Ethics plays a huge consideration with any form of journalism. The final work of reportage illustrators will be seen by the masses which would affect the way they perceive the subject at hand. Reportage illustrators have the responsibility to tell the truth of the situation and subject matter in the way that they observe and feel about it. Reportage is concerned with learning about the world and visually communicating that experience through drawing this feeling.

As compared to photographs, drawings are made from scratch and it is a lot easier for an illustrator to alter the depiction of an environment, person or situation to be skewed towards a bias than what it is actually presented in reality (Kelly, 2017). It is common for artists and illustrators to take artistic liberties when creating an artwork in order to highlight a particular focal point or balance out their composition. In reportage illustration, the illustrator has to think carefully how this can be done with consideration of how this would affect the subject matter, or if it should be even done at all.