Ethics, Page 2

Link: New Guardian, Scoopshot efforts bring elements of automation to photo verification | Poynter.

The Guardian and Scoopshot both recently unveiled new initiatives to bring an element of automation to verification. In both cases a human element is still essential. But as I noted previously, it’s important to see how much machines can help us deal with the challenge of verifying large amounts of content more quickly.

Link: Bombings Trip Up Reddit in Its Turn in Spotlight – NYTimes.com

Last Monday, Erik Martin, the site’s general manager, posted an apology, saying, “Activity on Reddit fueled online witch hunts and dangerous speculation which spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties. The Reddit staff and the millions of people on Reddit around the world deeply regret that this happened.”

Link: Why The Huffington Post ran graphic photos from a gun murder | Poynter.

Bert Heyman wanted the photos of his son Chris Heyman’s 2004 gun death to have an impact on the national debate over gun laws. “He wants every part of his son’s case to matter,” Huffington Post reporter Jason Cherkis told Poynter in a phone call. “It’s almost like organ donation in a way.”

Link: Image Authentication and Forensics | Fourandsix Technologies – Blog – On the Wisdom of the Crowd

In short, crowd-sourced photo and video footage will no doubt be a valuable tool to deploy in many future investigations, but it is a tool to be approached with an abundance of caution. The potential for a distortion of the truth is very real, and the consequences can be serious and heartbreaking

Link: BBC News – Boston bombing: How internet detectives got it very wrong

Internet users tried for days to piece together clues about the culprits of the Boston bombings. The result? They got it wrong – and left innocent people fearing for their safety

Link: Thoughts on the Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Photos — BagNews

First of all, I can’t believe the NY Post was taken in by all the amateur visual forensics, actually running one of Wednesday’s viral images on their front page. But hey, the kid was Moroccan and had a backpack. What else do you need?

Link: News Media Weigh Use of Photos of Carnage – NYTimes.com

“Here in America, we see gruesome photographs that come from war, the third world, a horrible accident or come from European and Middle Eastern terrorism. We typically don’t see those pictures on the front page of newspapers,” Mr. Winslow said. “Not since 9/11, we have not had to deal with pictures from the East Coast mainstream media corridor.”

Link: Daily News won’t comment on why it altered photo from Boston explosions | Poynter.

The Daily News seems to have digitally altered a photograph of someone wounded during the explosions at the Boston Marathon Monday. A wound on the person’s leg disappeared in the version of the photo the Daily News ran.

Link: Tell Us: In Times Of Tragedy, What Do You Want To See? : The Picture Show : NPR

“The reality is that if we are to tell the truth we will cause some harm,” he says.

Link: A Blurry Double Standard? A Photo from the Boston Marathon Bombing

When it comes to newsworthy items, we should not allow ourselves to censor the flow of information. As Schneier opined in the aforementioned piece, “But we need to be vigilant not to weaken the very freedoms and liberties that make this country great, meanwhile, just because we’re scared.”

Link: Horse of a Different Color: Charlotte Observer’s Creative Contribution to Photo Processing Debate — BagNews

What struck me immediately was: what a wonderful way to cue the public that something is up with news photography — and to make it known with such a simple (and essentially non-verbal) illustration.

Link: Daily News doctored a doctored Leno-Fallon photo | Poynter.

The New York Post, The Village Voice and The Hollywood Reporter were among the outlets that ran the photo, Smith and Shearer report. The Daily News altered the image further, plopping a big pile of cash in Fallon’s lap

Link: Conscientious Extended | The Ethics of Street Photography

If you take a photograph of someone and that person confronts you about it, how do you react? The most common response from photographers appears to be that provided you’re in a public space you can take any picture you want. That’s true, at least in a legal sense. But it does not really address the issue at hand at all: If someone does not want their photograph taken do you, as a photographer, just go ahead and do so anyway, because you can? I actually do not think that’s such a good idea

Link: Is This North Korean Hovercraft-Landing Photo Faked? – In Focus – The Atlantic

While researching a photo entry about North Korea’s recent threats of war, I discovered an image released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) that appears to have been digitally manipulated — at least two, possibly three hovercraft appear to have been pasted into the scene of a military exercise, reportedly taking place on North Korea’s east coast on March 25, 2013

Link: The Dutch Media’s Immigrant Photo Drama — BagNews

Some problems are difficult to visualize with photographs. The “problem” with immigrants (in The Netherlands) is one of them. For a while now, I have been fascinated by one picture that is used in all kinds of Dutch news articles.