaning football season is upon us! 

These are a few photos from the Perrysburg v. Clay high school football game I shot Friday night. 

Check out more photos from the game in a photo gallery posted on the Toledo Blade website:  http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=TO&Date=20090905&Category=SPORTS12&ArtNo=905009997&Ref=PH

Another life claimed by silence

Three young children became motherless this weekend. 

Their mother, only 29 years old, died Saturday morning in a fire that destroyed the East Manhattan Ave. home. It was reported in the Toledo Blade that Misty McClung's death was accidental. However, it might have been preventable.

According to the article, the home did not have a working smoke detector. Were there detectors at all? If so, were the batteries dead or missing? I posted an earlier blog about this very subject June 22. The odds of surviving a house fire when there are no working smoke detectors is tragically low. 

Those poor children are now homeless and motherless. Misty didn't have a chance against the smoke because it first puts you into a deeper sleep, then suffocates you. It's the smoke that kills sleeping occupants, not the fire. 

I've covered enough fires to make me extremely paranoid. I want you to be paranoid, too, especially if you have children, pets, roommates, whatever. Please check your house or apartment for working smoke detectors. Read my earlier blog for more fire safety tips.  

If you don't have smoke detectors, buy a couple. They're cheap compared to your life. 

Processing film the old fashioned way

Black and white film. Unfortunately, it's a dying art form in our digital society, but not at Owens! More than 100 students are shooting, processing and printing black and white film this semester, proving the demand is still high. 

My 14 students processed their 1st roll of film Monday, and it was thrilling to see the excitement in their eyes when they witnessed the magic of Sprint, stop bath and fixer chemicals. 

B&W 1 is my favorite class to teach because students are taught to think and see for themselves. Therefore, shooting manually is a requirement. There's no better way than to learn ISOs, shutter speeds and f-stops. They learn to depend on their camera meters, rather than the back of their digital camera screens.

Next week: evaluating light. 

(Photos: Students processing their first roll of film in the Owens darkroom.)