Well speaking for myself and my family I do believe very much that great photo journalism does indeed take place at a community level where it can make a tremendous difference to ordinary peoples lives. My wife has MS and when her own plight with this illness was featured in our local newspaper very much as in your story, benefits and services were suddenly provided. The opposite side of the coin as you are suggesting is when a news story becomes the all important factor when the lives of those intruded upon can become a living hell.

Danny O'Byrne  http://www.digitalartzone.co.uk/

"All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice" Eliott Erwitt