This article explores the practices of selecting news images that depict death at a global picture agency, national picture agency and a news magazine. The study is based on ethnographic observations and interviews (N = 30) from three Western-based news organisations, each representing a link in the complex international news-image circulation process. Further, the organisations form an example of a chain of filters through which most of the news images produced for the global market have to pass before publication. These filters are scrutinised by the empirical case studies that examine the professionals’ ethical reasoning regarding images of violence and death. This research contributes to an understanding of the differences and similarities between media organisations as filters and sheds light on their role in shaping visual coverage. This study concludes that photojournalism professionals’ ethical decision-making is discursively constructed around three frames: (1) shared ethics, (2) relative ethics and (3) distributed ethics. All the organisations share certain similar conceptions of journalism ethics at the level of ideals. On the level of workplace practices and routines, a mixture of practical preconditions, journalism’s self-regulation, business logic and national legislation lead to differences in the image selection practices. It is argued that the ethical decision-making is distributed between – and sometimes even outsourced to – colleagues working in different parts of the filtering chain. Finally, this study suggests that dead or suffering bodies are often invisible in the images of the studied media organisations.

本文探讨了在全球图片社，国家图片社和新闻杂志中选择描述死亡的新闻图片的做法。该研究基于人种学的观察和访谈（N = 30）来自三个西方的新闻机构，每个机构都代表着复杂的国际新闻图像流通过程中的一个联系。此外，这些组织构成了一系列过滤器的示例，为全球市场制作的大多数新闻图像在发布之前都必须通过这些过滤器。这些筛选条件是通过经验案例研究进行审查的，该案例研究了专业人员关于暴力和死亡形象的道德推理。这项研究有助于理解媒体组织之间作为过滤器的区别和相似之处，并阐明它们在塑造视觉报道方面的作用。本研究的结论是，摄影新闻从业人员的道德决策是围绕三个框架进行话语构建的：（1）共享伦理，（2）相对伦理和（3）分布式伦理。所有组织在理想水平上都有某些类似的新闻道德观念。在工作场所惯例和例行程序的层面上，实践先决条件，新闻业的自我规范，商业逻辑和国家立法的混合导致图像选择惯例的差异。有人认为，道德决策是在过滤链的不同部分工作的同事之间分配的，有时甚至外包给他们。最后，这项研究表明，在所研究的媒体组织的形象中，尸体或受难者通常是看不见的。商业逻辑和国家立法导致图像选择实践的差异。有人认为，道德决策是在过滤链的不同部分工作的同事之间分配的，有时甚至外包给他们。最后，这项研究表明，在所研究的媒体组织的形象中，尸体或受难者通常是看不见的。商业逻辑和国家立法导致图像选择实践的差异。有人认为，道德决策是在过滤链的不同部分工作的同事之间分配的，有时甚至外包给他们。最后，这项研究表明，在所研究的媒体组织的形象中，尸体或受难者通常是看不见的。