1st Edition
The Ethics of Photojournalism in the Digital Age
Delving into the complexities of contemporary reportage, this book draws from moral philosophy and histories of photojournalism to understand the emergence of this distinct practice and discuss its evolution in a digital era.
In arguing that the digitization of photography obliges us to radically challenge some of the traditional conceptions of press photography, this book addresses the historic opposition between artistic and journalistic photographs, showing and challenging how this has subtly inspired support for a forensic approach to photojournalism ethics. The book situates this debate within questions of relativism over what is ‘moral’, and normative debates over what is ‘journalistic’, alongside technical debates as to what is ‘possible’, to underpin a discussion of photojournalism as an ethical, moral, and societally important journalistic practice. Including detailed comparative analyses of codes of ethics, examination of controversial cases, and a study of photojournalism ethics as applied in different newsrooms, the book examines how ethical principles are applied by the global news media and explores the potential for constructive dialogue between different voices interested in pursuing the best version of photojournalism.
A targeted, comprehensive and engaging book, this is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and students of photojournalism, as well as philosophy, communications and media studies more broadly.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: General Ethics and Applied Ethics
Chapter 3: Journalism Ethics and Photojournalism Ethics
Chapter 4: Origins of Photojournalism Ethics
Chapter 5: Digital Era and Analogue Conventions
Chapter 6: Phenomenology and the Representation of the Other
Chapter 7: The Distant Other
Chapter 8: Improper Distance: The "Refugee Crisis" presented by two newsrooms
Chapter 9: Conclusions: Going forward, ethically
Biography
Miguel F. Santos Silva is an assistant professor at the Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations of the Ramon Llull University, Barcelona. His main academic research activity focuses on media ethics and contemporary thought. Miguel is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies.
Scott A. Eldridge II is an assistant professor with the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He is the author of numerous studies on digital change and the journalistic field, including the book Online Journalism from the Periphery: Interloper Media and the Journalistic Field (2018). He is an associate editor of Digital Journalism, and co-editor with Bob Franklin of The Routledge Companion to Digital Journalism Studies (2017) and The Routledge Handbook of Developments in Digital Journalism Studies (2019).
