Social media and disaster photography: go go or no no?

When a catastrophic public incident strikes, we are often met with a wide range of uncensored photographs spreading like wildfire through social media sites. These images can often be graphic and upsetting. The days of waiting for the next morning’s paper to read the news are long gone.

Within the increasing trend of citizen journalism, social networking and high-speed, always on, internet connections, it is impossible to avoid the outbreak of these images. This brings into question, the ethics of photojournalism and if/when a line should be drawn.

We follow the debate with a keen interest. Some of the professional photographers we work with think any shot is fair game, others disagree. What do you think?