Publishing issue #1 Image Manipulation

Newspaper is always deemed credible by the public as there are guidelines for newspaper publisher to follow. However, MacKinnon (2005) says that mainstream journalism has lost credibility in the past decades and journalists are trying to get it back. Yet, given the effort it is still a shock to know that news manipulation still happens.

Despite having rules to abide, there are still articles who failed to do so in news publishing. The article ‘Orthodox Jewish paper apologises for Hillary Clinton deletion’ which was published on TheGuardian on 10 May 2011 reports on the digital deleting of Hillary Clinton and Audrey Tomason from an image released by the White House by an orthodox Jewish newspaper.  The image was originally an image showing the situation in the White House room while Predident Barack Obama and his subordinates monitor the raid by navy Seals that killed Osama bin Laden.

The Brooklyn weekly Yiddish newspaper, Di Tzeitung states that the photo editor failed to read the fine print accompanying the photograph that forbids any changes to be made. Furthermore, the publication has a long term editorial policy of not publishing women’s image mentioning that Jewish law sees such action as a courtesy to not judge women based on their position.

Even though apologetic and sincere, the question raised by Di Tzeitung is whether news publishing has to alter based on the customs and norms to fit the reader’s belief. Regardless of traditions of a community, it is a must for newspaper to follow the guidelines set to them in news publishing. The SPJ (2011) code of ethics clearly stated that newspaper should never distort the contents of news photo and video. Thus, the action taken by the photo editor of Di Tzeitung is wrong as it will mislead the readers.

Lastly, even with an apology issued to the victims, Yiddih newspaper, Di Tzeitung’s credibility will still crumble as the fear of news manipulation might happen again in future news coverage. Also, in Malaysia, as reported by Centre of Independent Journalism (CIJ) statistics on BERSIH’s news coverage, Utusan had the highest number of negative articles (93.56%), followed by NST (74.83%), Star (65.79%) and Sun (62.16%) (Yam, 2011). The biggest issue raised here is should we as readers believe anything that mainstream newspaper publishs anymore?

Reference list

1. MacKinnon, R 2005, Ethics of Journalism and Blogging, in BLOGGING, JOURNALISM & CREDIBILITY: Battleground and Common Ground conference at Harvard University, American Library Association 
2. SPJ 2011, SPJ Code of Ethics, viewed on 12th Novermber 2011, <http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp>
3. Yam, Y 2011, Mainstream media didn't play their role on Bersih, viewed on 10^th November 2011, <http://goodtimes.my/index.php/News/mainstream-media-missed-the-boat-on-bersi-says-cij.html>
4. The Guardian, 2011, Orthodox Jewish paper apologizes for Hillary Clinton deletion, Associated Press, viewed on 12th November 2011, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/10/jewish-paper-apologises-hillary-clinton>