Ethical Dilemma

Ethical Dilemma

I am a person who wants to affect change in the world, I was raised by my family to be a person who is honest and most of all to do all things for the glory of God. in my for years of taking up mass communications I have encountered situations where in I was faced by the facts that in the industry I am studying for, temptations will creep on you from all directions and at some point I have questioned; do I really want to be a part of this industry?

I want to be a photographer, right now I am earning a living through that. I shoot weddings, debuts, events and other stuff. Right now the only problem I face is to make the photos that I shoot beautiful for my clients. Yes, I do post processing a little edit here and there but I have never done anything that has jeopardized the integrity of the photos that I take. I always try to capture the moment in its essence and stick to its truth.

One of the things ethical dilemmas that I think would be facing when I become a part of the industry is whether “to shoot or not to shoot? Or if I took photos, should I post them or not?” there was this one time when I was driving going up north I came across a traffic accident wherein a person was hit by a bus and the bus did not have the audacity to stop. Instinctively I brought out my camera to take pictures of the event but as I came closer to the accident I realized that the person was mutilated by the accident and was near death. Right then and there I decided not to take photos anymore. I felt that it would be insensitive of me to take photos of a person dying and I am more of an artsy kind of photographer, I wouldn’t want to take photos of such a tragic event. This happened a year ago and I am not yet a part of the media industry. But what if this happens again in the future where I am working for a newspaper for example? As a media practitioner we are tasked to deliver news to people and as a photographer we have to document such events for work. But still it I walk in a very thin line and I don’t know what to do. Good thing now that I somewhat have an idea what to do in this situations. When I asked my professor one time whether to shoot or not to shoot, she said that “if it’s in front of you shoot.” So I will shoot, but whether to publish them or not? I will refer to the Markulla Framework for Ethical decision making.

If I were to use the utilitarian approach wherein I would choose to the option which will produce more good and the least harm, I would publish the photos with the permission of the family of the victim. In this way I would be able to serve the community by the information I have and at the same time not harm the wishes of the family of the victim.

The people have the right to information and the family has the right to their privacy as well. If I was to use the rights approach in the framework, I probably would not post the photos because if I post the photos I would violate the privacy of the family. Plus I don’t think that people would want to view photos of accidents.

If I were to use the Justice approach which treats people equally and proportionately, I would post the photos. I would just set in mind that no matter what I cover is public property. That way I would be fair to all parties involved. Besides, it’s my job.

On the other hand, if I use the Common Good approach, I would post the photos because in the words of Spock in the sci-fi series star trek, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” Thus the needs of information of people are greater.

Among these options my favorite and what I live by is the virtue approach, because this reflects me to be the person that I want to be. As I said earlier am a person who was raised to do what is right. And in my opinion something that sensitive and graphic should not be published. People would understand why I would not want to post the photos. We are a sensitive race who respects privacy of people greatly.

In the end I am all new to this. I have a lot of things to learn along the way. Now that I have this framework to guide me in my ethical decision making, I am now more optimistic for the future. Even though the outcomes of the different approaches are different, I believe that all of them guides us to make the best decisions in regards to the factors involved. It also enables us to postulate the different possibilities that we can explore to create a better ethical solution. But after everything, I will stay true to what I believe. No matter what the future holds for me, I will stick with the values and principles that I have. I will stay true to what is right.

“Truth is the highest thing that a man can keep”, this are the words of Geoffrey Chaucer in his book the Canterbury tales. I agree with him, there is nothing higher but upholding the truth at all times. One of the most powerful entities in this world is the Media. If you were born in the late 80’s here in the Philippines, then you are most probably a person who looks to media for his information about the world. Here in the Philippines; media is a part of our daily lives, our opinions about a certain issue is most of the time of those of the newscasters or analysts that we watch and listen to on tv and radio.

How heavily should media weigh social justice against its subscribers, advertisers and audiences? Before I answer that what is social justice for me? Social justice is treating each member of society equally and without prejudice. So my answer to the question is most definitely, a lot! If social justice is being fair to all parties concerned then I believe that media should put that in priority among the rest. Upholding social justice eliminates all bias amongst us. Truth will flourish.

All should be given equal importance, I don’t mean to sound like a communist but if we treat each commitment with fairness and equality, we wouldn’t have the problems that we are facing now as a country. Men are created equally thus there is no room for improper treatment. All we need to do to make a moral decision is to identify what is the best for everyone. To treat everyone with respect, trust and love for me is true social justice. And as future media practitioners we should break the bonds of social injustice here in the Philippines, give the news for what it is, and let the people know the truth.