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During this convention, photojournalists and photo editors confront some difficult challenges, including the constant need to determine whether the strategic staging of events interferes with the journalist's mission to provide an accurate portrayal of the day's events.

Confronting this challenge is essential in our very visual culture, because a photograph or frequently replayed video clip can be a powerful force. Images can sway public opinion and drive voters' decisions.

How photographers and editors address this issue will vary, but what remains constant is the intense pressure to bring people compelling, evocative, and dramatic images. To gain the kind of access photographers need to capture genuine moments from a campaign, they need to negotiate with candidates and their staff to gain access that goes beyond staged events. This requires a delicate balance between building relationships and maintaining editorial independence.

Here  are a few questions photo editors might ask as a way of ensuring that their newspapers' images offer readers a fair and accurate view.

• Have I taken the necessary steps to provide balanced coverage in my newspaper with respect to various candidates?
• Have I included the photographer in conversations about these issues?
• Do I trust the photographer to make good news decisions?
• Have I considered publishing explanatory captions with the photographs? These captions could illuminate how the photograph came to be taken, which might not be obvious by looking at the image. Would such captions help put the image into a broader, and perhaps more accurate, context? 

AP Photo/J. David Ake

Our credibility relies on our audience's belief in the accuracy of what they see.

As Election Day approaches, Americans will sift through lots of images. They ought to be able to trust that photographers and editors have thought enough about their choices to give them ones that illuminate what they need to know about the candidates and how they present themselves to the people.

An earlier version of this piece ran in the Spring 2004 Nieman Reports. Kenny Irby is visual journalism group leader at The Poynter Institute.