Read the material for this week and elaborate:
- What's the role of photo journalism?
The role of photo journalism is to produce photos accurately of news for public use in ways that may or may not be done as effectively as traditional journalism. It is an alternative medium that can be very powerful and revealing human life and truth. Its significance is great because it can be the truest form of representation. The reason for this is that photos are credible visuals; this is especially true because photo journalists are not authorized to alter their works in any way. It has however become more difficult to determine what is truly authentic because of the use of advance technology that can seamlessly alter photos without much effort.

- Are there rules that photojournalists should follow? Why? Why not?
There are many rules that photojournalists should follow when taking pictures. Here is an example: Photo journalism must display three important qualities: Timeliness, Objectivity and also be Narrative. Timeless defined as the photos must having meaning of context, Objectivity defined as a non bias or fair representation and Narrative make the context relatable to the viewer. I believe these are important to defining what exactly the difference between photojournalism and photography is.

According to Gordana S. Icevska’s Essay “Shooting the Truth: How photographs in the media betray us ”Photojournalists should also do the following:
• “Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects
• Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work.
• Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.
• Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.
• Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.”

All the points noted above should definably be followed by a photojournalist because it ensures the best qualify of work, while preserving the integrity of those individuals who are being shot.

- Is the ethics of taking journalistic photos different than the ethics of writing a news story?
I think that the ethics of taking journalistic photos is quite similar to the ethics of writing a news story but different at the same time. With journalistic photos there are guidelines that you must follow in order to represent those who are being photographed the same can be said for writing a news story. In news stories you can extract what you see and hear from an event. What makes the two different is the amount of true experience you may gain from each median. A photojournalist is able to capture the visual parts of an event while a reporter may pick up more sounds and experience that capture the other senses. A photojournalist may take photos that can be led to more interpretation than maybe what a reporter writes. This is because a reporter must fill the space between facts with their own words to organize them and sometimes these choices of words can leave an impression on those reading them. Essentially both mediums want to represent in the best way possible without bias and to do so they follow different rules for the same result.

- What's the impact of altering press photographs? Should they be edited (at all) in postproduction?
The impact of altering press photographs can be very large depending on what exactly is done to them. Anything majors such as cropping people out, adding people in , and anything else that would persuade the thoughts of a viewer to think differently from the original photo. By altering photos that will essentially be shown to the public defeats the purpose of photojournalism because to me it supposed to be a true form of news through the eye of a lens not a photo taken and manipulated to make a point. Postproduction photographs should only be edited to get right of minor defects, those kind of things include blurriness, red eye, brightness, focus, sharpness and depending on the photo the hue and/or saturation of colour.

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photojournalism
http://www.photography-schools.com/photojournalismhistory.htm
The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=106043963
“Shooting the Truth: How photographs in the media betray us” by Gordana S. Icevska’s Essay