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To cite this Article Lowrey, Wilson(2003) 'Normative Conflict in the Newsroom: The Case of Digital Photo Manipulation',
Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 18: 2, 123 — 142
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1207/S15327728JMME1802_05
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327728JMME1802_05
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Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 18(2), 123–142
Copyright © 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Wilson Lowrey
Department of Communication
Mississippi State University
o Digital photo manipulation is often treated in the literature as a problem that oc-
curs when individuals stray from a single set of ethical standards. It is proposed in
this study that the newsroom comprises various subgroups, each with unique norms
and values, and each seeking to shape newsroom decision making. It is expected that
photo manipulation should result from subgroups’ perceptions of, and reactions to,
this plurality of newsroom norms. This expectation is assessed through both in-depth
interviews and a national phone survey of visual journalism managers. In-depth in-
terviews reveal the existence of various sets of norms; these include integrative
norms, which reflect the needs of the organization, art norms, and journalistic
norms. Journalistic norms are perceived as dominant, but where art norms are stron-
ger, photo manipulation is slightly more likely. Findings also suggest photos are more
likely to be manipulated when newsrooms are large and complex and when visual
journalists strain to fit visuals with story theme.
Tomlinson, 1987).
Reaves (1995a) also hinted at another possibility: that news workers
have different perceptions about the nature of photography in news work.
For example, magazine editors tend to view photos as subjective illustra-
tions to a greater degree than do newspaper editors. These different per-
ceptions reflect different sets of newsroom norms, some of which may
challenge the traditional journalistic norm of objective representation. In
this study I examine the varied nature of the newsroom’s normative envi-
ronment through the perceptions of one newsroom subgroup: visual jour-
nalists. I explore the subgroup’s perceptions of differing norms; the ways
in which these perceptions affect decision making; and whether visual
journalists who adopt rival norms are more likely to make ethical breaches,
in this case, manipulate photos.2
Review of Literature
Sociology of Work, Occupations, and Organizations
Subgroups in newsrooms are usually thought of as a division of labor
that serves newsroom efficiency (Russial, 1998; Salcetti, 1995; Solomon,
1995). However, subgroups may also be perceived as occupational groups
that work within organizational walls and meet organizational challenges
to their ability to control work (Abbott, 1991; Sonnestuhl & Trice, 1991).
Employees may be more committed to their occupational group than to
their organization (Trice, 1993), and members of organizational subgroups
may “consider themselves to be engaged in the same sort of work [with
one another], identify with their work, [and] share a set of values, norms
and perspectives” (Van Maanen & Barley, 1984, p. 295).
Increasingly, organizations house multiple occupational subgroups
(Abbott, 1988), and “resources and the goals of the organization are up for
grabs and people grab for them continually” (Perrow, 1986, pp. 12–13).
Subcultures in organizations “seek to control their organizational desti-
nies” (Bloor & Dawson, 1994, p. 285), and the subgroup that most success-
fully defines the normative environment for a workplace gains greater le-
gitimacy and control over work processes and decision making about
ethics (Abbott, 1988; Bloor & Dawson, 1994; Trice, 1993). This introduction
of subgroups with new areas of expertise may pose a threat to established
Lowrey 125
visual journalists say they are viewed with suspicion by reporters and edi-
tors (Moses, 1999) and that they generally feel a lack of influence and re-
spect relative to word journalists (Bethune, 1984; Gentry & Zang, 1989;
Kohorst, 1999).
This conflict has long historical roots. Zelizer (1995) described how
reporters and editors in the 1930s did everything they could to under-
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Photo Manipulation
The literature on digital photo manipulation makes little mention of
multiplicity of norms. As discussed, most studies approach photo manipu-
lation as a breach of a singular code of ethics reflecting the traditional
norms of journalistic objectivity. For example, Reaves (1995b) has called for
greater protection of the essential shared values of journalists: accuracy,
balance, relevance, and completeness. Technology has been viewed as the
culprit (Harris, 1991; Ritchin, 1990), and ethics case-study treatments tend
to view the problem as a lack of effective communication among depart-
ments (Irby, 1998; King, 1997). Reaves (1995a, 1995c) and Wheeler and
Gleason (1995) suggested economic factors play an important role, and
smaller, less professionally developed newsrooms are more likely to be
permissive toward photo manipulation (Reaves, 1992/1993). Within
newsrooms the categorization of photos as news or features predicts per-
missiveness (Reaves, 1995c), and TV news directors and magazine editors
have been shown to be more permissive than newspaper editors (Gladney
& Erlich, 1996; Reaves, 1995c).
