ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the ethics of making media from the perspective of the photographer or the person behind the camera. When real-life issues arise, there will often be competing considerations that the cameraperson will have to weigh and balance. The camera is the portal between the real world and the media universe-the exact location where fleeting events are frozen in time and engraved into the permanent record.
Operating a film or video camera requires numerous choices and split-second decisions. Unlike ethical issues that come up during planning or editing, those that arise while filming often do so suddenly with little time for thinking through the implications. How the camera is used at those moments will determine the range of ethical or unethical uses the material can be put to later on. Questions of truth, distortion, context, fairness, exploitation, consent, doing harm, and privacy must be assessed and addressed in real time-so it’s essential to have a good grasp of them before you pick up the camera.
