The Boston Photographs

Date:

TheBoston Photographs

Thedebate for and against the publishing of death and dying has beenthere since time immemorial and has been a bone of contention betweenvarious people. Since death is an unavoidable rite of passage,proponents claim that a person should be honored by publishinghis/her photo in the newspapers. Those against the publishing ofphotographs in the newspapers necessitate that death is private andshould not be made public whatsoever through posting. However, thepower of the pictures of the dying is critical, and the decision topublish or not to publish in the newspapers should remain with theresponsible persons. Nora Ephron is of the opinion that photos of thedeath should be published and has given various reasons to supporther argument. It is therefore in this regard that this project willprovide the summary of her arguments and give the reasons whypublishing photos of the dead is inappropriate and unjustifiable.

Noraexplains that death occurs in the life and people should be honoredby their photos being published for everyone to see. She narratesthat it is justifiable for people to be provided with the raw photosof the dead to understand what goes on around them. Death being oneof the main events in the life of a person it should be publishedjust like any other life event. However, it is wrong for thenewspapers to publish the photos of the dying only for the solepurpose of attracting readers. Leister suggests that publishingphotos of the dying individuals on newspapers shows an explicitlyhigh level of moral decay and lack of respect for the dead (117).Such actions compromise the privacy of the family as well as the deadperson, making the public view them in a negative perspective.Publishing such photos just for the reason of letting everyone to seeis seamlessly unethical and should be discouraged by all meanspossible.

Ephronclaims that in the event of an accident, the people who die are themost significant that the accident itself (Barnet and Bedau 173).That is what makes photojournalism be what it is. Being part of thebigger story, the photos of dead people should be as well publishedas they are part of the story. To her, the story is not in theaccident or whichever the occurrence that brings about death but thedeath itself. This is irrelevant for her to provide suchinconsiderate reasons. There is nothing beautiful in photos of thedead being published as a representation of an accident. Death shouldnot be glorified through posting the pictures of corpses innewspapers. Furthermore, posting such photos as claimed by Nora wouldmake people freak out and avoid traveling by roads upon imaginingthat what displayed in newspapers is what can befall them.

Herargument is based on the promotion of photojournalism and increasingreadership without due consideration of the social implications ofsuch actions. In a civilized modern society, it is unethical andoutrageous to post such photos. Posting them should not beprioritized just for reasons of showing the prowess and effectivenessof photojournalism. Before people decide on whether to publish themin the newspapers, it is critical to evaluate the negative andpositive impacts that such an action would bring forth. It isimperative that Journalism should be done in a more responsible andostensibly accountable manner.

WorksCited

Barnet,Sylvan and Hugo Bedau. CurrentIssues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking andArgument, with Readings.Bedford/St. Martin`s, 2013.

Lester,Paul Martin. Visualcommunication: Images with messages.Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2014.