In-Depth Interviews
Research questions and method. Two research questions were asked:
Interview Findings
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Art norms. Art norms in visual journalism dictate that staffers value
the visual aesthetics of a photo, graphic, or page. Self-expression and artis-
tic voice are considered important. Pages and elements should catch the
client’s eye, which is representative of the values found in commercial
graphic arts. As Becker (1982) suggested, for the commercial artist, ideas of
commercial success are intertwined with ideas of aesthetic success. Art
norms are sometimes embraced as a defense against the dominant journal-
istic culture in newsrooms.
objectivity were spoken of with reverence, and most managers said they
look to hire journalism school graduates. The idea of art for art’s sake, or of
photos as ornamentation, was rejected. Visual journalism managers ac-
knowledged the existence of art norms, but they either largely ignored
them or drove them underground.
Although journalistic values were seen as worthy of pursuit, they were
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often spoken of as something just beyond the grasp of the visual journalist.
One design director said that editors and writers do not take visual jour-
nalists seriously: “At the news meetings, you’re in a room full of smart,
opinionated people, and it’s difficult to bring in an opinion that doesn’t
sound subjective.” One West Coast design director said some designers
lack confidence because they have no journalism background: “We work
on getting them to articulate reasons for designing.” Visual journalists feel
a need to learn the language of reporters and editors. Another director
said, “Before we can make recommendations and expect people to follow
them, we have to know how to talk a story.”
For photo directors, practicing journalism seems to mean accurately
representing the stories the photos accompany rather than directly rep-
resenting the world out there. It is assumed that the reporter has already
brought back the truth or a close approximation. Among the interviewed
photo managers, there was little tolerance for purely artistic representa-
tion and, therefore, little evidence that they would alter photos for aes-
thetic purposes. A vignette by a photo director from a Southwestern
daily demonstrates:
A West Coast paper’s photo director explained his photo assigning phi-
losophy: “I’ve always wanted to know what the story was about first in or-
der to think about the best way to illustrate it … this is the approach we
take here, and in most cases it works.”
Art norms were discussed in conflicting ways. On one hand, some
photo directors discussed the importance of self-expression in their staff
photos and of the inner voice and stylistic personality of their photogra-
phers. On the other hand, none of the visual journalism managers overtly
embraced the concept of art for art’s sake. One design director described
his department as newsy and business like. He said: “We try to be very
content driven … we think news.” An assistant design director for a South-
130 Normative Conflict
ern daily said that when hiring, the paper looked for designers who value
the story-telling aspect as opposed to ornamentation.
There is limited evidence that art norms could encourage permissive at-
titudes toward the altering of photos but only when art norms are related
to commercial success. One art director described why removing back-
grounds from photos was sometimes necessary to attract readers:
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If you don’t pull out all the stops and do all kinds of exciting, innova-
tive stuff, people won’t read the paper … people don’t want endless
rectangular photos and gray type. If you can integrate images and
text more fluidly and more dynamically, it will make a more exciting
page.
A few managers rejected photo altering for aesthetic reasons rather than
for reasons reflecting journalistic ethics. An art director described his prob-
lems with one of the photo illustrations in his paper: “It looked hokey. It
wasn’t worked enough,” whereas another photo illustration was accept-
able because the artist “had talent for this sort of illustration.” Several art
and photo directors said they disliked masked photos (with the back-
ground cut out), not because they are less newsworthy, but because the
technique is cliche or because that tool is overused.
Directors said they used the language of visual journalism to gain influ-
ence in the newsroom. Photo directors described how they and their photo
editors intentionally use cryptic artistic jargon when discussing photos
with news editors to influence photo selection. Other directors spoke of the
need to educate or manipulate word journalists.
The acceptance of integrative norms appears to be important to deci-
sion-making about photo manipulation. Design directors stressed the im-
portance of seamless integration of both page elements and staff. Readers
require conceptual and visual fit among story, photo, graphic, and head-
line, and the subgroups responsible for these elements must coalesce as
well. A design director at a Southern daily said photographers and design-
ers get along well but that sometimes photo editors don’t have time to read
stories, and they will offer photos that “hang a left while the story hangs a
right.” He said a good dialogue ensues, typically resulting in photo editors
choosing a photo that better illustrates the story. Another design director
said the photo staff at his paper had formerly been a maverick department
but had now been brought into the fold.
