The article "Accepting Manipulation or Manipulating What's Acceptable" written by Aaron Quinn explains the countless different ways photojournalists can use software tools to modify photos which meet the photographer's imagination or requirements, which is not necessarily reality. Aaron Quinn discusses how use of technology affects the art of photography. He starts off by talking about the currently decreased trust in photojournalism because of the usage of developed software. Photography has lost its true meaning because of the misuse of technology in the name of aesthetics. Quinn explains that a news photographer can modify and manipulate his photographs with different tools available to him such as distance, lens and light. Photography has developed from an unbiased technological standard to personalized art that has changed the professionalism of photojournalism. .
The author then moves onto the ethical issues aroused because of that: journalism is a part of media and it communicates information in a way that whatever is shown via print media or television is actual and true, therefore it can lead to form a strong basis for viewpoint and perception about the world of the audience. Journalism also means conveying a real story or incident in such a way that it reaches out to the highest number of readers. Just in the manner how a story can be true enough to be written as an article in the newspaper, it can also be false if changed by modifying the information or by adding opinions to it, likewise a photograph can be real or untrue depending on how much the picture has been modified.
The ethical exam that Quinn discusses is to understand the rationale behind manipulating and modifying selected parts of a photograph depends on the different theories of ethics. Utilitarianism moral ethics theory keeps the focus of right and wrong on outcomes of doing one action over the other.
