Think/Point/Shoot

ISBN 9781138847965; Paperback
294 Pages

Think/Point/Shoot
Media Ethics, Technology and Global Change
By Annette Danto, Mobina Hashmi, Lonnie Isabel

Book Description

Think/Point/Shoot gives students a thorough overview of the role of ethics in modern media creation. Case studies emphasize the critical issues in global media ethics today in all stages of media creation from preproduction research and development, to production and post production. This volume features practicing filmmakers, journalists, and media creators who provide insight into dealing with real-world ethical dilemmas.

For this era, digital imagery, sounds, and web communication have opened doors to sharing thoughts and ideas instantaneously to potentially vast audiences. This presents exciting opportunities, but also serious ethical, legal, and social challenges. The cases and exercises found in this book are applicable to the current media field while still remaining grounded in strong ethical theory. Think/Point/Shoot explains the challenge of communicating a story to a worldwide audience while maintaining ethical standards.

A companion website provides additional resources for students and instructors:

•         media ethics game
•         chapter summaries and case studies
•         important forms

Instructors will also find:

•         classroom exercises
•         PowerPoints
•         video from the "Global Media Ethics" Conference from March 2013

Table of Contents

Preface. Section I: Think 1. Target Audience: Selecting a Concept and Style  2. Funding and Agendas  3. Framing 4. Wide Shot vs. Close Up  5. F-Stop: Power Differentials  6. Identities: Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class Privilege Section II: Point 7. To Zoom or not to Zoom?  8. Rack Focus 9. Hidden Camera  Section III: Shoot 10. The Ethical Cinematographer 11. Sound Recording and Ethics  Section IV: Thoughts on Post Production Ethics 12. The Muscular Editor  13. Distribution Ethics  14. Copyright and the Right to Copy.  Conclusion

Biography

Annette Danto is a filmmaker and Professor in the Department of Film at Brooklyn College. A three time awarded Fulbright Scholar in Filmmaking, Danto holds degrees from McGill University, Columbia University and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film, Television and New Media.

Mobina Hashmi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Television and Radio at Brooklyn College, and the Director of the Center for Global Television. She has a BA from Dartmouth College, and a PhD in media and cultural studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Her work has been published in Economic and Political Weekly and in South Asian History and Culture.

Lonnie Isabel is a reporter and Former Deputy Managing Editor of Newsday and Newsday-Laventhol Visiting Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Isabel is a 30-year veteran of the newspaper business and has worked as a political reporter, investigative reporter and editor for Newsday, Boston Globe, Boston Herald and Oakland Tribune. Isabel joined the newly-created CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2005.

Reviews

    Documentaries have ethical, moral, and social implications. What we shoot, how we shoot it, can lead to painful or dangerous consequences. As makers, we focus on our aims and are apt to miss what is unseen or unimagined, especially when working under pressure. But audiences and participants see our work from a multiplicity of perspectives, and quickly spot our lapses. Think/Point/Shoot is the collective experience of filmmaking, journalism, and academic professionals. It offers a lifetime of hard-won knowledge. So, if you work in actuality filmmaking, or want to, make use of the book and prepare for the pitfalls and creative possibilities of the media currently in use.　

    Michael Rabiger, author of Directing the Documentary

    "...manages to provide some clarity to a subject shrouded in the murkiness of competing political agendas...The liberal use of case studies and real-life examples throughout the book is particularly effective. Each chapter ends with a summary of "Take-Home Points" and extensive bibliographies for additional reading. The real-life example on the final page is about the personal ramifications of "Twitter Shaming." This one lesson would qualify Think Point Shoot as recommended reading for teachers and parents dealing with all those thousands of kids running around with smartphones in their hands, making media."

    Cynthia Close in Documentary Magazine