At the core of the issue of ethics in journalism — and the related issue of building and maintaining readership trust — is the manner and method of the news collection process and public awareness of it. Of all the professional guidelines Kobre offers on whether photographers should shoot or refrain, the idea of the photographer imagining having to explain to the reader how the photo was taken seems the most effective.

If, for example, a photographer had to report that she watched as a little girl suffered, trapped behind the wheel of a wrecked automobile, while she composed the perfect shot, I think the photog would realize the ends of getting a gripping image do not outweigh the means.

If photographers maintained this standard, media would be on the way to building readers’ trust. The results of those decisions would be images most readers could emotionally and intellectually process. I think even today the journalist standards of news gathering are a mystery to the average reader —a mystery that creates a growing divide between professional and public. Kobre cites studies highlight the growing differences between what editors and public think about which photos are appropriate to print. From them, it appears the public has become increasingly unaccepting of the motives or decisions of journalists. What has changed during the time spans mentioned in these studies? … Journalistic standards? Methods of communication? Public attitudes? The world? All of the above?

Editorial decisions touch the lives of millions of people each day. Journalism is a powerful profession; the business of which is not founded on laws, but on shifting and evolving professional standards. If the public had some knowledge of the news values and professional standards behind an editor’s decision to run a photo or story, they might be equipped to understand the business for what it is — an institution with an critical mandate built on the heroism and fallibility of human beings.

To demystify the process of news/photo collection and selection, and to introduce the public to the human decisions made on a daily basis that control the content of the news, public schools should include in the curriculum courses in media criticism, news standards, theory and ethics.

If people were so informed, they might be empowered to participate in a civil society, rather than fear press power or uncritically accept, for example, the mediated words of a politician on a smear campaign. Informed readers may be less likely to want to hide from gruesome but profoundly true images, and more likely to create an informed opinion about the issues raised by the photos a professional photographer and editor have placed on the page.