A Photograph: When Time Stops and History is Made

 March has certainly taken an unexpected turn; from unseasonably warm days to insensible acts of violence. Even after the protests of 2020, they are still an ongoing strike against the injustices that this nation faces. The positive side to these times of turmoil is that journalists have the power to light a fire of change that can hopefully spread swiftly through the thick brush that is the media. 

When perception determines the digestion of media, coverage is the most important component for journalists. Coverage determines how a story is perceived by an audience, and their perception determines how they digest the story's material. Knowing this, some media outlets choose to "pump up" a story's stakes or only promote one side of a story in order to make it more "flashy" and appealing. This can be considered propaganda and is something journalists are no stranger to. In the 1940s, propaganda was used in order to rally American citizens to fight for the cause of WWII; although these tactics worked, many of them involved defamation of character of the other party (i.e. Asians). 

Now that propaganda days are over, journalists are faced with a different kind of thirst of "propaganda"; people, now more than ever, need to be inspired for change, and journalists have the power to create that spark through the content they produce. This is obviously easier said than done, as journalists also need to adhere to certain guidelines, and said guidelines can often times work against journalists. The mediaengagement.org points out that, "these recent protests have raised questions about the wisdom of journalism’s dogmatic commitment to objectivity, especially in the complex interplay between newsworthy stories and reporters’ own positions on social issues...The editors also sidelined Michael Santiago, a Black photographer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, from covering BLM content as well, ostensibly to avoid conflicts of interests throughout the duration of the protests (Folkenflik, 2020)...Burris [the top editor of the Post-Gazette] wrote “We did what we did for purely journalistic reasons,”...While some may feel that the newspaper editors were simply trying to tread cautiously during a time of social unrest, critics have pointed out that their new rules for protecting objectivity have not been equally applicable to all of their journalists...Objectivity is often hailed as a standard that helps secure the truthfulness behind the act of reporting, but as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s actions show, there may be steep costs that accompany the efforts of news organizations to try to stamp out sources of prejudgment or supposed bias among its reporters". Although this article portrays a very specific incident, the problem of journalists being confined by skewed guidelines still remains. While said guidelines exist in order to uphold integrity and truthfulness, sometimes they can become so rigid that they work against what they strive to protect, thus ceasing the creation of (what could be) some of the most powerful content that would move people to their core.