Under integrative norms, the page itself is the true representational con-
text for news elements. It becomes more important that a news photo fit
with a preconceived page theme and structure and less important that it fit
with the external reality represented by the photo’s content. When news
photos are illustrations—when their real news value is not intrinsic but is
Lowrey 131
design director from the Northeast said, “I do not like going around a de-
partment and manipulating a photographer’s work without involving
him in the process … but I’d say more times than not my [photo alteration]
ideas get executed with the photographer’s involvement.”
The Survey
Hypotheses and method. Interview findings and the literature sug-
gest several possible predictors of photo manipulation. Hypotheses were
constructed to test these predictions, and concepts were measured
through data from a national survey of design directors at large U.S.
newspapers.
Within academic and trade literature, it is generally agreed that a photo
has been unethically manipulated if the alteration changes elements as
originally seen in the camera’s viewfinder and if this alteration violates
public trust (Davis, 1992; Gladney & Erlich, 1996; Martin, 1991; Wheeler &
Gleason, 1995). The public may expect airbrushing of glamour photos, but
seamless alteration that goes beyond the commonly understood is consid-
ered unethical (Wheeler & Gleason, 1995) and violates shared journalistic
norms of accuracy and completeness (Reaves, 1995b).
The survey measure of the criterion variable is worded thus: “Within
the last two years have any news photos been digitally altered in your
newsroom in a way that was viewed in your newsroom as unethical or un-
authorized?” Actual unethical manipulation by some objective standard is
less important here than the perception of a breach of dominant newsroom
norms.
A second criterion variable is the existence of rules governing the ma-
nipulation of photos. Existence of formal rules should be evidence of the
strength of journalistic norms in the newsroom’s culture. Rules against
manipulation are evidence that the organization formally embraces the
norms and values of the profession.
The survey sample included both design directors and news editors, but
design directors were the survey respondents for this study. Even though
most studies of photo treatment measure responses from photo staff, de-
sign directors have a strong influence because they oversee the final selec-
tion, sizing, and placement of photos. According to the survey, around half
of the design directors and editors surveyed said designers have a great
132 Normative Conflict
deal or complete control over image selection, and around three fourths
said designers have a great deal or complete control over layout. Also,
more than half of the design directors surveyed said that most of their
staffs were proficient in the use of photo imaging software.
Interview findings suggest different sets of norms exist in the work of
news presentation. It is proposed that stronger orientation toward journal-
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H1a: The stronger the orientation of the design staff toward journal-
istic professional norms, the less likelihood of unethical photo
manipulation.
H1b: The stronger the orientation of the design staff toward journalistic
professional norms, the greater the likelihood of the existence of
rules governing photo manipulation.
It should also be the case that strong artistic norms predict greater likeli-
hood of photo manipulation and decreased likelihood of the existence of
rules. Strong art norms should suggest that photos are viewed more as
illustrations and less as news, and that, therefore, the professional taboo
against manipulation would be weaker. Self-expression and aesthetic
quality would be considered more important in the subgroup than objec-
tive representation. As with journalistic norms, orientation toward profes-
sional art norms was measured by questions about educational back-
ground, hiring criteria, and professional affiliation.
H2a: The stronger the orientation of the design staff toward art professional
norms, the greater the likelihood of unethical photo manipulation.
H2b: The stronger the orientation of the design staff toward art profes-
sional norms, the less likelihood of the existence of rules governing
photo manipulation.
The literature and interviews suggest news workers are strongly influ-
enced by organizational constraints. Interviews indicated that designers
value good fit between story and image and are judged by their ability to
Lowrey 133
H4a: The larger the news organization the less likelihood of unethical
photo manipulation.
H4b: The larger the news organization, the greater the likelihood of the
existence of rules governing photo manipulation.
These hypotheses were tested through data derived from a 2000 na-
tional telephone survey of design managers at all daily U.S. newspapers
with an average weekday circulation of more than 50,000. The sample,
taken from a 1999 Editor & Publisher database, included 233 newspapers.
Ultimately, completed surveys were obtained from 230 of the 233 respon-
dents, for a rate of 98.7%. The sample is therefore treated as an enumera-
tion of the population of all U.S. newspapers with more than 50,000 circu-
134 Normative Conflict
Yes, a news photo has been digitally altered in an 25.3 34.9 28.6
unethical way
Gamma = .020, Pearson’s r = .036
Yes, there are formal rules in the newsroom about 49.3 45.3 32.9
digitally altering photos
Gamma = –.225, Pearson’s r = –.204
Note. N = 210.
Lowrey 135
Yes, a news photo has been digitally altered in an 29.2 15.9 37.0
unethical way
Gamma = .131, Pearson’s r = .092
Yes, there are formal rules in the newsroom about 46.5 49.3 38.4
digitally altering photos
Gamma = –.111, Pearson’s r = –.085
Note. N = 214.
Note. N = 219.
136 Normative Conflict
Note. N = 225.
Discussion
Findings show that visual journalists perceive a plurality of norms in
the newsroom. It does not appear that ethical behavior is shaped in an en-
vironment in which a single set of journalistic norms is either switched on
or off. However, there is only a slight indication that conflicting norms un-
dermine traditional journalistic behavior—at least in the case of photo ma-
nipulation. Manipulation was no more likely in newsrooms in which re-
spondents had weaker journalistic norms, but art norms did have a limited
impact. The stronger the art norms, the more likely the manipulation and
the less likely the existence of rules controlling manipulation. There was
support for this finding in the in-depth interviews. Some visual journalism
managers justified their opposition to manipulation with aesthetic argu-
ments rather than journalistic arguments, which begs the question: Would
Lowrey 137
they have approved the manipulation if they had found the manipulation
to be aesthetically pleasing?
In-depth interview and survey results suggested several other areas of
concern. One, it appears that organizational size and complexity may lead to
a greater likelihood of photo manipulation, despite the increased presence
of rules guiding photo use in these same newsrooms. Two, in matters of
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news judgment, visual journalists often defer to editors and reporters (the
dominant subculture), whom they regard as more in touch with traditional
journalistic norms. This implies visual journalists may not be taking their
own role as journalists seriously enough, despite rhetoric to the contrary.
Three, visual journalists, particularly page designers, may be more likely to
manipulate photos for the sake of good fit between visuals and text when in-
tegrative norms are strong in newsrooms. These points are discussed next.
ity of time constraints was not predictive of photo manipulation. This con-
flict between in-depth interview findings and survey findings suggests
further study of integrative norms is warranted.
Conclusions
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The culture of subgroup conflict has not been fully explored in the mass
communication literature, but it appears to be an increasingly relevant
framework. The advent of online journalism, for example, has introduced
a perceived invasion of “techies” into newsrooms. What values and norms
have these online workers brought with them, and how might this intro-
duction of new norms and values affect newsroom culture and, therefore,
ethical decision making on a daily basis? Future studies should incorpo-
rate newsroom observation into the methodology for a more complete pic-
ture of the newsroom’s normative environment. Future studies should
also explore subgroup conflict more directly by examining more than one
subgroup.
This study suggests that the decision to manipulate a photo—or to violate
norms in general—is not merely a case of an individual or group of individu-
als making an error in judgment. Individuals work within the structures and
normative patterns of complex organizations and occupations, and the or-
ganization’s size and constraints have an important impact on the effect of
occupational norms and values. Ethical decision making in the newsroom
seems to lie near the intersection of occupation and organization.
Notes
1. Norms in this study are seen as “specifying what the members [of a group] or
other [people] should do, ought to do, are expected to, under given circum-
stances.” This definition comes from Homans (1950, p. 123), who places
norms “in the minds of individuals.” This study takes a more sociological
view of norms, adopting Durkheim’s (1893/1984) notion that norms are not
housed in individual minds. They are rather informal social rules, or social
facts, that become evident when violated. Homans’s definition, however, is
helpful for its allusion to given circumstances, which emphasizes the impor-
tance of variability in environment to the relative strength of norms.
2. It is fair to say that the initial wave of concern over the manipulation of news
photos has receded over the past three or four years since the last high-profile
cases of manipulation in mainstream journalism were reported (most notably
Time’s 1994 OJ cover, Newsweek’s 1997 cover photo of septuplet mother Bobbi
McCaughey with altered teeth, and the Atlanta Constitution’s 1996 altering of a
“Travel” cover shot). However, incidents of photo manipulation in major
news publications have occurred since. In February 2001 background was
added and a football player’s uniform was altered in a Sports Illustrated cover
140 Normative Conflict
photo (Irby, 2001). Also the new pervasiveness of photo imaging technol-
ogy—for example, photo-imaging software is now being marketed to chil-
dren—means that questions of photo imaging ethics may even gain added
importance.
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